In this podcast episode, Diana and Nicole introduce Cyndi Ingle, the creator of CyndisList.com, a renowned resource for genealogical research. Cyndi, with over 44 years of experience in genealogy, is currently serving as the Executive Director for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR). They discuss the distinctiveness of genealogy institutes in comparison to other forms of genealogy education and inquire about Cyndi’s preference between virtual and in-person institutes. They delve into topics like homework and assignments during institute courses, the registration process, and ways to incorporate genealogy institutes into education plans. They also explore the regular and unique courses offered by IGHR.
Transcript
Nicole (1s):
This is Research Like a Pro episode 306 Genealogy Institutes with Cindy Ingle. Welcome to Research Like a Pro a genealogy podcast about taking your research to the next level. Hosted by Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder Accredited Genealogist Professional. Diana and Nicole are the mother-daughter team at FamilyLocket.com and the authors of Research Like a Pro A Genealogist guide with Robin Wirthlin. They also co-authored the companion volume, Research Like a Pro with DNA. Join, Diana, and Nicole as they discuss how to stay organized, make progress in their research and solve difficult cases. Let’s go.
Nicole (41s):
Today’s episode is sponsored by Newspapers.com. Hello everybody. Welcome to Research Like a Pro
Diana (47s):
Hi Nicole How, are you doing today?
Nicole (50s):
Great. What’s new with you?
Diana (52s):
Well, I am finally working on the DNA portion of my study, group project and working on family trees, you know, going through the Thru Lines suggestions and verifying records and I am happy to report that so far all the Thru Lines have been correct for the family I’m working on and I’m so happy about that. But this one woman, bless her heart, she had five husbands and children with each one and so it has been a little bit challenging just to piece that all together. But you know, we love working with those families, don’t we?
Nicole (1m 25s):
Yes. and I do have to say Thru Lines is so helpful sometimes, and I’ve been looking at a Thru Line as well. Funny you mentioned that for a family with a very common surname and I expected there to be a lot of errors, but this particular one was really good. And it was really fun to see the clues in the documentary research and these potential. You know, it’s kind of like an earlier family with no direct evidence, but the Thru Lines were all there for each of these children except one who probably doesn’t have any tested descendants. And it’s just really neat to see the documentary evidence and the through lines complimenting each other,
Diana (2m 1s):
Right And, it certainly helps us speed up our work. So I really appreciate that tool. Well, let’s do some announcements. We have our Research Like a Pro Webinar Series coming up with Jessica Taylor Morgan, who will be presenting the Oliver case using deductive reasoning with British parish records. So this will be June 18th at 11:00 AM Mountain Time. And this will be a really interesting case study all about English parish records, the parish chest and parish maps. So if you’ve been doing English research, maybe just using civil registration and parish records, the basic birth marriage and death records there, it’ll be really interesting for all of us to learn more about some of those things we don’t use as often.
Diana (2m 45s):
So I’m looking forward to that. And then we have our Research Like a Pro with AI four day workshop coming up. This will be July 29th through August 1st, it will be two hours every morning with some fun tasks for you to practice AI and our registration is currently open for that. So we’d invite you to join us. And then our Research Like a Pro study group begins the end of August and this will be the study group where we are focusing on documentary work. Registration for that will be opening soon and we invite you to jump in and join us. If you’ve been thinking of doing a study group, maybe this is your year,
Nicole (3m 24s):
Thank you for that. Today we are excited to have a guest. Cyndi Ingle is joining us. Hi Cyndi.
Cyndi Ingle (3m 31s):
Hi there. Thanks
Nicole (3m 32s):
For being here. I’ll introduce Cyndi, but she doesn’t really need an introduction because she’s so well known for her Wonderful work on cyndislist.com, which if you’re not familiar, is a free categorized list of more than 320,000 links for genealogical research and I. Remember learning about Cyndis list way back when we first started and just loving this resource and the ability to find so many different resources in genealogy internet world that was so new at the time. Well, Cyndi has been a Genealogist for more than 44 years and has an expertise in using technology for genealogy. Her many active years in genealogy have also resulted in specialties for research in the United States and bringing together traditional methodology with organization, computers, software, and the internet.
Nicole (4m 20s):
Cyndi is the recipient of several awards and honors. She has served in several capacities for genealogical organizations and she is an internationally known guest lecturer and has authored numerous articles and three books. Cyndi is a columnist for the Association of Professional Genealogist Quarterly, and she is the executive director for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, which is one of the reasons why we are talking with her today in that capacity as the IGHR director. So welcome.
Cyndi Ingle (4m 52s):
Well Thank you very much. Thanks for having me today ladies.
Diana (4m 55s):
Oh, you’re so welcome. Cyndi. We are so interested to talk today all about Institutes. Nicole and I have talked about Institutes a lot on the podcast and how we have loved those and the opportunity for learning. but it will be so fun to talk to you and learn more as the director of IGHR. So that’s a big job, isn’t it?
Cyndi Ingle (5m 16s):
Oh, it’s a great big job, yes. Started last September and it’s, there’s so much to do to make it a successful event for everybody. Oh,
Diana (5m 24s):
Thank you for doing that. Oh my goodness. Well, let’s start off with just a discussion of institute. So what do you think is an institute different from other types of genealogy education?
