As any genealogist knows, researching family history can take up a lot of your time. It used to take hours of cranking microfilm readers to come up with a few relevant family facts. When the internet came along and evolved so that there were searchable databases it seemed like research took very little time at all, relatively speaking. As more and more information came online it added more dimensions to the information we could find out about our ancestors and, yes, the time spent ramped up again.
There was so much new information that genealogists had to find ways to keep abreast of new developments. You could attend seminars and genealogy conferences to find out new information but the internet also spawned new ways of learning online.
I began the year by taking the free genealogy course put on by the University of Strathclyde at Future Learn. The course was wonderful, a great introduction for newbies and a good refresher for those who have been around the block a few times. You got to chat with some of your fellow students and I reconnected with a cousin I had corresponded with years ago. Future Learn also offers lots of other interesting courses on subjects besides genealogy. The University of Strathclyde also has more in-depth paid family history courses and I am sorely tempted to sign up for one or two.
Canada also has its own home-grown online genealogy courses offered at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (NIGS). Each course is six weeks long and there is an extensive catalogue. I have taken some of their courses in the past without any plan behind my studies but I am currently signed up for a full methodology program focusing on Irish research. I am determined to get my ancestors back to that country by hook or by crook!
Then there are the courses and other information available at DNA Central. It will take me a long time to explore the courses and other learning opportunities on that website. I hope that I will have a much better understanding of using genetic DNA once I access more of the information there.
A more recent type of learning that has started to take up my time is the genealogy webinar. They are fun and informative. I am sure that I could just fill up my time taking in the knowledge rather than putting it into practice. I only follow a few of the sites that offer webinars: Legacy Family Tree Webinars, Virtual Genealogy Association and Genealogy with a Canadian Twist. No doubt there are many more available out there but there are only so many hours in the day and I still have to check out the podcasts on the Irish Family History Centre website at https://www.irishfamilyhistorycentre.com/podcasts?page=1.
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