Researching - How to improve your skills

Researching

How to improve your skills

by Jeannette McCarthy PgDiploma Genealogical, Palaeographic & Heraldic Studies Many of us become overwhelmed when researching our family histories. We can hit a brick wall

and not know how to break it

down. We can also collect so

much information it becomes

difficult to sort and organise. How many times do we find an important piece of information only to find we’ve repeated a search we undertook months before?

There are myriad Youtube videos, websites and blogs that offer hints and tips for family history research and give suggestions and examples of how to organise your research.

Looking at all these can be confusing. There is another option that can help to improve your skills and that is to undertake an online

course run by a genealogy specialist or university.

The Society of Australian Genealogists runs a short online course entitled Family History Fundamentals for a small fee. The

Society also offers a Certificate in Genealogical Research and a Diploma in Family Historical Studies. https://www.sag.org.au/ StudyOnlineWithUs

If your ancestors are primarily in Australia, the University of Tasmania offers a Diploma of Family History. This course teaches core skills in

family history to research your ancestors including planning and conducting online research, locating and managing historical data, and writing compelling family histories. https://www.utas.edu.au/ courses/cale/courses/r2h-diplomaof-family-history

If your ancestors are primarily from United Kingdom, courses are available from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

This university offers online post graduate courses as well as a short online course to help you develop your research skills. The part-time postgraduate course offers a Certificate, a Diploma and a Masters degree. Each of these courses can be taken in one year or in modules over a number of

years. The Masters course is available as a part-time one-year option.

The skills learned in these courses

provides a thorough grounding in genealogical research, family history, records, archives and heraldry. https://www.strath.ac.uk/ studywithus/ centreforlifelonglearning/ genealogy/ aboutpostgraduategenealogy/

University of Strathclyde also offers a free 6-week course that

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