Last October, we published an article about
Bringing Genealogy Education into Your Home. At that time, we gave you a list of organizations that offer free genealogy webinars. Well, it's a new year and there are new webinars coming down the pike.
Family History Library Webinars
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has published their February and March class line-up, including their free webinars. They consistently offer high quality classes for beginning and intermediate skill levels. Visit the
Family History Library Classes and Webinars wiki page for the schedule and links to upcoming webinars and handouts. Jump down to section
2 Past Webinars for links to the recording of past webinars and handouts. The webinars are grouped by country of topic in both the Upcoming webinars and the Past webinars:
- US/Canada
- British Isles (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales)
- International (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland)
- Scandinavian (Denmark, Norway)
- Latin America
Most of the Latin America webinars are taught in Spanish, but a few are taught in English. The past Spanish language classes are listed
here; the past English language classes are listed
here.
Migration Routes Across America will be broadcast on February 11 at 10am Mountain Time. This is an intermediate level webinar. You do not register for these webinars; you must go to section
1.2 Webinar Information on the
Family History Library Classes and Webinars wiki page to click the link to attend a webinar.
Legacy Family Tree Webinars
Legacy Family Tree Webinars is in its seventh year of providing quality genealogy webinars by professional and well-known genealogists such as Thomas MacEntee, Cyndi Ingle, Judy G. Russell, Warren Bittner, Tom Jones, and so many more! Each month you may watch five or six webinars: every Wednesday afternoon, once a month on Friday evening, and even a couple of Saturdays this year. The live webinars are free, but pre-registration is required and attendance is limited to 1,000 viewers so it is best to log in at least 15-20 minutes early. During the live broadcast, you are able to enter questions and comments in the chat box. The questions will either be answered by the moderator (usually Geoff Rasmussen), sometimes shared to all viewers, or will be asked during the Q&A session. At the end of the presentation, Geoff Rasmussen will demonstrate Legacy Family Tree software in a way that is relevant to the topic just discussed—this is called the After Party.
Recordings of these webinars are available to view for free for about a week following the live webinar. After that, you must be a paid subscriber to view the recordings. The advantages to attending the live broadcast are 1) you may download the chatlog which contain a lot of comments, links, and answers to questions not necessarily asked in the recording and 2) there are drawings to give away an ebook, quick guide, and/or some other items relevant to the day's topic for which you must be "present" to participate. Visit their
website to see the schedule for this year and to register for webinars you may wish to attend live. If you want to watch a specific webinar, but am unable to attend live, it is still a good idea to register for it. Registrants will receive an email reminder before the webinar and a "Sorry you missed..." email afterwards, which lets you know that the recording is online and available to view for a few days.
The webinars scheduled for February are:
- The Scots-Irish in America by Peggy Clemens Lauritzen on February 10
- Getting Started with Microsoft Word by Thomas MacEntee on February 17
- Problem Solving with FANs by Beth Foulk on February 19
- A Guided Tour of Cyndi's List 2.0 by Cyndi Ingle on February 24
Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) Webinars
Since 2012, ISGS webinars have been broadcast live the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm Central Time. The 2016 upcoming webinars are described on the
Upcoming Webinars webpage. The live broadcast is offered free to everyone, but you must pre-register. Recordings are available to ISGS members indefinitely. Visit their
website for information about their organization and the genealogy education opportunities.
This month's webinar is
Reconstructing Black Community Life Through Benevolent Societies by Angela Walton-Raji and will be broadcast on February 9.
Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Webinars
SCGS webinars are offered twice monthly (the first Saturday and third Wednesday). The live broadcasts are free and open to the public; the recordings are available only to SCGS members. You must register to participate in the live broadcast. Visit their
2016 Webinar Series webpage for the schedule for this year, to register, and for instructions for joining the webinar. Diahan Southard was the guest speaker for the last webinar:
Making YDNA and mtDNA Part of Your Family History broadcast on January 20. The two classes scheduled for February are:
- Scanning and Photo Retouching for Beginners by Tom Underhill on February 6
- The Family Historian's Publishing Primer by Nicka J. Smith on February 17
Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) Webinars
The
BCG offers occasional free webinars "as part of an ongoing series that supports our mission to provide education for family historians." (President Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG).
You must register in order to attend their webinars and attendance is limited. To receive email notification of upcoming webinars, visit their
blog and scroll down to the Email Notification area, enter your email address where indicated, and click the Subscribe button.
BCG offers recordings of past webinars on their
BCG Webinars webpage; some are free, most are available for purchase.
The next free webinar is
The Importance of Context in Record Analysis by Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS scheduled for February 16 at 8pm EST. You may read the details about this webinar and register by visiting their blog post
BCG Webinar: Little on Context in Record Analysis.
Genealogy education has never been so easily and freely accessible as it is today. Take advantage of the many free learning opportunities available to you.
