After Christmas, There Will be the New Year...

I will be teaching, again, at the Center for Lifelong Learning for the Spring 2011 Session.  My class is “Genealogy—It’s All Relative”.

Those who are unfamiliar with the CLL may access the website at http://www.cll-fwb.org/.    Registration will be held in January; watch the local newspaper for the date or access the phone number at the web site.  The CLL has as its primary campus the Univ. of W. Florida/Fort Walton campus (and the Northwest Florida State College campus, as well); other sites are also utilized for classes.

Genealogy—It’s all Relative is a course devoted to exploring family history and various aspects that are relevant to researching our ancestors.  Being somewhat computer literate will enhance the class member’s experience.  There are no real prerequisites, though, for taking the class.  Class is held once a week.  Here is a sample syllabus for the class:

Week 1: Introduction to the Course; Brief review of beginner strategies for ancestor digging; and an invitation to class members to share their family history goals. 

Week 2:  Family History Current Events and News (Class participation); Review and expanded discussion of Genealogy Basics; How Family History brings genealogical research a step further; A case study!

Week 3:  Review and completion of case study; class members ask questions, make comments, gauge their progress, etc.; Begin discussion of genealogy and technology.

Week 4:  The Land and our Ancestors—land records, maps and map collections, agricultural censuses, Emigration, Immigration, and Migration. 

Week 5:  Court Records (marriage, divorce, wills, and other)

Week 6:  Review, questions.  Fun with the Internet and Family History; Making family history, preserving family history, and archiving family history.

Week 7:  The FamilySearch Beta Site

Week 8:  Flaunt it: show relics, heirlooms, and antiques from your family.  Bring photos, tell stories.  Talk about scanning and photography as it pertains to family history.

Don’t let the syllabus scare you—this class is meant to be fun and informative; it is a casual glance at all the pieces and parts of family history, but what parts we don’t get to this session, we’ll try to pick up next session.  There is no real homework or assignments, no tests, no grades.  But we do want to come away from the class having received an overview of the process.