Hands-On Workshops for All Serious Genealogists

I can't count the number of times I have attended a lecture, thought I perfectly understood what the speaker was saying, then could not figure out how to put what I had learned into practice after I got home. Most of us learn more by doing than by listening. For more advanced concepts this "doing" can be even more important than it is in a basics class.

The BCG Education Fund Putting Skills to Work workshops give us two different half-day workshops in one day. Both workshops are at an intermediate to advanced level. Both provide hands-on exercises designed to complement the lecture material so we go home with practical skills we can immediately make use of. We leave knowing how to put what we learned into practice because we've already done so.

At the NGS conference this year in St. Charles, Missouri, the BCG Education Fund, an independent charitable trust, sponsors the Putting Skills to Work workshops, on Tuesday, 12 May 2015, 8:30 am–4:30 pm.

This intensive day of learning, limited to sixty students, focuses on skills needed by any genealogist and advocates established standards of the genealogical field. Topics are geared to intermediate and advanced practitioners. The registration fee of $110 includes lunch, hands-on exercises, and syllabus. NGS Conference registration is not required.

These workshops are unique offerings even when the title is similar to sessions taught by these speakers in the past. Workshop attendees will participate in one workshop in the morning and the second workshop in the afternoon, getting both of these useful topics in one day.

Barbara J. Mathews, CG, will lead the session "Evidence Analysis, Correlation, and Resolution: The Heart of the Genealogical Proof Standard." Focusing on only direct evidence creates unnecessary research dead ends. This session addresses weighing and correlating sources, evidence, and information in its diverse forms for successful resolution of thorny problems. There will be hands-on exercises and active class participation.

Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL, will lead the session "Baker's Dozen Steps to Writing Research Reports." Many researchers think that committing their research to paper is a separate process from performing the research. Use these thirteen steps to "write as you go" to use time more efficiently, drive the research process, and produce a sharable work product.

Every genealogist needs to understand how to analyze and correlate evidence to ensure we place our ancestors in the correct families. We all should be writing reports, even if those reports are only to ourselves, so that we don't waste time trying to remember what we did when we last worked on a particular line.

Come join these two experts and learn ways to efficiently and accurately perform research and record it.

Registration is through the NGS Conference registration site at http://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/. If you've already registered for the conference, just login and add the Putting Skills to Work workshop. If you haven't registered yet, now is the time to do it!

For more information see BCG Education Fund

and

http://bcgcertification.org/blog/2014/12/bcg-education-fund-workshop-at-ngs-st-charles-12-may-2015/.

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To cite this blog post:
Debbie Parker Wayne, "Hands-On Workshops for All Serious Genealogists," Deb's Delvings Blog, posted 13 February 2015 (http://debsdelvings.blogspot.com/ : accessed [date]).

© 2015, Debbie Parker Wayne, CG, CGL, All Rights Reserved