Cyndi Ingle (5m 36s):
Well, first of all, I’m passionate about genealogical education. I think It is probably the one thing that people don’t get enough of and that causes brick walls. I think there’s two things actually that causes our brick walls and there’s really no such thing as a brick wall if you get past them. And one is being organized, which you guys work really hard on helping the genealogical community with that both of you do. But being organized in our research and then the education, I think we all can learn something new every single day on any new topic. And there’s so much in genealogy that we need to know. We, we learn about researching in a certain area, a certain place, a certain ethnic group, a certain religious group, and then how to bring all that together in our research and, and our findings.
Cyndi Ingle (6m 20s):
We’ve got webinars, we’ve got podcasts, obviously like this one, and blogs and books, galore magazine articles and all of that. They’re all great ways to learn. You know, a lot of, especially webinars these days tend to be the first place people are getting some genealogical education. But ultimately, I think the best thing to do is to work your way towards going to an institute. It’s traditionally been focused education on one topic for an entire week approximately. There’s several Institutes that have been around. IGHR is one of the oldest, but focused research on a certain topic for a week where you’re in class learning with your fellow students who all have the same interests that you do and whatever that particular topic is.
Cyndi Ingle (7m 1s):
And you’ve got experts in our field who coordinate these courses. They come up with all the things they think are important to learn about how to do English research, for example, or how to do Scottish research or how to approach land records. It’s a full immersion educational experience where by the end of the week your head’s kind of exploding, but in a good way with all the good information that comes from it. So in person, they were always generally on a campus or in a place where we were all meeting in person and that’s why they would kind of cram it all into a week from 8:00 AM till, you know, five learning, learning, learning. The first time you attended an institute you’re overwhelmed again.
Cyndi Ingle (7m 41s):
But in a good way like this, I didn’t know what I didn’t know and there was so much to learn.
Diana (7m 45s):
Oh, I completely agree. and I love what you said about, you know, you might be an expert in research in say, New York, but then you start researching in North Carolina and you’re a newbie again because things are so different. So that’s right. Yeah,
Cyndi Ingle (7m 58s):
We
Diana (7m 59s):
Can never learn about everything enough. And then we have the new thing like DNA that comes along that we have to figure out or AI. So it really is a fun field to be in and I agree with you that an institute is such a fun way to just dive really deep and you get, I feel like you get information that’s not really out there as much like in a webinar or in a book because it’s the experience of the teacher. And maybe they exactly haven’t really shared that publicly. You know,
Cyndi Ingle (8m 27s):
Coordinators and the presenters are people who’ve got decades of experience in whatever this particular topic is that you’re going to to learn. So like your, your example there in the Carolina is of you suddenly find in your US research that you’ve always been a New England research and suddenly you’ve got a southern ancestor. How do you tackle that? How do you tackle because the records are different or the history is different, or the accessibility to the records might be different. And so you go to an expert who knows about how to do research for South Carolina or North Carolina or wherever it happens to be and learn all over again.
Nicole (8m 58s):
Absolutely.
Cyndi Ingle (8m 59s):
Research for us is cyclical. It’s not a line. We don’t start and go to the end. You research, you learn something new, you go back to the beginning and start over again looking at things for the fresh set of eyes, you go forward And, it loops the, the whole research process loops back and forth. and I think it’s the same with education. You don’t know yet what It is. You don’t know once you start taking the classes, you realize, oh, I thought I was an intermediate researcher. Now I think even though I’ve been doing this 20 years, I just learned so much. I need to kind of go back and look at things with a fresh set of eyes, learn with a fresh set of eyes from the beginning again. Yes,
Nicole (9m 34s):
Absolutely. I love that explanation of learning what you don’t know. And that’s so common with us as Genealogists to feel like, you know, I remember when we first got started and we learned a lot really quickly because we had a lot of work to do on my grandfather’s side. And then we quickly thought, oh, we’re really good now. Like we know what we’re doing. ’cause look at our tree is so big, you know what I mean? And then we just didn’t know what we didn’t know. Yeah. and I think that’s a big part of the Genealogy, Institutes and education system is that we have to figure out where our weaknesses are and what our, what our gaps are because our experiences just with our one family probably at first, and each family is so different. So
Cyndi Ingle (10m 14s):
Each family is different, each region is different. Each different ethnic groups of course, or religious entities that you’ve gotta get, you know, through their records and their repositories. It’s learning every single day. I think it’s part of why I love genealogical research. It’s always a learning experience. Suddenly now we, we’ve gotta focus on, on this new location or this new time period or whatever it happens to be. It’s, it’s wonderful to, to study the history of our world while studying the history of our family at the same time.
Nicole (10m 43s):
I completely agree. I think that both mom and I love genealogy research for that reason, that it’s just so fun to learn new things.
