Friday, August 27, 2010

Exploring AmericanAncestors.org - the Learning Center

One of the FREE areas of the New England Historic Genealogical Society website at www.AmericanAncestors.org is the Learning Center.

There are three major pages on the Learning Center page:

1) Getting Started -- provides five basic steps, and five tips for success. The basic steps have links to forms, key genealogical sources, and software programs. There is a special Getting Started for Young People page also, with a Bibliography for Young People and Families.

2) Online Seminars -- Seminars (you can view the presentation and hear the speaker) are offered on Getting Started (3 videos), NEHGS Resources (3 videos), Irish Research (1 video), Records and Resources (2 videos), and Strategies and Methodologies (6 videos)

3) Articles -- this article archive covers a variety of topics, including: Mayflower research, computers and genealogy, professional development, Canadian family history and much more. You can sort articles by topic, author or location.

Perhaps the most interesting new article I saw on the site was this one:

"#87 Royal Decents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources: Gary Roberts asks for Help (on his Patrilineal Ancestry): A Likely Solution—I Hope—to My Longest Genealogical Quest.
Toward a “Brick-Wall” Solution: The Elusive Patrilineal and Native American Ancestors of Calvin Henderson Roberts" by Gary Boyd Roberts and K. Todd Johnson.


Gary Boyd Roberts is one of the most well-known and acclaimed genealogical researchers in the business, and he is stuck on the ancestry of his great-great-grandfather, Calvin Henderson Roberts (1827-1892). There are plenty of clues, but not enough to satisfy a proof standard. He is asking for help. It's nice to see that the experts have their own research problems and can ask for help from the genealogy community.

The Learning Center also has a monthly calendar which describes all of the learning programs at NEHGS in Boston. You can see the next months by clicking on the right arrow next to the "Today" item in the calendar header.

If you are looking for information about beginning genealogy, learning new methodologies, or reviewing case studies, the Learning Center on www.AmericanAncestors.org has some interesting material.

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