Welcome to Monterey Peninsula College at Genealogy Research Associates

EXPERTISE AND PROFICIENCY IN THE ART OF DISCERNMENT

After reading Chapter One, how would you simply explain a definition of expertise and proficiency as it applies to genealogy?

What do you think Val Greenwood meant when he said, "If you are ashamed to have ancestors who do not meet your own social standards then stay away from genealogy."

Often materials are given to you from family members which have never been organized. That information may be in electronic format entered in a very haphazard way. Maybe individuals are not linked together because when the information was first entered, no one knew how the individuals were related. Some family records contain notes which provide clues to the next generation and should be read and interpreted as to how they might link together. The textbook explained several elements you might want to look for in an individual or family which might unscramble family materials that were not as yet linked together. List at least four items to be considered.

Imagine that you were doing research on your family and you discovered that one of your great, great, great grandfathers had been beheaded.

This made your father, who helped finance your education, very upset. He doesn�t want you doing that family research anymore. How would you explain this to the family? Would you ignore it? Why or why not?

Sometimes the wording of a document might be misinterpreted. Little things like punctuation and capitalization have been known to make or break communication. Read out loud the following paragraph.

"Dear John, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind and thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy _ will you let me be yours? Susan."

Now read the same words with punctuation and capitalization in different places:

"Dear John, I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind and thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Susan."

As you go further back in time in your genealogy research, you will find less and less punctuation and capitalization in the records. Are you sure that you are interpreting the information the way it was intended? You won't know for sure without further assistance. We will deal with this problem in the weeks to come. For now, you should have read the Introductory chapter in your syllabus and completed this lesson. You can then move on to Chapter 1 in the syllabus materials in preparation for next week's lesson.

Below you will find the course outline for this semester, followed by the course overview which was handed out in class to those students who made it to the first session. For those who didn't make it to the class, it is there to refer to.

When you are finished, just click on the word Home at the bottom of the page and it will take you back home. From there you can just exit the program. In fact you can exit by clicking on the X button on the upper right hand corner of the screen at any time.

I may request a "minute paper" from you at any time during the course. I hope you will respond to such questions as what was the muddest point presented in this chapter and lesson? What was the most useful point you learned this week? What were problems you noticed? How can we improve this lesson? In fact, let's give this a try and see what you think about the introduction. Just respond to the question, "What was the most useful point you learned in this introductory lesson?

Thank you. This will help me see if I am achieving my goals as a teacher.