Cyndi Ingle (10m 51s):
I’m right right now writing a series of new lectures for the GRIP Institute, which is next month in the course, is not just farmers. So these are farming topics. Now I’ve got farmers in my ancestry all over the place and I’ve studied their land records and I’ve studied their lives, or I thought I had, but because I’m coming at it from a certain angle to write some new lectures, I’m learning about things that may have influenced the push and pull of why my farming ancestors left Indiana and went to Homestead in North Dakota. Why they have ultimately left North Dakota and came to Washington State. I thought I understood my grandparents and my great grandparents. I think I understand ’em a lot better by having a different perspective on coming at it through their occupation and what it meant to be a farmer in the late 1800s and early 1900s and different places.
Cyndi Ingle (11m 37s):
And then on through the Great Depression here in the United States. So even this last week, I’ve added a ton to my understanding of their life just by studying the history of all of that.
Nicole (11m 47s):
Oh, cool. That sounds like a great class.
Cyndi Ingle (11m 49s):
Oh, I’m, I’m very excited about all of it. I wish I had a ton more time to read and do all the things I’m doing to prep for it, but it’s gonna be so much fun.
Nicole (11m 59s):
Well, what is that book you read, mom about the American Farmer?
Diana (12m 2s):
Oh, I was just gonna say, I read Richard Bushman’s book on the American Farmer. I don’t know if you’ve heard of that one, Cyndi, but he’s a, well
Cyndi Ingle (12m 9s):
Now I gotta go by it. Yeah, yeah.
Nicole (12m 11s):
Audible,
Diana (12m 12s):
He’s a well-known historian and he turned his attention to farming and he takes it apart. He, first, he talks about in New England how farming worked there and then he goes down to Virginia and how it works there and then further west. So I really liked how he dove really deep into those specific areas. And you know, something I had not really thought of or realized was the reason why people had so many children was because they had to work the farm. They needed hands and I thought that was so interesting and that’s why the land was so important to our ancestors because they were working to give their children this land and you know, it was a big deal. So anyway, yeah, fun, fun to in and research that and understand that better.
Cyndi Ingle (12m 55s):
What I think I figured out in this one line, my angle line here, just in studying the other things I was doing for the, for the institute, is that when farming wasn’t going well, my particular direct ancestors moved to other kinds of labor. And, it happened to be at the same time that the railroads are coming through and the railroads are being built. And my second great grandfather gravitated towards that kind of work instead of farming. I’m sure that he was paid better for it. I’m sure that he had better opportunities, but I’m getting an explanation for my grandma’s side of the family was more farmers, but grandpa’s wasn’t, how come they were in the same place at the same time. I’m seeing an occupational shift as technology moved forward and the railroad was coming through and that kind of thing.
Cyndi Ingle (13m 37s):
Yeah.
Diana (13m 38s):
Yes, absolutely. That’s so fun. We kind of digress there, but this is the kind of theme That’s okay. Our listeners that we learn in Institutes, we learn, we dive deep and we learn new things. Exactly. So fun. Well, can we talk just a little bit about, you mentioned that the institute goes from like eight to five, but what does that really mean? What, what does a day in an institute look like?
Cyndi Ingle (13m 58s):
Well, they’re all very similar. For IGHR, it means that there are four lectures per day. In general, it depends on the course. The coordinators all design their own courses, but generally you’ve got four lectures in the day with breaks in between. And then by Friday it’s a half day. Friday’s kind of a wrap up day, depending on the course. There may be homework or writing samples or things that people did together in groups that they do presentations on Friday, but it’s sort of a wrap up q and a and that sort of thing. So it’s a full day of classes Monday through Thursday with a partial day on Friday to kind of finish things up. Right. That’s typical for most of
Diana (14m 35s):
Them. Right. And we’ve had a change where these used to all be in person and now we’ve had virtual opportunities since Covid. So, you know, what do you like? Are you a virtual or in person? Person?
Cyndi Ingle (14m 48s):
I favor virtual for a lot of reasons. I think think first of all, everybody in the world had to pivot when the the pandemic hit. And so for one of us, we, you know, we had all of those Institutes lined up and it’s like, how do we keep doing them because they’re so valuable in our genealogical education, how do we keep doing them? But from home? And so we’ve, we’ve moved to Zoom for most of these. I live in Washington state. My ancestors are not from Washington, they’re from the Midwest, they’re from the East coast, they’re from New England. They’re from all over. For me to do any kind of research or to go anywhere from Washington is a little expensive. For years, I wanted to attend IGHR, myself, And, it was for many years, it was in Alabama at Sanford. And flying from Washington state to Alabama was a little bit pricey.
Cyndi Ingle (15m 31s):
And then going in person, you would either, you’d stay, depends on the, the institute, but sometimes there was campus facilities like dorms you could stay in that you’d have to pay for those or a hotel and the travel expenses, the airline, you know, all of that to go and be there. And for many years when I had a young son and such, I couldn’t really leave easily and I couldn’t afford to go. I thought it’d be one of those things I’ll eventually get to when I, when I get older and, and don’t have as many responsibilities and can travel and can afford to go. I, I remember looking on it from afar and being envious of the people who could go and do, do that when we went virtual. Suddenly I can attend any institute that I wanna attend from my home and from the comfort of my home.
