RLP 330: Educational Opportunities with Lisa Stokes

Nicole (1s):
This is Research Like a Pro episode 330, Educational Opportunities with Lisa Stokes. 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 genealogy 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. Today’s episode is sponsored by newspapers.com.

Nicole (43s):
Hi everyone. welcome to Research Like a Pro.

Diana (47s):
Hi Nicole, how are you doing?

Nicole (49s):
Really well, How about you?

Diana (52s):
Well, I’ve started my research on my Weatherford project and the first thing on my research plan was to look at these Dallas County tax lists for the Weatherfords and abstract all the information out for them. So I started that yesterday and there are a lot of them, like one list that I did yesterday has five different people, maybe six different people, and each one has multiple pieces of land and lines. So I was putting that in my Airtable log, you know, just in the comments section or the results section and just opening that up and putting everybody in there. And then this morning I woke up and I thought, you know what? I am going to just do a new table in my research log where I actually put in all the headings because the headings are the same for year after year after year.

Diana (1m 41s):
And it’s such a pain to, you know, be noting, oh, this is for cattle, this is for horses. And so I’m just gonna make my own little tax abstract table there. So I can just really quickly go through and then I can group by the person to see exactly, you know, what land they had and try to do more analysis. It’s just so much data that usually in a research log it’s just fine to do it like that. But this one is a little different.

Nicole (2m 7s):
That’s great. Tax records can be challenging like that and usually when we have a long deed, we’ll open a Google Doc to transcribe it and I was thinking the same thing with my tax records from the courthouse that I got, you know, a whole series of like 20 years that I really needed to transcribe them in their own place. So I started an Excel spreadsheet and started putting them in there. Yeah, there’s just a lot of data on some of these tax lists, it’s hard to get them all into one

Diana (2m 35s):
One little cell, especially if you’ve got a lot of people, and I thought I could just break it up and each person could have their own row, but then I will have like 50 rows and I wanna be able to sort by different things. so I just decided make my own table and Airtable for it. So it’ll be fun to see how that works. I’m excited to do that today. And I tried using AI to help and Claude was just a total failure. It just could not figure it out. So I had to give up on on AI.

Nicole (3m 6s):
Well you found one of the jagged edges, right?

Diana (3m 9s):
I found a jagged edge and I think it’s because there are so many columns or so many lines, it’s just hard for it to read it and figure it out. And it kept wanting to go back to its project knowledge, not my project knowledge, just what had been trained on and trying to say that there were going to be different things that should be in the tax list that weren’t there at all. You know, it couldn’t even get the headings right. Yeah, So, anyway, it’s all fun to try out, but you never know what you’re gonna get

Nicole (3m 39s):
Maybe someday. Well, our next Research Like a Pro webinar for this year is going to be my presentation. I’m excited to be sharing Four Generations of the Elder Family: Verifying Documentary Research with DNA. And this will be Saturday November 16th at 11:00 AM Mountain Time and if, you haven’t joined our yearly webinar series for 2024, then you’re still welcome to join. If you do that, you’ll be able to watch all the previous lectures that we’ve had each month and view the research reports that go along with them, so we hope you’ll join us. Also, our next Research Like a Pro with DNA study group begins February, 2025 with registration beginning December 1st.

Nicole (4m 22s):
So get ready to sign up for that. And if you’d like to join us as a peer group leader, then feel free to send us a DNA research report that you’ve written or apply on our website. Every Monday we have a newsletter that comes out with new blog posts, podcast episodes and videos that we’ve released. So If, you haven’t signed up for that, go to FamilyLocket.com/signup. Also for upcoming conferences, we have RootsTech coming up in March in Salt Lake City, so we will be there with an exhibitor booth as well as presenting several lectures, so we hope to see you there at Roots Tech March 6th through 8th.

Diana (4m 55s):
All right, thank you for giving those announcements. Let’s get onto our topic of the day and today we’re talking all about educational opportunities, with our guest Lisa Stokes. Hi Lisa.

Lisa Stokes (5m 9s):
Hi How. are you doing today?

Diana (5m 12s):
Doing well. We have had Lisa on before, so we’re excited to have her back. And you know, I think fall is such a great time for thinking about education, both looking ahead to the new year and just starting something new and exciting. I guess it hearkens back to school, you know, starting a new school year in in the fall. So we are going to talk about some courses and opportunities for more in-depth education and we’re going to get started with talking about source citations and how to learn about those. So, Lisa citations can be such a stumbling block. That’s one of the things that we hear about in our Study Groups that, oh, I have to do citations.

