Introduction to Genealogy - Building Your Family Tree

Hours: 16 / Access Length: 5 Weeks / Delivery: Monthly, Mentor Supported
Retail Price: $305.00

Course Overview:

Who Are Your Ancestors? What were they like? How and where did they live? Ever considered learning more about your family history? Learn to trace your family's roots and start your own family tree. This class will help you learn how to begin your hunt, introducing you to the resources available for performing genealogical research. Learn how to find online databases, obtain vital (birth, marriage, and death) records, and discover the resources available at Family History Library branches across the US.

Course Outline:

• Getting familiar with your online classroom, how it works and how to get the most out of it. In this lesson you will learn about the steps required for completing each classroom activity, from getting familiar with each lesson's content and following informative links, through the final assignment.
• Learn items you can look for in your own home or the homes of relative that will help you identify ancestors or even help figure out how to get more information on them.
• Put together a useful family sources checklist to help find useful genealogy items at home.
• Figure out how to cite resources you find, including all pertinent information.
• Review how to proceed in your search for information about your ancestors.
• Learn more about the online resources available to hunt down information on your ancestors.
• Discover tips for online genealogy research and research at Ancestry.com
• Discover how to get free trial periods and offers related to your searches.
• Learn the importance of gathering vital records, what they are and how to find them.
• Find some important facts you need to be sure to include when requesting vital records.
• Learn the importance of vital records you may not have considered such as wills probate and church records, as well as military records.
• Places you may not have thought to research, such as state libraries, archives and newspapers.
• Learn more about the Census Records, one of the most important resources out there.
• The Soundex is a system used to help organize census records by the way a name sounds, learn how it works so you can use it in your own searches.
• What if you can't find them . . . discover alternative ways to find your relatives.
• Figure out some of the census pitfalls to watch out for.
• Get familiar with one of the greatest resources for genealogy records, the Family History Library.
• Go through the Family History Library web site and learn what information is available to the public.
• Find out where a Family History Library Branch is near you.

All necessary materials are included.

System Requirements:

• Cable and DSL internet connections are recommended for the best experience.

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 2 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone (Webinar / Live Online sessions)

• Microsoft Windows 7 or 10 (Home, Pro)
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is denoted in the above course outline.