FamilySearch Online Research Classes

Hello everyone, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a productive new year of research. I know I will be busy with a lot of things including Boy Scouts, Family History, Stake High Council, teaching Human Ecology at my University, and work but I will try to continue to post to my blogs and website on a fairly regular basis (at least once a month or so). So keep an eye out for what I am up to.

Today's posting is meant to help all of my fellow researchers, from beginners to the advanced, learn more about how to research. A few months ago I wrote a quick discussion about FamilySearch Wiki. Today I am discussing FamilySearch Online Research Classes. These classes are provided online by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and are meant to teach the basic methods and key resources to start your family history. As I watched several of these, I learned about new websites that I had never used before along with some of the basic skills that I had forgotten over time.

There are eight categories of classes:

• England Beginning Research
• Germany Research
• Ireland Research
• Italy Research
• Basic Principles for Latin America Research (in Spanish)
• Russia Research
• US Research
• Research Principles and Tools

Each of these classes contains a video and slides of the presentation along with handouts. The England Research class has 5 presentations averaging about 30 minutes each. They walk you through presentations on Census Records, Civil Registrations, Church Records, and other research techniques. The Germany Research class consists of 3 presentations focusing on deciphering handwriting. The Irish Research class consists of 5 classes covering Church Records, Civil Registrations, and Immigration. The Italy Research class is one hour long presentation covering basic research techniques. The Latin American Research class is in Spanish and consists of 3 short presentations. There are two topics covered in the Russian Research class covering History and Geography, and Records and Resources. The US Research class includes four classes covering Courthouse Records, and Civil War, Pre-WW I, and Revolutionary War Military Records. There are also five presentations on general research techniques.

I invite you to view these courses as time allows. I am sure that there will be something new for everyone. Until next time, good luck in your research and may the morter in your brick walls begin to crumble.