Diana (5m 56s):
You know, people sometimes join groups just to learn or make themselves do citations. So, you know, let’s talk for a minute about why citations are so important. What are your thoughts on that?

Lisa Stokes (6m 9s):
So I feel like clear and reliable citations give you and your research credibility and we want our research to be accurate and so we need to create a trail that other people can follow and we don’t want our posterity or our clients to have questions about where we found our information and how we know what we know.

Diana (6m 32s):
Absolutely. And I think everyone listening has that document or that digital image, they have no idea where it came from. They took a picture of it or they downloaded it and now they can’t find it again. So I hope I’m not the only one that has had that experience, but it can be so frustrating. And yeah, you know, there’s, there’s just a lot that goes into citations and I look at past citations I’ve done and they, they weren’t very good. You know, your idea of clear, reliable, you know, sometimes we need to work a little bit more on that. So I love that we’re talking about citations a little bit today.

Lisa Stokes (7m 10s):
So I had a cute story to share about that. At RootsTech I was teaching about citations and at the end of the lecture when it was the Q&A, this gal raised her hand and she said, “why do we have to do citations?” She said, “can’t we just say because I told you so?”

Diana (7m 31s):
We wanna say that. Right,

Lisa Stokes (7m 33s):
Right, right, so I said to everybody, everybody, I said, raise your hand if, you feel that way? And the whole, you know, everybody raised their hands. And then I said, now think about when you find a report or a a biography that somebody wrote and there’s no citations. You know, how many of you are frustrated because you don’t know where that information came from and everybody raised their hand. So you know, it, it really is important but it really can be frustrating. I would love to say it, because I told you so I know what I know, just listen to me.

Diana (8m 4s):
Exactly. I love that. That’s a great story.

Nicole (8m 8s):
Oh, we all don’t wanna make them for our own writing, but we all want everyone else to make them.

Lisa Stokes (8m 13s):
Right.

Diana (8m 15s):
That’s a very good point.

Nicole (8m 16s):
Lisa, tell us about your progression with citations.

Lisa Stokes (8m 20s):
So just like Diana said, with most everybody else, I was so overwhelmed at the beginning, I was frustrated, I was confused and my first citation took me an hour and a half to write and there was part of me, I just stopped and said I was in a a study group at the time and I just thought, this is impossible. There’s no way I can’t believe they want me to do this. It was just so overwhelmed. And then I just started working at it, started looking up more templates. I developed a template bank and then one of the real important keys as I learned the punctuation rules. It’s just not willy-nilly, oh let me italicize this for fun, let me put parentheses around this for fun, that looks cool.

Lisa Stokes (9m 4s):
And I, I learned key citation principles that really helped me. And then I developed a simplified style and I use it to stay consistent. It’s a two-part system where I have all the information about the source in the first half of the citation, all the information about accessing it in the second half. And if I need to, I have a third layer for the citing information. And I, after I developed this and realized how much easier that was for my brain and I wasn’t always confused about where things needed to be, I had several of my students that I was working with at the time asked me to do a citation class for them.

Lisa Stokes (9m 44s):
So I had three people in the first class in 2021 and they loved it. And so in 2022 I offered my first full course. It was over Zoom but it was in-person and then I had great response with that. I had a long waiting list. And so in 2023 I released my e-course, which I call Genealogy Source Citations Simplified. And now I am over 120 students who’ve taken my course and I’ve had great response with it. And I actually love citations now I know that sounds crazy, but I do.

Nicole (10m 23s):
That’s wonderful. And I feel the same way about citations. After spending so much time studying all the books about how to write citations and taking classes, when you gain that confidence that you feel I can cite anything and I know what the principles of citation are, it isn’t sad or frustrating anymore, it’s kind of exciting. Yeah. Like how am I gonna tackle this one?

Diana (10m 44s):
I love that idea of having it be a challenge to do that. That’s great. So Lisa, tell us more about your course and why is it better to take a course than simply looking up a template or going to AI for a template?

Lisa Stokes (11m 2s):
So I feel like knowing, like we’ve been talking about knowing those basic principles, knowing the citation rules really helps you. So, so my course follows my simplified approach and it gives my students confidence without bogging them down with all the ins and outs of of everything. And so I, teach them my color coding system and I give them my master template bank and teach them how to do templates themselves. If you’re interested in learning some of the very basics, you can go to my YouTube channel. I have some videos there.

