Get the Inside Scoop on the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

Thinking of attending the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy? Want to know what others thought of the courses? Many of the tracks are new this year, but others are back by popular demand. Seven "insiders" who have taken the courses share their perspectives as guest authors in the blog posts linked below.

Registration for the 2013 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy opens on June 2nd. Some courses fill quickly so be ready to register early if you want to guarantee your spot. You can review the registration instructions here.

Advanced Genealogical Methods

Top 5 Signs You're Ready for Tom Jones' Advanced Genealogical Methods Course

Advanced Genealogical Methods course at SLIG

Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum

A Challenging and Inspiring Learning Experience

Measuring Your Success at Solving Genealogical Problems

An Insider's View of the Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum

Waking Up Your Brain with the Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum course at SLIG

American Research and Records 

American Research and Records Course at SLIG

Research in the Midwest
Research in the Midwestern Course at SLIG

SLIG 2013 Posts

Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum Instructors Selected 

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy Registration Opens June 2nd

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy Scholarship

Here is the inside scoop on some of the SLIG course coordinators! 

Researching English Ancestors: Beyond the Parish Register. Learn more with Apryl Cox!

Josh Taylor on Research, SLIG, and Raquetball!

Paula Stuart-Warren, SLIG Coordinator Extraordinaire

Interview with Judi Hansen, Problem Solving Coordinator

Dr. Thomas W. Jones on Research, Teaching, and SLIG

(Five of the SLIG coordinators have been featured on the Utah Genealogical Association blog, and the other six will be featured in the coming weeks.)

American Research and Records Course at SLIG

This post is the sixth in a series of articles by guest authors sharing their experience with courses offered at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. Here is the perspective of Denise Spurlock on the American Research and Records course.

After you have researched your ancestor’s life through the census, vital records, and perhaps land and probate files, where do you go next to find information that will help you learn even more? To find out, you should attend the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy’s track on American Research and Records, coordinated by Paula Stuart Warren, CG.  The focus alternates between families and locations. In 2012, the focus was on families.

Paula, and the team of instructors she recruits, are among the most knowledgeable genealogists and popular lecturers in the country. Together they provided participants with a wealth of information about other resources such as:

• Non-population and special census schedules
• Institutional records
• City directories
• Church records
• Passport applications
• School records
• Lesser-used federal records
• Manuscript repositories and special collections

In addition, there were classes on strategies for planning your research, writing your family history, and making the most of online search tools.

A highlight of the week was a project in which the participants were divided into teams and given a snippet of a document to get them started on a research project. A primary purpose was to learn how to take clues from what you have and develop a research plan to learn even more. Each team developed a research focus and plan and reported their findings at the end of the week. It was a fun opportunity to get to know, and work with, other participants in the course. An added benefit was being able to research in records in a state with which I had limited experience.

There was ample time during the week to use the Family History Library to work on my personal research and on the research project. Being able to take what I learned in the morning and put it to use in the afternoon and evening helped me to internalize the concepts and ideas right away. Private consultations were also scheduled in which you could discuss a personal research question with Paula or another one of the instructors. Since Paula is from Minnesota, I was able to get advice from her on a research question I have with an ancestor who lived there.

In 2013, the track will focus on locations. I am confident the course will be equally helpful in learning about how to find and use resources based on the location in which your ancestors lived.

Denise Spurlock

Ancestral Trees Research

Lomita, California

dspurlock@ancestraltrees.com

A Challenging and Inspiring Learning Experience

This post is the fifth in a series of posts by guest authors sharing their experience with courses offered at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. Here is the experience of Barbara Ball.

The Advanced Practicum Course of 2012 was a challenging and inspiring learning experience. I found that I spent all my time working to solve the puzzles, and had little time for lunchtime or evening courses. The instructors were interesting, well informed, and each presented us with a different kind of challenge to our research and analytical skills. All of the information needed to solve the cases was available digitally, and I found that I never once set foot in the Library during this trip. Too bad for me!

If your primary joy in genealogy comes from the successful analysis of data and solving of puzzles, this is the course for you. Though we spent little time in the classroom, the time we did spend was fascinating. It was very helpful to hear how fellow students approached the same problem in many different ways. (We were not allowed to work together or discuss a case until it was finished.) I cannot recommend it highly enough, and plan to take it again. 

