By Dennis L. Maness,
MLS
I love genealogy conferences. But they have two
drawbacks: they cost a lot, especially when you add in travel, food, and hotel
expenses and secondly they cram so much into a few days that you can get overwhelmed
and probably forget some (much?) of what you learn. But I’ve discovered a
supplement and sometimes a substitute—the genealogy webinar.
Dictionary.com defines a webinar this way:
“…a seminar or other presentation that takes place on the Internet,
allowing participants in different locations to see and hear the presenter, ask
questions, and sometimes answer polls.
The best place to start is to check out the listings on
GeneaWebinars, which describes itself as “a calendar
and blog devoted exclusively to coordinating online genealogy seminars.”
Here you’ll find a calendar of upcoming webinars;
and a “How It Works” essay.
In this post I’ll talk about some webinars I’ve attended
and some that I’ve heard good things about.
Most of the webinars are at 11 AM on Wednesdays but if
you can’t watch them then they are held for free viewing for about 10 days on
the
Legacy Family Tree Website. After that you can purchase them on CD.
This is a sample of what topics have been covered just
this year:
“The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today” by Barbara
Renick
“Neglected History” by Megan Smolenyak2 (and may I say I paid big bucks to hear this same talk at SCGS Jamboree this year; you could have seen and heard it here for free!)
“The Genealogy Cloud: Which Online Storage Program Is Right For You?” by Thomas MacEntee
“Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos” by Geoff Rasmussen
“Researching Your German Ancestors” by Kory Meyerink
“Obituaries: Clues to Look For. Tips for making sure you
get the full benefit from an obituary notice” by Thomas Jay Kemp
“Ten Brick Wall Tips for Beginners” by Marian
Pierre-Louis
“Tracing Immigrant Ancestors” by Lisa Alzo.
This is just a small sample of the topics covered. And
did you notice the presenters? They are top-of-the-line and nationally known
genealogists.
As they say on their site: “Jamboree Extension Series presentations will be
scheduled on the first Saturday and third Wednesday of each month. Saturday
sessions will be held at 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time; Wednesday
sessions will be scheduled at 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time…. The live
broadcast of each session is open to the public and FREE to all everyone (space
is limited to 1000 attendees). Webinars are recorded, archived, and available
for the next twelve months day or night, in the members-only section of the
SCGS website.”
Here’s a sample of their past webinars:
“Me and My Laptop: Getting the Most out of your Laptop
while Researching Onsite” by Linda Woodward Geiger
“Seeing the Patterns: Organizing Your Information” by Michael
John Neill
“Grandma’s Flak Jacket: Why Your Children Need You To Do
Family History” by Janet Hovorka
“Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker. Researching Your
Ancestors’ Occupations” by Denise Spurlock
“The Genealogist as CSI” by George G. Morgan
These are for-pay webinars and a little too pricey for my
poor budget but I’ve heard good things about them.
Here is a list of future webinars:
This site has free webinars on such subjects as:
Instagram for Genealogists featuring Carrie Keele
FAMILY TREE MAKER WEBINARS feature one-on-one training
provided by Russ Worthington
Ancestry Trees can Jumpstart Your Genealogy Research
Michael John Neill has a reasonably priced
for-pay site
Topics include:
Sections, Townships, Base Lines, etc--Land Descriptions
in Federal Land States.
Did Your Ancestor Get a Civil War Pension?
Charts, Charts and More Charts.
The Genealogical Proof Standard for the Non-Professional.
Creating Families from Pre-1850 Census Records
There are still other webinar sites you might enjoy
(check out the Geneawebinars site listed above.)
Genealogy webinars started becoming common and popular
around 2010 and continue to grow in both number and quality. Try some out
today.
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Remember,
as Legacy Family Tree’s Geoff Rasmussen says,
“Life is short; do genealogy first!”
“Life is short; do genealogy first!”