Lisa Stokes (11m 42s):
The next thing is that my course teaches lessons step by step and they build on each other so you can progress at your own pace. I have video tutorials that walk you through key concepts and I tried to make them engaging and easy to follow and I think people learn in small spurts rather than fire hosing them with information. So I tried to keep most of my videos to somewhere between eight and 12 minutes. A few of them go to 15, a couple go to 20, but most of them are in that eight to 10 minute range or shorter. And so I feel like people can go in, they can learn if they really wanna learn something specific, they can rewatch that short video as many times as they need to until they’re ready to move on.

Lisa Stokes (12m 32s):
So, and then again, we’ve already honed in on this, but students gain confidence when they know the punctuation rules and they know the basic principles. So If you know those rules you’re going to use your AI templates better, you’re going to use your Evidence Explained templates better, and you’re going to use my templates better if you are one of my students, if you understand those basic punctuation rules and all the principles. And as a reminder, we as Genealogists follow the Chicago Manual of Style in the humanities style. And so I base all of my teaching on Chicago Manual of Style, which of course includes Evidence Explained and mastering genealogical documentation.

Lisa Stokes (13m 18s):
So knowing the How and the Why really improves your citation skills. No matter what templates you’re using, no matter what system you’re using, you can make those decisions quickly and easily without a lot of fuss if you understand all the basics.

Diana (13m 35s):
Yes, I love that you are talking about principles and principle-based citations because we are inevitably going to come across something that nobody has told you how to do a citation for. You know, those are some of the questions that I get. I have this really strange source, how do I do a citation? And there’s, there’s nothing in any of the books that tell you how to deal with this. So you know, if we have an understanding, it makes all the difference in the world. So I love that your teaching, it really does on principles and I totally agree with punctuation. The punctuation makes such a difference. And when you understand it, it makes it so easy to create that citation

Lisa Stokes (14m 15s):
And you can understand other people’s citations when you understand the punctuation rules too.

Diana (14m 19s):
As long as they’re using them.

Nicole (14m 21s):
Awesome. So tell us about your BLACKFRIDAY special.

Lisa Stokes (14m 27s):
So my BLACKFRIDAY special is running now and it is good through November 30th, and it’s 25% off and the code is BLACKFRIDAY 25.

Nicole (14m 40s):
Okay, great.

Lisa Stokes (14m 40s):
So my course is great for family historians or for professionals that, or people that are working towards a professional level level, so I hope you’ll join me. We’ll really go into the details of punctuation skills, key principles and give you a solid foundation So that you can overcome the frustration and the confusion and the anxiety of citations. My goal is to give you confidence, so I hope you’ll consider joining me.

Nicole (15m 9s):
Thank you. That’ll be great for a lot of us.

Diana (15m 12s):
Well, and Lisa has written a blog post on FamilyLocket all about her course and with that coupon code and links to her YouTube channel and her blog. So you know, if you’re just really struggling with citations, go check it out because I think maybe it will be something that could help you. So we’re gonna switch gears a little bit and talk a a little bit about Research Like a Pro and Lisa’s experience in that because she has joined us for our study group and I thought it would be fun to see what her experience was. So Lisa, tell us about your Research Like a Pro experience and I think that you joined us after you already had your accreditation.

Diana (15m 56s):
I, I forgot to let everybody know Lisa is an accredited genealogist, so you know, how’d that go for you?

Lisa Stokes (16m 3s):
Yes, I loved Research Like a Pro. Like Diana’s mentioned in the past, her Research Like a Pro process that she and Nicole developed stemmed from her accreditation. And so since I was accredited already, it was a great refresher for me to go over all those principles and all the steps to help me really hone my skills. So I was in the first ever Research Like a Pro with DNA course and that was back in, I can’t remember what year, 2019 is that right? And that was really the beginning of my DNA learning. It gave me such a solid foundation and I highly recommend if you wanna learn about DNA to take that course.

Lisa Stokes (16m 47s):
When I have students come to me, or friends come to me, and ask me about how did you learn DNA? I tell them about Research Like a Pro with DNA, it was really pivotal for my DNA progression. I learned all the key concepts in a step-by-step hands-on way where I was able to actually work with those tools on a week to week basis and get feedback. So the DNA tools that I learned and all the principles I learned prepared me to be an Investigative Genetic Genealogist for about two and a half years, and I really enjoyed that, and I attribute my solid skillset to Research Like a Pro with DNA.