Cyndi Ingle (16m 11s):
I don’t have to sleep in a dorm bed. I can sleep in my own bed, eat my own food. I think all of those are, are nice. We save the money of the expenses to travel and do all of that. But to have it from the convenience of home I think is wonderful. The other thing that we have been able to do, which I think is absolutely wonderful, is impact people that would never be able to go to an institute otherwise. So we’ve got the financial issues I just mentioned a minute ago, so some people who just couldn’t afford to go, but to stay home and do it from home, all they have to pay is tuition and have a Zoom connection in a decent webcam and computer to work from. And that’s it. So we’ve got opportunities for people to attend Institutes that couldn’t before anybody that was, that’s at home for some reason, that’s a shut in.
Cyndi Ingle (16m 56s):
Maybe they can’t leave home. Maybe they, there’s a disability, maybe they’re caregivers, they’ve got people they take care of so they have to stay at home and can’t go. People that otherwise wouldn’t be able to get this kind of education because they couldn’t afford to go in person are able to now get it online. and I think that’s really important because we can reach a much broader audience. We can reach more people and spread in depth, high quality genealogical education to more people than just those, those few that were able to afford to go before.
Diana (17m 25s):
Well I love that. I think you spoke to so many things and I will even mention that when you attend virtually the lectures are recorded so that you can watch them a second time. You know, usually have access for a week or two. And sometimes I’ll want to go and watch that again to pick up the few things that I missed because, you know, something was happening in the house, I had to go put out a fire or whatever. Then you can come back and and watch the rest of it. So I think that’s another advantage of virtual
Cyndi Ingle (17m 52s):
It is an advantage. It’s a wonderful advantage to be able to think. I I just wanna say that one lecture one more time because I think I understood it, but I wanna make sure I got a clear, you know. Yeah, it’s, it’s really nice to be able to do that and to do it again from the comfort of our own home and our own computer chairs and, and not have to disrupt life too much by attending. But I
Diana (18m 11s):
Will put a plug for in person because the first institute I attended was at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in, in Salt Lake City. So it wasn’t, you know, I drove back and forth. It wasn’t as big of an expense for me, but it was so neat to see people and get to know people. And so I really loved that part of in-person. So, you know, I think there’s so many good things of both, but I’m glad we have
Cyndi Ingle (18m 35s):
Options. Oh, there, there It is, I’m a hugely social person. I love being with people and I miss not being able to be with all our, our genealogy pals and I mean. ’cause at the Institutes you make new genealogy buddies for life and it’s wonderful. There’s a camaraderie there that’s really good too. So I, I agree with you. I would love to be able to do it, but I have found, I do have a lot of new friends on my virtual courses as well. Yeah, we do so well. My
Nicole (19m 0s):
First institute was such a big deal to purchase that flight and get babysitters for my kids and, and be there and make friends. And then when we had the opportunity to do the virtual ones, I did sign up for several more And. it, it felt so nice to be able to try doing more Institutes and not have that be my only one because It is challenging the childcare.
Cyndi Ingle (19m 22s):
And you’re a good example of that Nicole. I, I mean I, when I was first doing all this, I was a young mother as well and so I wanted that education but I couldn’t get it because I, you know, because my son was here and I had to, I’d have to leave and do all of that. So It is nice that you’ve got that option. I think it’s wonderful. It is wonderful that you do.
Nicole (19m 39s):
Yeah. You know, it’s something good that came outta the pandemic.
Cyndi Ingle (19m 42s):
Yeah, yeah. It’s one of the good pivot points.
Nicole (19m 47s):
Alright, well something that’s unique about Institutes we’ve touched on a tiny bit is that Institutes are all on one topic and sometimes they’ll have homework or assignments during the week or group work. So how do you feel about homework during an institute course?
Cyndi Ingle (20m 3s):
I think whenever anybody can do something interactive, they get more out of it because they’re participating and they’re fully I immersing into whatever It is they’re talking about. So I love when there are homework assignments, they range, it depends on the coordinator, it depends on the person I know. The intermediate course at GRIP is is done by Paula Stewart Warren and she picks a case, a new one every year for her students to study because it’s virtual now. They go into breakout rooms, they used to break up into little groups and now it’s breakout rooms and Zoom and study the document and pull based on what they learned that day, pull the information from it, evaluate the evidence and such, and work on this all throughout the week at the not just Farmer’s course that we’re doing in June, we’re going to be building a profile of your farming ancestor based on everything we’re teaching.
Cyndi Ingle (20m 48s):
So the idea is at the end, we’re giving ’em a template and at the end of the week they should be able to walk away with not just names and dates, but some flesh on the bones of their farming ancestors. You know, some, some stories and some context, historical context and things for them that, that should fill out that profile nicely. The writing course at IGHR is, is by none other than Tom Jones who doesn’t want to learn writing from Tom Jones. The course that we have is writing and publishing for Genealogists and it’s the only course he teaches where he edits every student’s writing throughout the week. So up to 30 students in a class. And he will, he spends every living second I think working on editing their work.
Cyndi Ingle (21m 30s):
So he’s teaching about writing and actively editing your work during. So I really do think, I think the homework and the assignments add a layer to it that that makes it real for you as a student. You know, gives you real time immersive examples to work with. and I think it’s an important thing if you if it can be done.
