Education – Honing Your Research Skills
Katherine Willson’s 16,000+ genealogically oriented groups currently on Facebook.
Pinterest – Find genealogy tips and resources
GeneaBloggers Tribe, which lists over 3,000 blogs. Need a way to keep track of new posts? Use Feedly, a free aggregator that will let you know when new posts are online.
GeneaWebinars is a centralized calendar of upcoming free (if you watch them live) webinars that extends months into the future.
AmericanAncestors- The New England Historic Genealogical Society has a variety of archived webinars online and free to view.
Board for Certification of Genealogists – Even if you aren’t going for certification right now, there are links to many tips and resources on the home page. Their webinars are housed at Legacy Family Tree Webinars (see below) nd are free to view any time.
DearMYRTLE– DearMyrtle’s weekly discussions are archived and available to view for free on YouTube.
Evidence Explained – Need help with citing your sources? Elizabeth Shown Mills’ website is the place to go. Check out all the Quick Tip lessons.
FamilySearch Research Wiki– FamilySearch provides multiple supports for genealogy education. The wiki is a fabulous, underused resource.
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Live webinars are free to all; archived webinar access is by subscription.
National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair – This U.S. virtual conference is held each fall. Watch their calendar for upcoming virtual genealogy fairs.
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree Extension Series– The SCGS offers free live webinars on many topics. Archived webinars are available to society members.
YouTube– There are literally thousands of genealogically related videos on this site. Search for a topic and see what comes up. Be sure to search both “genealogy” AND “geneology” as the word is often misspelled.
By Tuition, Subscription or Membership:
Societies:
National Genealogical Society – NGS provides many resources, from a first class publication to educational courses to a yearly annual conference.
New England Historic Genealogical Society – This is the oldest genealogical society in the U.S. Although its focus is on New England, the library also has significant holdings for New York and other places. Online courses are also offered.
Society Hill – This is a directory of links to genealogical and historical societies in the United States, Canada and Australia. Most of the societies have a membership fee.
College and University Courses:
Boston University – offers a Genealogical Research Program online
Brigham Young University – offers a bachelor’s degree in Family History (classes in Provo)
BYU – Idaho – offers a certificate in Family History online
Institutes, which are five day intensive programs:
Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh – aka GRIP
Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research – aka IGHR
Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy – aka SLIG
Genealogy Conferences:
RootsTech – the world’s largest genealogy-technology conference held in late February in Salt Lake City, Utah
National Genealogical Society – yearly, moves around the U.S.
Conference Keeper – links to upcoming genealogical and historical conferences and events.
Building a Personal Genealogy Reference Library – Suggestions:
Courthouse Research for the Family Historian: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures by Christine Rose, CR Publications, 2004.
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 3rd Edition Revised by Elizabeth Shown Mills, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2017.
The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger, Family Tree Books, 2016.
The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors by Marsha Hoffman Rising, Family Tree Books, updated in 2011.
Genealogical Proof Standard: Building a Solid Case by Christine Rose, CR Publications, 2009.
Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W. Jones, NGS Special Topics Series, 2013.
Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses by William Dollarhide, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995.
Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards by Elizabeth Shown Mills, Genealogical Publishing Co., 2018.The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 4th Edition, by Val D. Greenwood, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2017.
The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, 3rd Edition by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, Ancestry Publishing, 2006.
19th Century Card Photos Kwik Guide by Gary W. Clark, PhotoTree.com, 2013.
Genealogy & Technology
It is not wise to have your one and only family tree on an online site. Why? If it is a subscription site and you decide not to renew, you will be able to view your tree but NOT ACCESS any of the images you have attached to it. If you save images directly to an online tree and the link goes bad, you have lost the image. If the website contract ends with a database provider, the database can disappear overnight and, with it, goes your images. Lastly, if the image came from someone else’s tree and they decide to take it down, you again will lose the image or document as the link will be broken.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS use a home-computer based software program as your main family tree. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS save online images and documents to your own computer and rename the file into a format you like. By following these two steps, you will maintain control of your personal family tree/s.
Genealogy Software Programs:
Ancestral Quest 16–PC and Mac, has a free version
Brother’s Keeper – PC only, has a free trial version
Family Historian 7– PC only, 30 day free trial, based in UK
Family Tree Maker 2019 – PC and Mac, no free version
Heredis 20201– PC and Mac, no free version, based in France
Legacy 9– PC only, standard version free
RootsMagic 7–PC and Mac with MacBridge, free standard basic version
Reunion– Mac, no free version that I see
Check out The Best Genealogy Software of 2020 for individual product reviews.
Collaborative Universal Tree Sites:
FamilySearch
Geni
WikiTree
Host Your Own Family Tree Site:
TNG – The Next Generation of Genealogy Site Building
Finding Digitized Books Online:
FamilySearch
Google Books
Google Scholar
HathiTrust Digital Library
Internet Archive eBooks and Texts
Free Irish Genealogy Books Online
Open Library
The Online Books Page
WorldCat