Lisa Stokes (17m 28s):
Then I was a peer group leader for a DNA course and then a peer group leader for a regular Research Like a Pro group. I hadn’t done that before, so I really wanted to do that mostly because I had a personal project I wanted to work on that did not involve DNA. So I was able to make some progress on a really difficult case in, in my husband’s line. I really enjoyed being a peer group leader there. And I am helping with this ICAPGEN Study Groups and I’ve been doing that for about seven years now. I get really excited when I see a participant that says they’ve gone through the Research Like a Pro study group. I find that people who’ve been through the Research Like a Pro study group are some of our best prepared ICAPGEN participants.

Lisa Stokes (18m 15s):
They tend to do really well in the study group.

Diana (18m 18s):
Well that is so fun to have that reminder. I knew you had done our Study Groups but I couldn’t remember how many you had done with us. So that’s awesome, and I love that you joined us for that first DNA study group and that really helped you. I felt the same way that I, that’s why we developed it. You know, Nicole and I wanted to really know how to use DNA in in our research and you go to webinars, you take classes and you learn about all these different pieces but how do you put it together to be really beneficial in research? And that’s what I wanted and I’m just like you, whenever we have a study group running, I’m doing my own project right along with everyone else ’cause that’s how I get my own research done. So it’s right, it’s great. and I love that our graduates do well with ICAPGEN And so for our listeners, you know we’re throwing around a lot of acronyms here, but ICAPGEN is short for the body that accredited Lisa and I its full name is the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists.

Diana (19m 17s):
So it’s kind of a mouthful, which is why I always just call it ICAPGEN. But you know, Lisa and I really love the organization and we both volunteer in it and have spent hours and hours and hours, probably hundreds of hours volunteering and creating material to help other people. But it’s so worth it because we’ve learned so much along the way and made great friendships.

Lisa Stokes (19m 40s):
Definitely.

Nicole (19m 40s):
Well that’s a good segue into our next educational opportunity, which is ICAPGEN Study Groups. So Lisa, tell us a little bit more about these Study Groups and I know that you’ve been leading them and have a lot of experience doing that.

Lisa Stokes (19m 55s):
Yes, so we have two groups. We have a 4 Generation study group and we have a Test Prep study group. And for the 4 Generation group you do need to apply for that group and we want you to, we wanna make sure that you’re ready. If you don’t have a a solid set of writing skills and research skills, it’s a really intense course and so people tend to get overwhelmed if they’re not quite ready. So we have an applicant panel and they review a three to five page report from your 4 Generation project. And then we also ask you to outline your 4 Generation project and you can email that to our, to our enrollment secretary.

Lisa Stokes (20m 41s):
Then the applicant panel will review it and they give feedback for you so you know where, what areas you might need to work on if they feel you need it, they give you a readiness assignment or they may say, you know, keep working at this and come apply again after you’ve gotten a little bit more experience. So during this study group we take one generation through all of the ICAPGEN requirements and you end the study group with a solid third or fourth draft of your project for that one generation. And then after the study group you can get your final draft ready. There are four intensive assignments and they are reviewed by peers and mentors.

Lisa Stokes (21m 22s):
So you get a lot of one-on-one with your mentor. So we have two sessions, one runs from January through May and one one runs July through November. So we’ve already passed the deadline for the group that’s coming up. But you can start preparing for the group that starts in July. The deadline for that is June 1st. So if you’re serious about accreditation and wanna join the Study Groups, start working on your a three to five page report from your 4 Generation project. Then we have a Test Prep study group and this covers the written exams. I know we’ve changed the terminology recently.

Lisa Stokes (22m 4s):
We used to call this Levels 2 and 3, we’re now calling it written exams. And the study group that goes with written exams is called Test Prep. So in order to join this group, you must have successfully passed your 4 Generation project. Or if, you’ve taken the 4 Gen study group, you have to also have submitted your 4 Gen project, even if you haven’t gotten results back yet. As long as you’ve submitted and you’ve taken the 4 Generation study group, then you’re allowed to apply for the Test Prep study group. And then during this study group we work on learning about the written exams and we learn about creating a personal reference guide which is very similar to the locality guide that Diana and Nicole teach in Research Like a Pro.

Nicole (22m 54s):
Well those sound like wonderful Study Groups and I think it would be so fun to write one generation of a four generation report and then work on getting that to a solid third or fourth draft. It just made me think about how I’m working on my kinship determination project for certification and I was thinking, oh like maybe I should just write one of the generations and then just have that done, ’cause I’ve been gathering all the sources up and sometimes it feels like I just wanna write. Right. So sometimes it’s nice to to have some writing mixed in with the gathering and writing source citations.

