Relationship Between Lessons and Reading

Your instructor may ask many questions about your family, your computer skills, and your Internet experiences. Your responses help to tailor these lessons to your specific needs. They also allow your instructor to provide personal up-to-date information from real-life case studies on research problems believed to help a particular class. Thus the beauty of distance education.

It takes a few weeks for a community of learners to get acquainted with one another. Therefore, those students who utilize all the experiences gleaned from others and shared through different modes of communication, will not only learn the most, but will help their fellow students as well. The various methods for sharing the experiences from professionals to beginning genealogists may be done electronically or traditionally. For example in this course it may include:

1. Reading from a printed textbook or pages printed from online sources.

2. Participating with other students in online discussions (sometimes called forums).

3. Listening to audio recordings while viewing power point presentations.

4. Taking an online quiz.

5. Building and/or maintaining a student portfolio or an online Web page for turning in or sharing personal research quests and interests, for gathering sources involving your personal regional research area, or as a place to elicit responses to questions you might have.

6. Studying Internet sites as directed by the Instructor.

7. Learning to use your first genealogy computer software program, or building on your knowledge by selecting a new program from a list of suggested programs provided by the instructor in order to gain experience. That experience might include how much a program can help you in all aspects of your research, and give you personal insights as you prepare to deal with clients who use these programs.

8. Putting together a Family History Notebook filing system to keep track of the many papers and notes you will discover over the years.

9. Reporting on research results on your own family either in discussion areas, at a student posted page, or in your homework assignments as guided by the Instructor.

Steps for Success

Everyone in this class can find success in genealogy, but the greatest success comes by following in the steps of other successful researchers who have taken the time to explain their methods and processes. Val Greenwood is a good researcher, and his book The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, Third Edition, was selected because of his legal background and ease in his methods of explanation. The first chapter in the book The Complete Beginner's Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program covers the critical steps to research in an easy-to-relate-to format. Every one of the steps is necessary to succeed. Before proceeding on your assignments, it is important to read both book chapter assignments.

Undoubtedly, you found at least one step that you either had never considered before, or perhaps had not tried. Those are the steps you may want to focus on until they are mastered.

Summary of Research Methodology

Chapter 1 in the The Complete Beginner's Guide to Genealogy, the Internet and Your Genealogy Computer Program introduced you to sixteen steps to organized research, eight steps in the genealogy Research Cycle, and a proven formula for achieving success based on personal willingness, knowledge, use of available tools, organization of data, and incorporating the experiences of others. The introduction to these steps and formula for success were achieved by observation of successful genealogists over the decades.

A curious mind is a wonderful gift, but the humility to learn from others around you is even greater for it allows growth beyond what was learned only by our struggles. In this course, students will be provided with all the genealogical elements necessary for success, but now it is up to you to provide the personal willingness to expand beyond what is around you to learn about those who lived hundreds of years before.