Some gems for 2015
Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there used to be an excuse for bad genealogy.
Learning how to do it, to do things right, often meant traveling long distances at great expense even to begin to figure things out.
Now don’t get The Legal Genealogist wrong here: there is still an enormous value to in-person learning. I not only lecture at in-person institutes1 and conferences,2 but I also attend them whenever I can to continue my own education.
But for those who can’t, and for all the times when we can’t… today there are options.
Really good options.
Options that mean there really isn’t any excuse for not learning how to do things right.
Here are just a few of them coming up in 2015.
Legacy Family Tree Webinars
Millennia Corporation and FamilyTreeWebinars.com just released the lineup for the 2015 Legacy Family Tree Webinar Series: 58 classes ranging from genealogy technology to in-depth research methodologies and evidence analysis.
Most of the webinars are free and open to anyone who registers in advance and can be there in real-time. Most are also available free for a few days after the live broadcast. And all are available to subscribers to listen in as many times and whenever subscribers want.3
The whole lineup, from now through the end of 2015, can be reviewed online at the Legacy Family Tree Webinar website and Legacy has even added the ability to register for more than one webinar at the same time at this link.
APG’s Professional Management Conference
For folks who are, or are thinking about becoming, professionals, the Association of Professional Genealogists streams part of its Professional Management Conference, and the 2015 event is coming up fast: January 8-9, 2015.
With individual sessions beginning at just $20, a special $45 DNA bundle, or access to the full virtual conference for $145, Virtual PMC is a steal. Check out the registration details here at the APG PMC website.
RootsTech-FGS 2015
The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and RootsTech are teaming up in 2015, with everyone converging on Salt Lake City in February. And, as is the custom for a technology-focused conference like RootsTech, many of the sessions will be live-streamed. From home, for free, you can sit in on a wide variety of sessions ranging from the keynote addresses (shared with FGS) to individual lectures.
Check in with the RootsTech website — http://www.rootstech.org/ — for more information as the event date gets closer!
National Genealogical Society 2015
Livestreaming from the 2014 conference of the National Genealogical Society in Richmond was such a success, NGS is doing it again in 2015. There will be two tracks livestreamed from the May conference in St. Charles, Missouri, one on The Immigration & Naturalization Process and one on Methodology Techniques. You can see the complete lineup here at the NGS conference website.
Registration for both is open now, ends on 29 April, and the cost is discounted for NGS members. Members pay $65 per track or $115 for both; non-members pay $80 per track or $145 for both.
I’ve heard most of the speakers who will be presenting in these tracks — and all I can say is — this is a fabulous line-up and worth every penny for those who can’t be in Missouri in May.
And more!
Many societies are now sponsoring webinars or other online learning oppportunities. I’m doing a webinar next week and another in 2015 for the Florida State Genealogical Society. I’ll be doing webinars in 2015 for the North Carolina Genealogical Society and for the Georgia Genealogical Society. The Illinois State Genealogical Society does webinars. The Southern California Genealogical Society has a terrific webinar program.
There’s a whole calendar of other online offerings, many by these and other genealogical societies, online at GeneaWebinars, a service by Dear Myrtle.4
Check it out, and sign up for the ones that interest you!
Because, any more, there are no excuses for not learning what we need to know to do genealogy right.
SOURCES
- For 2015, I’m teaching courses focusing on law and genealogy with Rick Sayre at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, an advanced law and genealogy course at Boston University’s Center for Professional Education, and the Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis course at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. ↩
- The Federation of Genealogical Societies conference and RootsTech in February and the National Genealogical Society conference in May among them in 2015, plus a whole raft of state and local societies. My calendar, if you’re interested, is online here. ↩
- And yep, I’m one of the presenters and — full disclosure here — yep, I do benefit from subscriptions. So subscribe, willya? My cats need cat food! ↩
- And if you’re involved with a society that offers webinars, you might want to connect with GeneaWebinars! ↩
In addition to their webinar series, the Southern California Genealogical Society broadcasts a free live-stream of select lectures from their annual Jamboree, and in 2013 & 2014 they also broadcast select lectures from their Jamboree’s DNA Day for a fee, which they will hopefully do again in 2015.
The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies also has done live-streaming from their conference for a fee for the past two years, and hopefully they will continue to do so in the future.
As someone for whom it is currently more practical to attend long-distance than travel long distances, I greatly appreciate all the opportunities to learn from home and hope that they continue to grow.
You sang my favourite song, Judy. Education is a life-long activity.
I reworked my miserable budget to be able to become a subscriber to the Legacy Webinar series (amazing), and I watch Illinois/Georgia/S.California societies webinars as well. RootsTech is a dedicated weekend of watching/learning, and … Whoops I think I need to sign in to J. Mark Lowe’s webinar!
My personal favorite: the Virtual Genealogy Fair held by the US National Archives (NARA). Here’s the link to the 2014 Fair — videos are available on YouTube, and for many of the sessions, handouts are available for download. http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/know-your-records/genealogy-fair/ The regional NARA site also hold webinars.
These sessions are a great way to learn a lot about a specific record group — and watching them taught me a lot about the value of searching specific record groups instead of depending on a global search for records. See their Know Your Records series on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/course?list=ECC641EF0E3F8AFDF9&feature=plcp for GenFair 2014 sessions and other presentations.
Oh absolutely, Jan: the Virtual Fair by NARA is terrific.
I’m glad to see that you listed the Legacy Family Tree Webinar Series at the top of your list. Geoff Rasmussen has definitely put in the effort to establish this series as the gold standard for genealogy webinars. His casual style can’t hide the professionalism and preparation behind each episode.