Diana (23m 28s):
That’s for sure. Speaking of source citations, you have to do a lot for these kind of projects and that honestly is how I learned to do source citations was writing my 4 Generation project. I think I ended up with 273 citations of all different kinds and I learned so much doing that 4 Generation project. It was amazing. And I just have to give a little shout out to Lisa and her development of these Study Groups because I took a study group when I started accreditation and I learned a lot through that. But it is nothing like what they are now. Oh my goodness. Now they are so structured and full of so much content.

Diana (24m 8s):
It’s amazing. So Lisa, you’ve done such a great job and it’s, it’s just fun to see where the program has come. So just tell us a little bit about the strength of these Study Groups. What do you think is just so beneficial for people?

Lisa Stokes (24m 23s):
I feel like the individual attention that you get from your AG mentor mentor is so important. One of the benefits and the things that I like about ICAPGEN and the 4 Generation project is you can have other people look at it unlike BCG. So with that in mind, we do expect it to be very, very well written. You can’t have any mistakes and typos and things like that and you really learn a lot during that feedback process. And so to me that was my, I feel like what the greatest learning I had during my 4 Generation project was when I had other people review it with me.

Lisa Stokes (25m 5s):
I learned so much from Diana, she was about six or eight months ahead of me in the process. And so she reviewed my 4 Generation project and I learned so much. And so that individual attention from your AG mentor, from your peers, is really important. And I also love the networking that we see between the leaders and the peers and the participants. We meet together in breakout rooms a lot now during the study group to discuss your project in detail and individually. And so you have to come prepared to each study group session.

Lisa Stokes (25m 44s):
But I feel like the learning is just incredible and I see a lot of amazing progress from these, this discussion and learning from one another.

Diana (25m 54s):
Oh that’s so great. And we don’t know what we don’t know. You know, we write something and we think it makes perfect sense until someone else reads it and has not a clue what we’re trying to say. And that is where the feedback is so important, especially in genealogy writing. So I, I love that whole feedback idea and the networking is super great. You know, I’ve so many friends and colleagues from this type of a thing, you know, working in Study Groups. Well for anyone listening and you’re wondering how to find out more about the ICAPGEN Study Groups, just go to the ICAPGEN website, ICAPGEN.org. And under resources you’ll see that you can click on ICAPGEN Study Groups, and then all of these great things that Lisa’s been teaching us about.

Diana (26m 40s):
You can read, you can see specifically what you need to do to get up to the level to be able to join a study group and learn more about the whole accreditation process. So just, I’m so thankful to be part of this organization and to be able to help other people get ready to be part of it.

Lisa Stokes (26m 60s):
Yeah. Let me put another plug in for one more thing and that is the ICAPGEN Study Groups actually has a newsletter. So if you’re interested in being on our newsletter email list, you can email studygroup@ICAPGEN.org and ask them to put you on that list. You could, that’s also who you contact if you’re ready to apply, is studygroup@icapgen.org.

Diana (27m 28s):
That’s great. And the newsletter comes out quarterly, monthly? Quarterly?

Lisa Stokes (27m 34s):
Yeah, we’re working towards a monthly, but right now it’s been quarterly. I think we’re getting close to monthly though. And

Diana (27m 40s):
That will be keeping everybody who’s in the process up to date on things going on and probably tips.

Lisa Stokes (27m 50s):
Right. And we focus on sharing resources that will help people prepare. ‘Cause honestly that’s one of the hardest parts is getting prepared. So you’re at the level to have a successful experience in the study group. And so we want to get the word out there, so we have links to Diana and Nicole’s blog posts, other AGs blog posts and we really focus on trying to help people find resources to prepare.

Diana (28m 18s):
Oh that’s great.

Nicole (28m 20s):
So let’s talk about our last educational opportunity, which is the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy SLIG. Right now a lot of these are virtual. So what do you love about virtual courses?

Lisa Stokes (28m 34s):
So before COVID, I really enjoyed the classroom interaction and the networking that happened. When I went to institute courses, I did find them difficult to do more than one a year just because of the cost and the travel and the expenses. And then after COVID, I, at first I was worried when SLIG went to a virtual format and other genealogy institutes did too. But surprisingly, I discovered that virtual conferences suited my learning style much better than I expected. So I loved learning from home, it was much more affordable, so I could do multiple courses in a year.

Lisa Stokes (29m 13s):
I also loved being able to just grab my lunch at home so I could eat healthy, didn’t have to worry about rounding up food. And then I loved the recordings that are available to review important sessions. So oftentimes I had a pencil and paper where I would note down, you know, hey we’re about 30 minutes into this session and somebody said something I need to go back and review. And so then I could go back and review the recordings. I also love reviewing the recording so that I could revisit the material and then I would pause the recordings, I would take notes. Oftentimes I would pause the recording so that I could add the links that they were talking about or that somebody put in the chat or whatnot into my personal reference guide.