Nicole (21m 48s):
That’s true. That’s so wonderful. I think I’ve learned the most when I have had to do something in association with the learning.
Cyndi Ingle (21m 55s):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think if, you know, a lot of us, if we don’t apply it right away, we remember it somewhere. But if we don’t apply it right away, it doesn’t become part of your, your research routine and I. I think it really needs to be. So I’m a, I’m a visual person and an applying person. I gotta do it so that I understand it
Diana (22m 12s):
Well. I took Tom’s class on writing and publishing and had him edit a paragraph that I thought was pretty well written and he got it down to about two sentences and I thought, wow, that was amazing. It’s very humbling. but it, It is such a good exercise and such a good course. And
Cyndi Ingle (22m 29s):
Yeah, he’s kind of mercenary from what I hear on, on some of those as you bring in 1500 words and by the time you’re done it’s down to 300 words and saying the same thing but better.
Diana (22m 39s):
I know, I know. It’s a gift. It’s something we can all learn though. Yes. So Yes. How does someone go about registering for one of these courses? What does it look like? Is there a big demand? Do the courses sell out? I know that I, I registered for one of Blaine Bettinger’s, DNA courses and I was right on there and I think it sold out in like two minutes. But what is your experience as a director about this whole idea?
Cyndi Ingle (23m 4s):
Well, I’ve been a coordinator, I’ve been a presenter and now a director, so I’ve seen it from all the different angles. Virtually the courses on all the Institutes aren’t selling out the way they used to. and I, I’ve, I’ve figured out why this is, it used to be when you were going to go to one, you would need to hurry and register for the course, make sure you got it. Then you could go make your airline reservations and your hotel reservations and all of that. ’cause you had to do it ahead of time. And so a lot of things would sell out early, early on. Now because they’re virtual people are taking their time and kind of making sure that everything’s gonna line up well for them to register. So they do sell out, they just sell out in a different way. Right. Or over a different schedule.
Cyndi Ingle (23m 44s):
The ones that sell out quickest are usually the newest and the sexiest topics like DNA, you know, the, the, the DNA’s really hot and really trending and everybody needs to learn more about how to apply it, how to use it, et cetera. Anytime there’s a new course too. ’cause the, the farming course I was talking about sold out pretty quick. Anytime there’s a new topic that hasn’t been around a while, I think artificial intelligence is also gonna be another one that the more we get on that, that will also sell out quickly. And then we’ve got some that have been around for a while that rotate and at IGHR we’ve got a series of them that rotate and a series that are also kind of standard for methodology. Sort of a beginning, intermediate and advanced levels, that kind of thing.
Cyndi Ingle (24m 25s):
You go to the, the website and they’ve got registration set up. Most of the time you just have to create a free account on the site itself or the registration site and then work your way through it. It’s not too hard. In fact, we had a really successful registration at IGHR this year because the program we’re using for it program was super easy for people to fill out.
Diana (24m 43s):
Oh, that’s wonderful.
Cyndi Ingle (24m 44s):
Being an old lady in genealogy. I can remember when I wanted to attend what is now Gen Fed. I attended in 2004. We had to mail in and hope that we got, I think I did a FedEx thing. If you got your, your registration in first, whoever, whenever it came in, it was the first 20 that came in or first 25 or whatever their number was. but it was like you would spend the extra money on FedEx to make sure it was gonna be there that day. And hopefully you’d get into registration for that
Diana (25m 13s):
Little
Cyndi Ingle (25m 14s):
Easier with the online registration. Now
Diana (25m 16s):
That is so funny. And you’ve said Gen Fed a couple times. That is the one that is at the National Archives in Washington DC and you’re there all week. That’s right. In person learning how to work with the records there. so that sounds like such a neat opportunity. I’d love to do that, but I’m glad don don’t have to now mail it FedEx or whatever. Yeah,
Cyndi Ingle (25m 36s):
Yeah. You don’t have to go to the FedEx office to, to make sure it gets in anymore. Yes. That shows you how quickly that has changed and how, how things are different now. Right. But
Diana (25m 44s):
Yeah. Right. Well let’s have a word from our Sponsor newspapers.com. This episode is brought to you by newspapers.com. Discover your mom in the paper when you search newspapers.com. Find the stories that made her who she is today by searching the largest online newspaper. Archive newspapers.com makes it easy to find your mom, grandma, and others in the papers. Search more than 945 million pages from major news titles to small town papers. Uncover birth and marriage announcements, obituaries photos, and much, much more. Explore papers dating back to 1690 or as recent as last month. newspapers.com is used by millions of people every month for genealogy, historical research and more.
Diana (26m 25s):
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Nicole (26m 43s):
If we wanna start going to Institutes regularly, should we make an education plan for ourselves that incorporates Institutes in some regular way? Or what do you think of that?
Cyndi Ingle (26m 53s):
Definitely. I think education plans are a good idea and I think what it means is you get to a point in your research where you realize, okay, I’m kind of stuck. I’ve done this stuff that’s easy to figure out on my own. I’ve done the stuff that I, you know, a few webinars have suggested that I do. But if I really want to be productive in my research, I need to learn more about how to do everything in, you know, again, a certain place, a certain topic, whatever it happens to be. So education plans can be, you know, there’s a lot of things that you might put into it, but it’s what is your ultimate goal? You wanna become an expert in everything having to do with North Carolina research or you wanna be an expert in military records or whatever.