Barbara J. Ball, M.S., GISP

Genealogist and GIS Analyst

barb@copestoneresources.com

Top 5 Signs You're Ready for Tom Jones' Advanced Genealogical Methods Course

This post is the fourth in a series of articles by guest authors sharing their experience with courses offered at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. Here is Vicki Wright on the Advanced Genealogical Methods course.

Top 5 Signs You're Ready for Tom Jones' 
Advanced Genealogical Methods Course at SLIG

1. You tell your kids the choices for breakfast, and wonder what the source citation format for that would be.
2. You can recite what all those letters stand for after Thomas W. Jones name (Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS) without having to look any of them up.
3. The County Recorder knows you by name – and you don't work there.
4. When excitedly showing your family a copy of an old deed, you lose your temper when they get hung up on the “long s” and the “thorn”.
5. When the family is planning a vacation, you bring along Evidence Explained, just in case.....

But, joking aside, if you're serious about producing quality genealogical work, then Dr. Tom Jones' Advanced Genealogical Methods  course at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) is for you.

Not only will you learn to research more intelligently, but you will also learn to tease relevant information from all records – even the ones that aren't there.  And you will learn to methodically, and critically, put all that evidence together to complete the jigsaw puzzle that is each and every genealogical problem.

You know you are in for an exhausting week when emails start arriving weeks before the Institute begins.  Some of the attachments to these emails are dozens of pages long.  You are expected not just to read them, but study them.  These “hand-outs” form the back-bone of the course.  In almost every lecture, you will systematically, and interactively, draw out each element of the genealogical method from those pages. “Find 5 examples of indirect evidence.”  “...of primary information.” “...of original sources.”  You get the picture.

You will work together with your classmates, desperate to get the answers “right”.  But you won't.  Not all the time, and maybe not even most of the time.  That's why you're here.  To learn how to get it right.  By the end of the week, you will be on your way to understanding what he is trying to teach you.  Just know for now that your mis-steps are aiding the teaching process by giving Dr. Jones the best gift you can give a teacher – a teachable moment!

The guest lecturers, masterful CG's Claire Bettag and Rick Sayre, will allow your mind to take a break from methodology, and instead fill it to overflowing with their unparalleled knowledge of federal records and map sources.

There will be homework.  It is optional.  Choose to do it.  Take advantage of every opportunity offered you to apply the knowledge you have received that day.  By doing the homework, you will reinforce the lessons.  And then you won't spend the first hour of the next day wondering what everyone else is talking about.  And you will experience that swelling sense of pride when you realize that you found the elusive source, or you correctly identified how many different “Tom Jones'” there were in the records you were analyzing.

You owe it to yourself, and to the genealogical community, to keep advancing your knowledge base, and your skill set.  Dr. Jones is a legend in the genealogical profession.  No doubt.  Look at all those letters after his name!  But he is also a patient, generous, funny, and gifted, teacher.  Don't miss the opportunity to learn from him.

Advanced Genealogical Methods is not a lecture course.  It's a hands-on, minds-on genealogical learning experience.  And if you're serious – really serious -  about producing quality genealogical work, then you must take this course.

Vicki Wright trained to be a lawyer, but would rather be a genealogist.  She is making up for lost years by attending as many quality genealogical institutes, conferences, and events as she can.  She completed the Genealogical Research Program at Boston University's Center for Professional Education in 2010.  She attended the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) and the National Institute on Genealogical Research (NIGR) in 2011, and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) in 2012.  The rest of 2012 will see her again attend IGHR, as well as the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), and the Forensic Genealogy Institute (FGI).  She will also graduate from the ProGen Study Program in June 2012.

Measuring Your Success at Solving Genealogical Problems

This post is the third in a series of posts by guest authors sharing their experience with courses offered at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. Here is the perspective of Melinda Henningfield.

The Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

Genealogist work alone. They work in dusty repositories or at home, poring over old documents; gleaning every bit of information and evidence; and analyzing and correlating their evidence into conclusions. They use their own or their clients satisfaction as a measure of their abilities. Sometimes they publish an article, knowing at least the editors and peer reviewers agree with their conclusions. There is no other yardstick for a genealogist to measure their success—until now.

I had the unique opportunity to measure my success against my peers this past January at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. I took the Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum course. The instructors were some of the leaders in the genealogy world, Kory Meyerink, BS, MLS, AG, FUGA; Karen Mauer Green, CG; Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS; David Ouimette, CG; and Jim Ison, AG, CG. We were given a series of five problems beginning on Sunday night. We had twenty-two hours to reach a conclusion. In most cases, we could work using the documents provided to us, the internet, or in the Family History Library—conveniently across the street.

