Webinars

Have you sat in on a webinar? If you haven't then you should. They usually only take about an hour of your time, and you can learn a lot without even leaving the house. No matter what aspect of genealogy you want to know about, you can probably find a webinar for it. DNA is a popular subject, as well as methodology. You can also find ones on location specific research.

The general setup is that there is a power point presentation and lecture that runs around 45 minutes or so. The last 15 minutes are a question and answer period. Sometimes there is a handout you can download and keep for future reference. Ones that are specific to Canadian research can be a little hard to find. But you can still learn a thing or two about using, say, city directories, even if the presenter is talking about ones in New York. And ones on basic methodology and organization are relevant no matter what country you're talking about. The best thing about webinars are that they are almost always free to sit in on live. Even the ones that aren't free are usually quite reasonably priced.

This week I've been receiving emails from various mailing lists I'm on about webinars coming up in 2017. Let me tell you, it's going to be a great year for learning new things! Let's take a look at some of the groups that present webinars regularly. You don't have to be a paying member to see most of these.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars.  This is one of the biggest learning sites. Along with their own webinars, they are in a partnership with the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) to produce their webinars. They have right now 76 webinars scheduled for next year. Most are free for a short time after the initial broadcast. After that only subscribers can access past recordings. The subscription is $9.95/month (I believe US dollars). Along with access to their library of 450 recordings, you also get all handouts and 5% at the Legacy Family Tree Shop of software and guides.

Family Search .  The schedule for January and February 2017 is out now. They have ones pertaining to different countries, as well as ones for using the FamilySearch site effectively. There are also ones on general research and organizing. You can also access selected past webinars. All of these are free.

 Illinois State Genealogical Society.  Free to sit in on live, they run the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Some are Illinois specific, but there are some general research ones as well.

Ontario Genealogical Society. The 2017 schedule is not on the website yet, as they are still confirming things. They have posted the tentative lineup in their weekly enewsletter, and it looks good. Included are lectures on DNA, Canadian migration, and archival research techniques. By using the link above and looking under the tab "News&Events", you can find where to sign up for the weekly enewsletter.

Southern California Genealogical Society. Another American group, but with great webinars. Their 2017 schedule looks great. There's DNA, One Name Studies, and using FAN, to name a few.

American Ancestors. Don't be fooled by the name. Run by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, they have some great resources for Atlantic and French Canadian research. A guest account is free to register.

Believe it or not, Youtube is a great place to find archived genealogy webinars.

Finally, you can find lots of links to webinar sites on Cyndi's List. Also check in with your local Genealogical or Historical Society. You never know what they have on offer,

If you use any other sites that aren't mentioned above, feel free to let everyone know in the comments below.