Cyndi Ingle (27m 33s):
Or you know that you’ve got a lot of military ancestors. So, you know, trying to figure out what your ultimate goal is, what’s your focus, and then how do you attack that? What kinds of people are in the genealogical community are experts in that field and figuring out where they’re teaching, where they’re coordinating and kind of laying it out. Of course the tuition for Institutes is, is up there. I don’t, I think we’re all comparable. It’s $545 for a week at IGHR. And so of course part of your education plan would have to incorporate your economics of it. You know, what can you afford to do monetarily as well as time and, and energy wise, do you have the time? Because for some people, if they’re gonna attend a a week long course, it means taking a week vacation, you know, off of work to maybe go and, and do this and really focus with the virtual ones.
Cyndi Ingle (28m 21s):
We do as, as you said, we’ve got the recordings, so maybe it’s something you could do in the evenings. You don’t need to worry about taking time off from work. It kind of depends. But how much time can you devote to your genealogical education on a daily basis or a weekly basis, et cetera. How much money can you devote to it? And then what are your options for that? Like I would look for certain people that you would wanna follow and, and and you know, absorb every one of their webinars and every one of their lectures and follow, stalk them a little bit and figure out where is it that they’re teaching. I think also people need to be honest with themselves as they’re evaluating where they are in their research life and realize that they may think they’re intermediate, they may even think they’re advanced, but they have to be willing to realize that they may not be nearly as advanced as they think they are.
Cyndi Ingle (29m 10s):
They gotta be willing to say, okay, I have a lot more I can learn. We all do. I learn every single day when I’m teaching. I learn every single day when I am attending somebody else’s webinar. And, it was a lecture Paul Milner given many years ago at, at the Ohio Genealogists Society Conference. He said, if you’ve been at this a while, it’s time to go back and get a beginner’s genealogy book and read it because you’ll read it with a new set of eyes and realize, okay, I wish I’d been this smart when I first started all of this. so that honesty, what can you start with? So for example, we’ve got three courses at IGHR. The first one is methods and sources of I, Rebecca frs, A coordinator and It is a wonderful course.
Cyndi Ingle (29m 53s):
And, it walks you. A lot of people say, I don’t need it. It’s beginning. Do you think I really need it? Yes, I do. I think we all would benefit from going back and learning from those experts how they, they start at a basic level and then there’s intermediate genealogy and historical studies. It’s alternating every year between Angela McGee and Deborah Hoffman coordinating that one. And then the advanced methodology and evidence analysis with Judy Russell. I think those three should be taken in order so that you get the full experience beginning to end. And that’s how they’re coordinated. It’s how they’re presented. These people that run them and present them have coordinated, coordinated them in such a way that they work together as a team. Yeah, we gotta be honest with ourselves and be ready to go back to the beginning.
Cyndi Ingle (30m 33s):
But I think when you do that and you incorporate it into your plan, you’re gonna be happy with yourself later on. It’s, it’s well worth the investment.
Nicole (30m 40s):
I love what you said about following people and I remember thinking that same thing like, oh, I really like Paul Woodbury and how he teaches about DNA and Yes, he happened to be teaching an intro to Genetic genealogy course, which I had already taken some advanced DNA courses. So I was like, should I take it? and I did And. it was wonderful. I learned so much from Paul And. it really is not so much about the level that the course is advertising, but the people teaching. If you like their style and if you think that they have something to offer and to teach you, then definitely sign up.
Cyndi Ingle (31m 17s):
Exactly. You can hear about the same topic as you just said, from two different people and you could get something from each of them that compliments what you need to know. So like on the DNA topic, I mean you could listen to Blaine, you can listen to Patty Hobbs who does our genetic for Genealogists fundamentals, A DNA course at at IGHR and you could listen to Karen Stanbury and you could listen to Paul and you could get something from all of them on the same topic that would help you be a better DNA expert yourself. It’s fascinating to me to see how people think of the same topic differently and how they present it differently and, and we all think differently. We all absorb and learn differently. So there’s don don’t think there’s anything wrong with retaking some of those and going back over it.
Diana (31m 58s):
I think that’s such a, a good thing to think about that we can all be beginners once, once upon a time. Yes, we were a beginner and we can be it again. Well, I have noticed that a lot of the courses have prerequisites and so if we are creating a plan, we probably need to be looking ahead and thinking, okay, I’ve gotta take this class first, like you mentioned, or I need some experience in this so that I’ll be prepared for the class. So, you know, it’s good to take a look at those and just start thinking about what you wanna learn, how you wanna expand.
Cyndi Ingle (32m 29s):
So on the course pages, they will tell you those things. So if you go into the IGHR website for example, and you go into courses, there’s a page for each course and it’ll tell you who’s teaching it, who’s coordinating it, and what the prerequisites are and what the suggested reading would be. If there’s certain books you should have, all of that sort of thing. And so yeah, that’s definitely something to add into the plan to make sure that you’re, you’re doing everything in the right order as suggested by the experts. Yeah,
Diana (32m 55s):
You are on schedule. Well you mentioned some of the courses that IGHR offers, the ones like beginning, intermediate and Advanced. Are there other courses that IGHR offers on a regular basis?