The problems were varied and included the U.S. to Germany, the U.S. to England, Illinois and Missouri, the northeastern U.S. to Canada, and South Carolina. In twenty-two hours we had to familiarize ourselves with the available records of the area, write a research plan, research, analyze, correlate, and form conclusions using evidence we had gathered along the way. Sound familiar? The final two hours of each day was spent with our group and the expert instructor. The instructors walked us through their research and their reasoning in reaching their conclusions and we shared our findings if we wished.

This is a unique opportunity in the field of genealogy. You can measure your methods and research capabilities against your peers and against some of the finest genealogists of our time. Don’t worry—you can keep how you match up with them to yourself if you want to. You can use this as the educational opportunity of a lifetime. You can use the lessons you will learn—and if you are anything like me, you will learn a lot of lessons—to grow as a genealogist. Don’t miss this opportunity. They are offering this course again in 2013. Some of the experts are different, but all are leaders in the field of genealogy. Registration begins on June 2^nd.

Melinda Henningfield

Medford, Oregon

mhenningfield@gmail.com

National Genealogical Society Announces 2013 Family History Conference in Las Vegas

I received the following press release from the National Genealogical Society regarding their 2013 Family History Conference. I have always enjoyed the NGS national conferences as a means to further my education and network with friends, and look forward to this one as well.

Building New Bridges

Arlington, VA, 23 May 2012 . The National Genealogical Society (NGS) announced at their Family History Conference in Cincinnati last week that the 2013 NGS Family History Conference, Building New Bridges, will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 8–11 May 2013. The conference hotel and venue will be the LVH−Las Vegas Hotel & Casino (formerly known as the Las Vegas Hilton). The hotel and conference center are under one roof offering excellent convenience for attendees. To ensure a reservation, attendees may reserve their accommodations now and must request the NGS conference rate when making a reservation. The LVH will accept reservations beginning 14 May 2012 via telephone 1-800-635-7711 or online at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/accommodations.

The LVH−Las Vegas Hotel & Casino is a cultural icon. In 1969 Barbra Streisand was the opening performer. The property was known as the International, and it was the world’s largest hotel. Elvis Presley quickly became the star performer. After the Hilton chain purchased the International in 1970, the building became the Las Vegas Hilton and starred as the Whyte House in the 1971 James Bond film, “Diamonds Are Forever.” Elvis lived in the hotel’s penthouse while headlining until his last concert in December 1976. In January 2012 the property became the LVH−Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. The LVH is ten minutes from McCarran International Airport and convenient to I-15 and I-515. The Las Vegas Monorail begins at the LVH and carries passengers to six major Strip resorts.

The conference theme for 2013 is Building New Bridges. The Mike O’Callaghan−Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, dedicated in 2010, spans the Colorado River on Native American land, connects the Las Vegas Valley to Route 66, and embodies the West as a timeless “bridge” where cultures, nations, and technologies connect. The bridge visually frames nearby Hoover Dam, which in 1935 opened the Southwest to urban and agricultural growth by harnessing the water and power of the Colorado River. In celebration of the 2013 theme, the four-day conference will offer more than 150 lectures on researching peoples and places of the West, migration to and from the West, law, military records, immigration, methodology, academic history, family history writing, BCG Skillbuilding, African American and other ethnic research, technological innovation in genealogy (GenTech), and more. In addition, Las Vegas and Clark County are home to several museums and repositories that highlight the history and culture of the area. Manuscript collections reflect the histories of immigrant, Eastern, and Midwestern families that migrated to and through the city in the twentieth century.

About the National Genealogical Society

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists.

Eastern European Research Workshop

I heard about this workshop on the Transitional Genealogists mailing list and thought it would be worth sharing. I try to highlight many different educational opportunities in genealogy.

Peg Ivanyo, the conference administrator, wrote:

"The early-bird deadline ends on June 1st for the Eastern European Workshop sponsored by the Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies (FEEFHS).  This year's workshop features tracks on German, Czech, Russian, and Polish research, in addition to a handful of specialty courses and a Records and Resources track.  The workshop environment allows sufficient time for research at the nearby Family History Library in addition to consultations with the instructors.  Since this program offers something for both beginners as well as advanced researchers, it is a great way to get started in a new area, build on existing skills, or work on a brick wall."

The workshop will be held July 12 - 14, 2012 at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel near the Family History Library. Full details can be found at feefhs.org or read the society blog at http://feefhs2012.blogspot.com/