Lisa Stokes (30m 0s):
And then I love the time to just stop the recording and explore the technique or the concepts or the principles that the instructor was talking about. One time I took a class that had a map class, so I was able to pause, do the hands-on, go back and rewatch, pause. You know, things like that really, really helped me learn and being able to just pause to take notes, I learned so much better. So I love the Virtual format. Now I really don’t think I’ll ever attend an in-person institute again. It’s just kind of one and done and I’m fire hosed and by Friday I can’t even think straight.

Lisa Stokes (30m 43s):
So I really love the virtual format.

Nicole (30m 44s):
That’s wonderful. I was just thinking about one of the recent virtual Institute courses that I took and how it really fits in with my life a lot easier with having kids at home and being able to put on my headphones, my Bluetooth headphones that connect to the computer and I can walk around doing chores while I listen. And, it really made it easier for me to be engaged in a virtual course while taking care of everyone at home. Right. and I could watch it on double time if I missed a session. So there’s really a lot of benefits to doing it virtually. Especially if if, you have family that needs you to be at home, so that’s great.

Nicole (31m 25s):
and I would take notes, you know, whenever I wasn’t walking around doing laundry I would be able to sit down and take some notes and I could rewatch some of the things where I felt like I missed it because I was busy. But exactly. It’s nice to have those recordings because being able to listen to something twice really helps you solidify the concepts.

Lisa Stokes (31m 46s):
Exactly. I took a class about FamilySearch last year at the beginning of 2023. There was one session I, no kidding rewatched four times ’cause I needed all that information and I was just took meticulous notes and then re-watched it again to try and solidify the things that I was learning.

Nicole (32m 5s):
So love that. I’ve definitely felt like that about certain sessions too where it’s just such good information where I feel like I have a deficit in that area and I want to soak it all in and just learn every single phrase and sentence that’s being said.

Lisa Stokes (32m 19s):
Exactly.

Nicole (32m 20s):
Alright, well you’ve told us a lot of awesome benefits of virtual courses. So tell us some more of the benefits of taking the SLIG course.

Lisa Stokes (32m 28s):
So I feel like SLIG offers an incredible learning experience and that it’s flexible and that that visual format we’ve talked about and that you can participate from anywhere. We had people in one of our courses that were in England, people that were in Australia. So it’s awesome that they can join. I feel like SLIG offers expert instruction with opportunity to ask questions. I love the breakout rooms that they have on the Zoom platform, So that you can collaborate and learn from your peers. I really enjoy the chat capabilities, So that you can ask questions and share resources.

Lisa Stokes (33m 8s):
And then most of those virtual courses that I’ve taken have hands-on activities to help you solidify your learning. And then you’ll either have weekly or nightly homework depending on the format of your course that you’re in and you get the feedback from instructors, which I feel is very important. And then the networking is great. You have that supportive, engaging community might not be the same as going out to dinner with all the people you met or chatting in the hall, but you can still find ways to network and to develop that supportive community around you.

Nicole (33m 43s):
Agreed. There’s been so many instances in a virtual course where I’ve had connections with the instructors or other students and you don’t always anticipate that with a virtual course. So that’s always nice. Yeah and in one course that I was in, there was a breakout room with one of the instructors where you could sign up for like personal coaching or one-on-one time with your writing and that was so beneficial. So it’s neat to see those kind of interactions. Yeah,

Lisa Stokes (34m 10s):
And Zoom really gives us that ability to do that and share your screen if you have a writing project you’re sharing with that mentor and works out great I think.

Diana (34m 20s):
Well it’s so fun to think back to where we were before we went virtual. And I remember after I became accredited thinking it would be so neat to have a course, an institute course all about accreditation, because Lisa you and I took the Breaking Ground University track on accreditation that was 10 classes, you know it as part of their conference. And so we sat through 10 classes but we basically just learned we didn’t do anything. You know, we didn’t do an assignment or turn it in but it was great, you know, we loved it. But I just kept envisioning, you know, that we could do an institute course and have people do assignments and have all these classes and it would be so great.

Diana (35m 3s):
And so when that proposal got accepted and I had asked you if you’d co-ordinate with me because it sounded like a lot of work, and I wanted some help, and you were very gracious to to do that with me. And we ran that first course on Accreditation and, it was all in one week and our poor students felt like it was, they were hit with a fire hose of information. So then the next year we transitioned to the spring SLIG course, how they do it where you just teach one once a week. And that worked out really well. People had more time to do assignments.