Cyndi Ingle (33m 8s):
We have been offering the course five genetic for Genealogists, the fundamentals of DNA and that’s a regular one. And then we’re rotating right now an intermediate and an advanced DNA. So every other year for those two, we’ve got a series of three military courses. We’ve got a series of research in the south that is over three different years. They cover different areas of the south. We’ve got a rotating series with Paul Milner and, and David Wrencher this year it’s Irish Research with David. And then we have English and then we have Scottish. So working our way through the, the islands, the United Kingdom in Ireland, we also have an African American course and I, I think we might’ve been the first I, I don’t wanna say for sure, but I believe in the history of IGHR that we were the first ones to offer the Amer African American and that one Debbie Abbott is coordinating it this year and, and we’ll have Tim Pennick next year, but the every year they’re renewing it.
Cyndi Ingle (34m 4s):
That’s an another thing about Institutes. It’s not the same thing being taught year after year after year. All of these coordinators and lecturers will go through and refresh this stuff. You know, suddenly when you’ve got, okay, now we’ve got some new websites, we’ve got some new books, we’ve got some new record sources becoming available through family search, whatever It is, they’re adding more and giving more and new and updated information every single year. So I’m excited about that. This year’s researching African American ancestors, government records and beyond, it’s like it’s a brand new course every time And it professionals doing it, they’re just doing an amazing job. We’ve got a new one also this year is course 13 researching French ancestors.
Cyndi Ingle (34m 45s):
So not ancestors from France, but those that were French speaking. And so that covers a a big wide range of areas, but that should be really good too.
Diana (34m 53s):
Well, I agree with what you said about how the courses are refreshed and every time you do the course it will be a little bit different. It will be, you know, just a more, you know, something else. And plus if you’ve already gone through it once or you’ve gone through something similar, you’re going to have a better background to pick up more nuances of what they’re saying. You know, sometimes the first time you learn about a record set, it just kind of goes over your head and then you come back and you’re, you have a foundation and you understand more. So I took, I think that first course that you offered IGHR, IGHR offered with Dr. Abbott teaching about African American research And.
Diana (35m 33s):
it was just fabulous. And looking at the one for this year, I see that there have been some new things. It’s, it’s definitely different than what I took a few years ago.
Cyndi Ingle (35m 42s):
It’s not exactly the same. Exactly. It’s
Diana (35m 44s):
Not, yeah, it’s not. And you know, one thing that I notice that the required books or the recommended books are right there on the webpage. So it’s like a great book list for any topic. and I love that because I have gotten some of my favorite books from Institutes where I never knew about this great book and then they recommend it and now it’s on my shelf. So you know, it’s a good place to go.
Cyndi Ingle (36m 8s):
Well when you’re attending a Virtual Institute, you really just need to have a tab open to Amazon.com all day long.
Diana (36m 14s):
Sadly. That’s kind of true. So
Cyndi Ingle (36m 15s):
You’re, and every time somebody mentions a book, you add another one to your cart, by the end of the day you’re, yeah, you got 20 new books you wanted to buy
Diana (36m 24s):
And then they sit on yourself until you can get yourself to read each one of them. Or I love just having them for references So Yes.
Cyndi Ingle (36m 30s):
That’s great. Yes, definitely. So we do also on those course pages, we’ve got the course schedule so ahead of time you can see what the schedule is for when it’s happening, but also what the lecture titles are. The lecture descriptions sometimes are there, but the titles and, and who’s teaching them so you, you know exactly before you go in what topics are gonna be covered.
Nicole (36m 51s):
Those are really helpful. I always study those really carefully when I’m signing up to see, you know, what’s going to be taught and who’s going to be teaching it. And that can really help, you know, the best course for you. And if the course has been refreshed and I think that’s important with, like I said, some of these DNA courses that I’ve taken. Sometimes it will be a similar sounding title, but then you go in and look and there’s new presenters, new case studies and a little bit of a different spin on it. So Yes.
Cyndi Ingle (37m 19s):
Yeah, that’s good.
Nicole (37m 20s):
Well I was gonna ask you what are the unique classes or courses that are being offered this year? But I think you already answered that because you said French.
Cyndi Ingle (37m 28s):
French this year. Yes, it’s brand, brand new. Forrest Hansen’s, the coordinator on that one. And, it makes me a little bit envious that I don’t have any French ancestry, at least not that I know of. But I, I don’t, I, this looks fascinating to me. I’d love to sit through it.
Nicole (37m 43s):
That would be really neat.
Cyndi Ingle (37m 44s):
For example, a welcome and introduction for every course, but historical background of France and overview of research in France and then strategies and tools for non French speakers. So how do you approach this when you don’t speak, speak French. And then we’ve got French Canadian and then he is got us immigrants to Quebec repositories in southern Louisiana, French immigration to Louisiana, deciphering French records and so on. I mean it just goes on and on but, and all again, all experts on French research. And we do have one lady that is Sophie Bore who’s from France. Here’s another thing, going back to the virtual question. When we were in person, you were sort of limited from picking the teachers that in your course that would be able to be there, be willing to be there or already were there with other classes.
