Mark your calendar for registration
Sometime very soon, much of the genealogical community will be overtaken by jealousy.
Jealousy of all those who are heading off to what The Legal Genealogist calls summer (or winter) camp for genealogists.
Jealousy of those who’ll be learning more about this field of ours at a residential institute.
The first of these for 2018 is coming up fast: the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy begins at the Salt Lake Hilton with welcoming events on Sunday, January 21, and runs through the concluding banquet on Friday, January 26.
Classes include Advanced Genealogical Methods coordinated by Thomas W. Jones, John Philip Colletta’s Beyond the Library: Using Original Source Repositories, Rick Sayre’s Advanced Land Tools: Maps, A Practical Approach: Establishing Genealogical Proof with DNA coordinated by Karen Stanbary, Michael Lacopo’s The Pennsylvania German and Research in the Keystone State, Digging Deeper: Pre-1837 English Research coordinated by Paul Milner, Utilizing a Full Array of Sources for Researching your Swedish and Finnish Ancestors with Elaine E. Hasleton and Jeff Svare, and my own Corpus Juris: Advanced Legal Concepts for Genealogy. There’s always an Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum, coordinated by Angela Packer McGhie, in which five different advanced genealogists present the participants with a new problem each day to work on and try to solve.
Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? If we have to suffer through the cold, at least we can do something interesting — and have the advantage of being just down the street from the Family History Library.
And if that wasn’t enough, there are special Tech Day mini-labs being offered on Saturday, January 20, and a colloquium on records access in the 21st century on Saturday, January 27th.
Jealous enough yet? Here’s the kicker: there are still a few seats open in some of the courses. Sometimes only one or two, sometimes maybe a handful — but worth checking it out. Right now, you can still get into these courses (described here): Taking your Research to the Next Level, coordinated by Paula Stuart-Warren; The Third Coast: Research in the Great Lakes Region, coordinated by Cari A. Taplin and Kathryn Lake Hogan; In-depth Sources for Portuguese Research – Azores, Brazil, Portugal, coordinated by Michael J. Hall; Exploring Quaker Records – at Home and Abroad, coordinated by Steven W. Morrison; andWriting and Publishing Family Histories in the Digital Age, coordinated by Dina C. Carson.
And, yes, there are still a few seats available for some of those Tech Day mini-labs — check it out!!
Now I get it… making travel and time-off plans right at the last minute may not be your cup of tea. If it is, hey — act now, and I’ll see you in Salt Lake in just a little more than two weeks.
But if it isn’t, now is the time to mark your calendar for courses later this year.
Here’s what our community has to offer, genealogically speaking, and where you can find more information:
• Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), Georgia Genealogical Society, June 2-7, 2018, at the University of Georgia, Athens
Listed first because registration begins in just one week on Saturday, 13 January 2018, the 2018 courses are: Methods & Sources, Rebecca Whitman Koford; Intermediate Genealogy & Historical Studies, Angela Packer McGhie; Advanced Methodology & Evidence Analysis, yours truly; Writing & Publishing for Genealogists, Thomas W. Jones; Advanced German Genealogy, F. Warren Bittner; Research in the South: Trans-Mississippi South, J. Mark Lowe; Irish Genealogical Research, David E. Rencher; Military Records I, Michael L. Strauss; Advanced Library Research: Law Libraries & Government Documents, Benjamin B. Spratling III and Patricia Walls Stamm; Researching African-American Ancestors: Sources, Strategies, & Analysis, Frazine K. Taylor; and Genetic Genealogy Tools & Techniques: Intermediate DNA for Genealogy, Karen Stanbary.
• Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), two summer sessions at LaRoche College, Pittsburgh (June and July) and one at Daemen College, Amherst, New York (August)
Registration opens on Wednesday, February 14, for all GRIP courses in all three sessions. The June session (June 24-29) at LaRoche includes From Confusion to Conclusion: How to Write Proof Arguments, Kimberly Powell; Irish Genealogical Research, Part II, David E. Rencher; Mastering the Art of Genealogical Documentation, Thomas W. Jones; In-depth Sources for U.S. Military Research, Michael J. Hall; Chromosome Mapping, Karen Stanbary; Family Archiving: Heirlooms in the Digital Age, Denise May Levenick; and Researching New York: Resources and Strategies, Karen Mauer Jones. The July session (July 22-27) at LaRoche includes Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper, Paula Stuart-Warren; Fundamentals of Forensic Genealogy for the 21st Century, Catherine B. W. Desmarais, Kelvin Meyers & Michael Ramage; Research Methods for the Hidden Half of the Family, Judy G. Russell; Walking in Penn’s Woods: Pennsylvania Research, Amy E. K. Arner; Practical Genetic Genealogy, Blaine Bettinger; Advanced Genetic Genealogy, CeCe Moore; and You Be the Judge: A Practicum Using Standards to Evaluate Genealogical Work, Jeanne Larzalere Bloom. The August session (July 29-August 3) at Daemen includes Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper, Paula Stuart-Warren; Practical Genetic Genealogy, Blaine Bettinger; Advanced Genetic Genealogy, CeCe Moore; Refining Internet and Digital Skills, Cyndi Ingle; Advanced Land Research: Beyond Deeds, Pamela Boyer Sayre and Richard G. “Rick” Sayre; and Tools & Strategies for Tackling Tough Research Problems, Kimberly Powell.
• Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed), July 16-20, 2018, at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Registration opens on Saturday, February 24, 2018, for the 2018 session of this week-long institute offering an intense focus on federal records held by the National Archives. Seats fill up almost instantly, so read more now about Gen-Fed 2018 and get ready to act immediately when registration opens.
• Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI), July 10-12, 2018, at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Registration is open now for Midwest African American Genealogy Institute, to be held at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne July 10-12, 2018. Courses being offered this year include Fundamental Methods and Strategies, Shelley Murphy; DNA & Genealogy, introduction and intermediate sections, Bernice Alexander Bennett; Intermediate Genealogy – Pre & Post Slavery Era Research, Janis Minor Forté; and Genealogy Writing From Planning to Publication, Angela Walton-Raji.
• British Institute of the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History, October 15-19, 2018, Salt Lake City
Registration is open now for members of the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History and will open on April 1 for the general public for the 2018 British Institute to be held October 15-19 at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel. Courses being offered this year are Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond, Paul Milner; Researching Your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors, Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt; Tracing Your Welsh Ancestors, Beryl Evans; and English Ancestors 17th-20th Centuries: Finding Sources and Resolving Problems, Else Churchill and Alec Tritton.
I’ll try to provide a closer look at each of these — and others too! — as registration gets closer; watch next week, for example, for a closer look at the IGHR lineup. But mark your calendars now… and maybe even sneak off to Salt Lake City in two weeks.
What could be better than summer — or winter — camp with like-minded genealogists??