Lisa Stokes (35m 40s):
I love that we switched to that once a week. It gave the students so much more time to do their homework and I feel like it was really helpful for them and Thank you for inviting me to be your co-instructor.

Diana (35m 52s):
Well it just made sense because you were already working in the study group and so you know, kind of the things we were doing were going hand in hand. I was working on videos in a team and you were working with the team for study group and so it made sense. So, and I was also very grateful when after that course I said, you know what would you like to just be in charge of this by yourself next time? Because I found that spring was just too hard for me to do that as well as our Research Like a Pro DNA study group. I was a little, I was a little overbooked that spring. So thank you for just taking this on and being the sole coordinator of it now.

Lisa Stokes (36m 30s):
My pleasure. I’m excited about this upcoming course. So it begins on March 27th and runs through April 24th in 2025. And we have a fantastic faculty, Alice Childs, Janet Greenouch, Jenny Hanson, Torhild Shirley and Mindy Taylor. And we’re busy working on our syllabi now and everybody’s excited getting ready. I’m super excited for some of the hands-on classes that we’re developing. And so during the course we’re gonna walk through each step of the accreditation process such as the 4 generation project, the written exams and the oral review.

Lisa Stokes (37m 13s):
And then we’ll focus on the skill building aspects that you need to be successful in accreditation. So we have classes on citations, research abilities, writing skills, evidence analysis, transcription, abstraction and extraction. We have classes on writing reports for the final project and your personal reference guide language requirements and much more. So we’re excited about all the topics we get to cover. If you’re interested in looking at those topics, you can go to the show notes and there’s a link there that links to the SLIG page that lists all the classes that we’ll be covering.

Diana (37m 56s):
Oh that’s great. And you know, we have not really defined what SLIG means. It’s the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. So another one of those acronyms. so I love that you have just really hit the nail on the head with all of these specific skills that are needed. That’s gonna be such a great course.

Lisa Stokes (38m 17s):
Yeah, we’re excited.

Diana (38m 18s):
Can you tell us a couple more of the highlights

Lisa Stokes (38m 21s):
Of the course? So some of the things that I think that I’m excited about and that we got great reviews on were that we had hands-on activities and breakout rooms during the class. We also give a final project practice test, which is the four hour test And. it gets reviewed by your peers and one of the instructors. We spend the time to build those tests for you in your actual region. So we don’t like just have one we give to everybody. We spend the time to develop a test for every person who signs up for the course. And then the other really exciting thing that we do is we have an AG professional panel.

Lisa Stokes (39m 7s):
So we interview each of the instructors and they answer questions that the students have. And then my very favorite thing about the course is we have one hour, or it’s a little bit more than that I guess, where we have a regional consultation with an AG mentor in a breakout room. So these are ags that volunteer their time to go into a breakout room and give you a little mini presentation about the region and the things that you need to know about your region in order to successfully accredit. Those are some of my favorite things about the course and highlights that I think are really beneficial for the course.

Diana (39m 49s):
I agree. I think those regional consultations with an AG who’s already accredited in the area you’re looking at is so helpful to just learn some of those key, key things you need to know. So…

Lisa Stokes (40m 1s):
Yeah, we had great feedback on those

Diana (40m 3s):
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Diana (40m 44s):
Their easy to use search feature lets you filter your results by date, location, specific paper and more. When you find something interesting, Newspapers.com makes it a snap to share it with family and friends. You can even save it directly to your Ancestry tree. Come explore 1 billion pages and make infinite discoveries today on Newspapers.com. Use promo code FamilyLocket for a 20% discount on your subscription. Well Lisa, Thank you so much for telling us all about this course through the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and when we talked about the study group, there were some pretty rigorous prerequisites.

Diana (41m 26s):
What are some of the prerequisites for this course?

Lisa Stokes (41m 30s):
Well first of all, there is not an application process like for the ICAPGEN study group, but we do have some suggested prerequisites. So first of all, make sure you review the ICAPGEN Guide to applying for an accredited genealogist credential. This guide gives you a basic outline of the whole process and so it’s important that you’ve looked at that and that you are somewhat familiar with it. Then the next thing we hope that you will do is choose your accreditation region and a family for your 4 Generation project.