Cyndi Ingle (38m 32s):
Doing a virtual course means you can have teachers from all over the world anywhere pop in and give their lecture on their particular topic of expertise. So I think that’s a good benefit too.
Nicole (38m 42s):
Yes. I’m so glad you mentioned that. That’s really exciting to have Sophie there from France. Yes. and I. See also that my friend Amber Lee Beck is going to be helping teach that class. Yes, she she is, which is wonderful. I love her. And we used to study together, we were part of a couple study groups that met frequently back when we were kind of both ramping up our professional genealogy education. Yeah. So
Cyndi Ingle (39m 4s):
She’s doing French Catholic church records in that one. and I I think, oh, I would love to know more about that. Again, I don’t personally have a reason to know it, but the, the more we go through some of these things, oh, I wanna know about that.
Diana (39m 17s):
You need to adopt a French ancestor, somebody that you, yeah,
Cyndi Ingle (39m 20s):
Maybe I can do that. You
Diana (39m 21s):
Could do a little project for somebody who has French ancestry. Well this has been such a fun conversation with you Cyndi Thank you so much for being on and giving us your perspective of Institutes. You know, Nicole and I of course have attended in person and virtually, but it’s always fun to hear from someone who’s like really in the weeds of it. And you are this year. So I, I hope everything goes well. We haven’t even mentioned, oh Thank you, when is IGHR this year?
Cyndi Ingle (39m 49s):
Sunday, July 21st is the orientation and then it’s July 22nd through July 26th and tomorrow we are having the expo. So I don’t know if this, this will show up in time, but we’ve got a little expo sponsored by family search where we help answer questions about that. So we hope people come to that one tomorrow so we can tell everybody about IGHR and why they should come. Thank you for having me today ladies.
Diana (40m 12s):
You are welcome. and I am guessing that registration is still open. Yes. People have until July 1st. It looks like to register
Cyndi Ingle (40m 19s):
July 1st for registering for IGHR. That’s right. Great.
Diana (40m 22s):
Well Thank you for being here and thanks everyone for listening. We hope you’ll go check out an institute and maybe this will be your year to get started with that part of your education. We will talk to you next time. Thank you. Bye-Bye.
Nicole (40m 36s):
Bye everyone.
Cyndi Ingle (40m 37s):
Bye-Bye
Nicole (40m 38s):
Thank you for listening. We hope that something you heard today will help you make progress in your research. If you want to learn more, purchase our books, Research Like a Pro and Research Like a Pro with DA on Amazon.com and other booksellers. You can also register for our online courses or study groups of the same names. Learn more at FamilyLocket.com/services. To share your progress and ask questions, join our private Facebook group by sending us your book receipt or joining our courses to get updates in your email inbox each Monday. Subscribe to our newsletter at FamilyLocket.com/newsletter. Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast. We read each review and are so thankful for them. We hope you’ll start now to Research Like a Pro.
Links
Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research – https://ighr.gagensociety.org/
Cyndi’s List – Education – Institutes – https://www.cyndislist.com/education/institutes/
Free webinar by Cyndi Ingle, “Genealogy Institutes: A Deep Dive Into Dynamic Education,” including a free 8-page handout, https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/genealogy-institutes-a-deep-dive-into-dynamic-education/
IGHR, https://ighr.gagensociety.org/
IGHR 2024 Virtual Institute, https://ighr.gagensociety.org/2024-ighr/
IGHR Future Courses, https://ighr.gagensociety.org/ighr-future-courses/
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Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/IGHR.Georgia
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Research Like a Pro Resources
Airtable Universe – Nicole’s Airtable Templates – https://www.airtable.com/universe/creator/usrsBSDhwHyLNnP4O/nicole-dyer
Airtable Research Logs Quick Reference – by Nicole Dyer – https://familylocket.com/product/airtable-research-logs-for-genealogy-quick-reference/
Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide book by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com – https://amzn.to/2x0ku3d
14-Day Research Like a Pro Challenge Workbook – digital – https://familylocket.com/product/14-day-research-like-a-pro-challenge-workbook-digital-only/ and spiral bound – https://familylocket.com/product/14-day-research-like-a-pro-challenge-workbook-spiral-bound/
Research Like a Pro Webinar Series 2024 – monthly case study webinars including documentary evidence and many with DNA evidence – https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-webinar-series-2024/
Research Like a Pro eCourse – independent study course – https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-e-course/
RLP Study Group – upcoming group and email notification list – https://familylocket.com/services/research-like-a-pro-study-group/
Research Like a Pro with DNA Resources
Research Like a Pro with DNA: A Genealogist’s Guide to Finding and Confirming Ancestors with DNA Evidence book by Diana Elder, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin – https://amzn.to/3gn0hKx
Research Like a Pro with DNA eCourse – independent study course – https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-ecourse/
RLP with DNA Study Group – upcoming group and email notification list – https://familylocket.com/services/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-study-group/
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