Saturday, January 24, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your 2015 Genealogy Education Plans

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1) What are your genealogy education plans for 2015?  Local society meetings or seminars?  Regional or national conferences?  Weeklong institutes?  Genealogy cruises?  Podcasts?  YouTube Videos?  Webinars or Hangouts On Air?  Magazines?  Websites?  Blogs?


2)  How much time do you invest in Genealogy Education?  Why do you do it?

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here's mine:

1)  My 2015 genealogy education:

*  I will attend monthly program meetings of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS), San Diego Genealogical Society (SDGS), and Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD).  

*  I will attend the CVGS and SDGS all-day seminars each year.

*  I am scheduled to teach 3 sessions of Beginning Computer Genealogy at San Diego OASIS (adult education), host a monthly CVGS Research Group, and make presentations to about 10 Suthern California genealogical societies in 2015.

*  I will go to FGS 2015 and RootsTech 2015 in Salt Lake City in February.  I probably won't attend many classes.  I usually learn more from the syllabus materials than sitting in a class.

*  I will go to the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in June 2015 in Burbank, California.  I usually attend some classes here.

*  I doubt that we will go on a genealogy cruise this year (we've done it the last three years) due to my wife's mobility issues.  I haven't been to a weeklong institute, but I'd like to, but not this year.

*  I have a subscription to Family Tree Webinars and usually watch the presentations after the live event (mainly because the CVGS events are at the same time on Wednesdays).  

*  I watch the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) (I'm a member) webinars after the live event also.  I occasionally watch other webinars from other providers that are free or within my subscription package.

*  I participate in the Mondays With Myrt discussions using Google+ Hangouts On Air whenever I can;  when I miss one, I watch it on YouTube.  

*  I watch YouTube videos from a number of genealogy "channels" including Ancestry, FamilySearch, DearMYRTLE, Russ worthington, Tessa Keough, etc.

*  I listen occasionally to podcasts from the Genealogy Guys, Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems, Marian Pierre-Louis' Fieldstone Common and Professional Genealogist, and Fisher's Extreme Genes.

*  I have subscriptions to the National Genealogical Society (NGSQ and NGS Magazine), the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGR and American Ancestors Magazine), Family Tree Magazine, and Internet Genealogy magazine.  

*  I read over 1500 genealogy blogs using the Feedly RSS news reader on a daily basis.

2)  I estimate that I spend about 30% of my genealogy time on genealogy education each year.  That is at least 2-3 hours a day almost every day.  I look at it as an investment - the opportunities are endless, it seems.  I can learn about new tasks, applications, record groups, DNA, etc. from experts in the field and apply the lessons to my own research.   

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/01/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-2015.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver




10 comments:

GeneGinny said...

Here is my response to this SNGF, Randy. It's just about the opposite of what you wrote.
http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2015/01/sngf-my-2015-genealogy-education-plans.html

Unknown said...

As a full time school teacher it's hard to find time for research, much less education. My focus this year is learning about preserving antique family photos and documents I own. To that end I'm reading some books and websites. I managed to find a free local one day conference and I follow about 15 blogs. I also sponsor a family history club at the middle school where I teach, so I hope I'm contributing to the education of others!

Dana Leeds said...

I've been meaning to post something like this since January 1st, so thanks for the challenge! I enjoyed reading your list. It reminded me of some things I'm not taking advantage of and introduced me to at least one new resource: Tessa Keough. I'm going to check out one of her videos tonight!

Unknown said...

- Joined the Ohio Genealogical Society early this month
- Plan on joining more local societies as the year goes on
- Set up my feedly so I can more easily consume more blogs (which is more important than I originally realized
- Reading two books so far this year, British Buckeyes by Van Vugt and Their Patriotic Duty: The Civil War Letters of the Evans Family of Brown County, Ohio by Robert F. Engs


My ratio of research to education is probably 90/10, while I would like to get closer to 75/25 (and don't forget about all the organizing I need to do). My sole purpose to reading Their Patriotic Duty is to educate myself on what life was like in 1860 Brown County, Ohio, where my wife's family settled and remains to this day. Anyone can spend hours and hours researching their genealogy but if you don't educate yourself you can become very inefficient. In a way like you said Randy, I consider it an investment towards the next time I have research in front of me, so I don't miss any of these great opportunities I may have.

VondaH said...

Thanks for the podcasts recommendations! Always looking for more. I've been a genealogist for years but only recently started back in earnest. As for education, I've been reading a lot of blogs and I'm trying to learn to use Google Earth as taught by Lisa Louise Cooke. The rest of my time goes to research.

VondaH said...

Thanks for the podcasts recommendations! Always looking for more. I've been a genealogist for years but only recently started back in earnest. As for education, I've been reading a lot of blogs and I'm trying to learn to use Google Earth as taught by Lisa Louise Cooke. The rest of my time goes to research.

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

I both teach and take genealogy classes.

I started the year at the PMC conference and then a week at SLIG institute learning to write proof arguments. I attend the Contra Costa County Genealogy society meetings and listen to the speakers. I hope to take advanced genealogy at the California Genealogy Society and other classes there as well. I also try to listen to as many webinars as I can.

I will team teach a 6 week beginning genealogy twice this year. I will teach a 2 hour introduction to genealogy twice this year as well.

Anonymous said...

Anything and everything that has to do with DNA is at the top of my list :)

Unknown said...

My 2015 education goals will be mostly through online sites, and hangouts, and books via interlibrary loans. Hopefully I can put some of my outstanding genealogy issues to bed this year, but I will need to learn more about certain locales (esp TN and TX/OK.)

Lynn Tenney said...

Thanks for the challenge! I started my post and realized that I wanted to include even more so it has given me seed for even more posts. My post can be found here:

http://goo.gl/t5ZVe6

I hope I have given proper credit everyone.