Lisa Stokes (42m 9s):
This is your chance to get feedback on your actual project. And so knowing who, which family you’re going to cover and actually have started the research and worked on that is very beneficial for people In the course. We suggest that you have a draft and an outline for one generation of the project. So if, you haven’t gotten to all four generations, don’t worry about that. But maybe the second or the third generation would be a good one to pick for the study group and make sure that you’ve included all the sources that you found in your outline or any that you plan to research ’cause we realize that you’re in the process of this.

Lisa Stokes (42m 53s):
So as you progress through your project, there may be things that you think of or that you know you still need to do that can go onto your outline so that we can see where you’re at and give you some feedback. We also ask that you take one small section, it doesn’t need to be a lot, but prepare one proof summary or a proof argument from your project so that you can polish that during the course. And this doesn’t need to be long. It can be one page or two pages or three or four pages. It doesn’t need to be your whole project written. So that’s something you can start working on. If, you need to, you can use a proof from another project, but we really prefer that you have worked on your 4 Generation project.

Lisa Stokes (43m 36s):
And then I can’t say enough how important it is to practice writing research reports and proof arguments. So if you are working on some of your research on another project, take an hour or two after you’ve done your research and practice writing up a little mini report. If you’re doing research for a friend or pro bono, take some time to practice writing those research reports. It really is an important skill to have and you’ll gain a lot more out of the course. If, you have some writing experience, so look for ways you can do that.

Diana (44m 11s):
All right, well for anyone who is really interested in that and you want to take a look at the course, you can go to the actual description of the course and the show notes will have that. And Lisa also wrote a blog post for FamilyLocket all about this course. And so there are links there as well, but it’s on the Utah Genealogical Association webpage. And so you can look for UGA genealogy and then go to SLIG and courses and then there you’ll see all of those prerequisites. You’ll get to see the entire schedule, who’s teaching what and get all the detail that you need.

Diana (44m 54s):
so I would just recommend this if you really are thinking about accreditation, this is probably a great place to start. So Lisa, would you suggest maybe starting with this course, this institute course and then from there signing up for an ICAPGEN study group? Would that be a good progression?

Lisa Stokes (45m 12s):
Yes, I think that’s a great progression to do since there’s not an application process for the SLIG course, anybody can take it. But I also feel like we teach to all levels in the SLIG course and we’ve had great feedback from people who are close to submitting their project and they never do the ICAPGEN Study Groups. And we’ve had people who do both. So it really is a great way to get feedback for your work. And so, you know, it really is for all levels. But doing this first versus the Study Groups, I would probably do that first and then do the Study Groups.

Diana (45m 52s):
Sounds good. Yeah, I know I would’ve loved this if I had had the opportunity to take this to get prepared would’ve been great.

Lisa Stokes (45m 59s):
Me too.

Diana (45m 60s):
See we, we created all the things that we wanted to have when we were doing the accreditation process.

Lisa Stokes (46m 10s):
Exactly.

Nicole (46m 11s):
That’s so perfect. Everyone’s gonna benefit from that and really enjoy that opportunity to feel like they understand the requirements. I think, you know, with certification, a lot of the time when I talk to others working on it, they just wish there was more clarification on what was wanted from the accrediting or certifying body. And sometimes the just reading the instructions, it’s not as clear as talking to somebody and having someone share their experience and and getting some more background information and just all of the benefits of talking with people about it rather than just reading the instructions.

Lisa Stokes (46m 47s):
Exactly.

Diana (46m 48s):
Yeah. I think when you’re tackling something really big like certification or accreditation, the more education you can get on the process, you just can start alleviating some of that stress and anxiety because you know what you need to do. And that’s what we are trying to do here Lisa with these programs is let people know what they need to do.

Lisa Stokes (47m 9s):
Yeah, that’s definitely our goal. Helping people know what they need to do and helping them develop those skills.

Nicole (47m 14s):
Well this is such a great opportunity if you’re on the path to accreditation. And even if you’re not and you want to learn how to write better and just become an expert in an area, this would be such a great course. so I hope so many of you will look into the SLIG course about Becoming an Accredited Genealogist. Well thanks everyone for being here today. Thank you, Lisa for coming.

Lisa Stokes (47m 35s):
Yes, Thank you so much for having me and giving me the chance to talk about these educational opportunities.

Nicole (47m 41s):
This has been so fun and we hope that everyone will take advantage of a new educational opportunity this fall. Alright, everyone, have a great week and we’ll talk to you again next week.

Diana (47m 55s):
Alright, Bye-Bye

Lisa Stokes (47m 55s):
Bye-Bye.

Nicole (47m 52s):
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 DNA 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.