It's one of the most popular of the many genealogical education opportunities open to genealogists, and one of the highlights of my year! Registration opens today, Tuesday, January 17, for the 2012 Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. A few of the courses sell out within minutes, and many are closed by the end of the first day of registration, so if you're interested at all in attending I strong suggest you register today. You will have the opportunity to cancel without penalty until May 1, 2012, for a $75 cancellation fee.

To prevent an overload of the online registration system, the opening of registration for courses will be staggered, with different courses opening at different times. Once open, registration for each course will remain open until the course is full. At that time you can request to be added to the waiting list by following the applicable link on the Courses page. All registration times listed below are in Central Standard Time. ...

Registration Open Today for the Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research (IGHR) originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 09:48:34.

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Even though I had no idea what I wanted for Christmas, my husband managed to find a way straight to my heart by giving me several old albums and diaries that he had located and purchased through antique dealers and eBay. A yellowed newspaper clipping tucked behind the photograph of a woman identified as Dora Bowman immediately caught my eye. She's the only named photograph in an album filled with gorgeous old photos, which seems a bit too coincidental to me, but her story is definitely captivating...

"Oh! Dan, don't kill me and I will be yours." It was a woman imploring for mercy. Over her stood a man with a cocked revolver. "D___ you, I will kill you," and with that he fired, but fortunately the ball struck the woman's corset steel and fell to the ground. Twice more the villian fired, but the bullets went wide of their mark.

Dramatic it may seem, but this is the true tale of an engineer named William Schipp, and the much younger Dora Bowman set in 1890 Omaha, Nebraska. Dora apparently lived with William in adultery for almost two years after he solicited her away from "May Morgan's sporting house," before she tired of his attentions and tried to break off their arrangement. ...

Saved by her Corset! The Interesting Case of Dora Bowman originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 13:14:01.

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It was a big week for announcements of new online learning opportunities for the genealogy community, including a variety of instructive webinars and videos. The majority of these are free to boot! Those which require a fee for participation are noted.

• The U.S. National Archives & Records Administration has launched online videos of its most popular genealogy "how to" workshops, covering topics such as census, military and immigration records. These "Know Your Records" videos are available on the National Archives YouTube Channel for free viewing, with hopefully more to come. They are asking for help prioritizing from a list of 60 videos which include a number of interest to genealogists, so voice your opinion!

• The Association of Professional Genealogists announced a move into the genealogy webinar space, hosting a free webinar for both members and non-members this week titled "Tax Considerations for Your Genealogy Business," presented by Jim Beidler, a genealogy business owner and senior tax adviser for H&R Block. The webinar is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, January 11, 2012. Pre-registration is recommended.

• Several U.S. state genealogical societies also have upcoming genealogy webinars, including free webinar series open to the public from the Illinois State Genealogical Society, the Utah Genealogical Society and the Southern California Genealogical Society. The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania will also be hosting two webinars - each featuring a well-known national speaker - for a nominal fee. Learn more in Angela Packer McGhie's blog Adventures in Genealogy Education.

Looking for even more genealogical education opportunities? Check out these Genealogy Webinars & Online Seminars and Online Genealogy Classes & Tutorials, plus 10 Educational Opportunities for Genealogists

New Online Learning Opportunities - Most Free! originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 11:11:04.

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I didn't initially notice the changes at 23andme.com that caused such an uproar in the genealogy community last month, primarily because I was one of the early adopters who had my DNA (and that of my family members) tested prior to their change to a subscription-based program. In other words, the changes didn't affect my account in an immediately noticeable way. However, once I started reading some of the blog posts on the topic, including CeCe Moore's 23andMe Changes Terms for Expired PGS Subscription Customers and DNA Access Policy Changes Bad for Genealogists by Debbie Parker Wayne, CG, I realized the changes would indeed affect me as well -- because they would affect many people who might be my future potential matches in Relative Finder. I also immediately downloaded my raw DNA data from their database so I won't risk losing it to future service changes.

It was good to see the announcement this week by23andMe co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcidki ...

23 and Me Responds to the Genealogy Community originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Sunday, January 8th, 2012 at 11:17:17.

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This spring brings more genealogy than ever before to American prime time television with shows on both NBC and PBS.

Premiering on Friday, February 3 (8-9:00 p.m. Eastern) is the third season of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, based on the award-winning hit British television documentary series of the same name. Promising to take us from "Ireland's freedom fighters to the American Revolutionary War, and from the African nation of Cameroon to Bulgaria," this season includes the biggest celebrity lineup to date: Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.

PBS and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are back with another genealogy show as well. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will premier on Sunday, March 25 ...

Celebrities Announced for Genealogy Shows on NBC & PBS originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Friday, January 6th, 2012 at 10:19:23.

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Have you ever begun an evening researching Great Grandma Emeline and found yourself browsing online census records for your spouse's family instead? Does a new message board post or other genealogical discovery distract you from what you were doing and send you off willy-nilly in a new direction? If you feel as if your family history search has you wandering aimlessly from clue to clue, try these tips for pulling everything together and keeping your research on track.

How to Keep Your Research on Track originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 08:58:24.

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As you sift through the records of your own ancestors to build your family tree, you may find yourself with questions. What other records can/should I search? What else can I learn from this record? How do I pull all of these little clues together? The answers to these types of questions generally come through knowledge and experience. This is why I invest a great deal of my personal education time in reading case studies, written examples of research problems, methodologies, and unique records shared by fellow genealogists.

What is so eye-opening about the research of others, especially if the individuals or places in question have nothing to do with your own family? For me, there is no better way to learn (aside from your own hands-on practice) than through the successes, mistakes and techniques of other genealogists. ...

Case Studies: Learning by Example originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Monday, December 19th, 2011 at 14:08:31.

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In November, GenealogyBank removed social security numbers from one of their popular free databases, the U.S. Social  Security Death Index, after two customers complained their privacy was violated when the Social Security Administration falsely listed them as deceased. This week, Ancestry.com followed suit, removing the entire free SSDI database (aka SSA's Death Master File) which has been online at RootsWeb.com for over a decade. They also made changes to the SSDI database behind their membership wall on Ancestry.com "due to sensitivities around the information in this database," removing Social Security numbers from the results for individuals who have died in the last 10 years.

The reasons for these changes began with a report following a Scripps Howard News Service investigation in October 2011, that complained about individuals using Social Security Numbers for deceased individuals found online to commit tax and credit fraud, and culminated in the recent decision by several major genealogy companies to remove access to the Social Security Death Master File on their websites.

The removal of the SSDI from RootsWeb.com was apparently prompted by a petition sent on December 1, 2011, to the "five largest genealogy services" who currently host the Death Master File (SSDI) online by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois), who have joined in support of recent legislation introduced by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) to remove all public access to the Social Security Death Master File.

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Genealogy Sites Pressured Into Removing SSDI originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Friday, December 16th, 2011 at 00:44:13.

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