If you have Scottish and/or Irish ancestry and are desperate to learn how to improve your research skills, Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd has three online courses that can help you over the next few months.
Scotland 1750 - 1850: Beyond the OPRs Starts July 9th £42.99 5 weeks
Instructor: Sherry Irvine
This is an intermediate level course in Scottish family history for those who are going back beyond 1850. You should have some experience with research in the Old Parochial Registers of the Church of Scotland and in using major websites for Scottish research. This course discusses sources that fill the gap when the OPRs are uninformative or missing; for example, records of parish and town administration, occupations, land transfer and taxation. Using these records involves several different locations. You will learn how to check online finding aids and how to find the most effective way to obtain records that may be online, in print, on CD or microfilm. This is the second course in a planned program of three.
• Kirk Sessions records and parish poor
• Burgh records and town poor
• Occupations, taxation and early lists
• Land transfer and the value of sasines
• Land, inheritance and estates
Scottish Research Online Starts August 24th £42.99 5 weeks
Instructor: Chris Paton
Scotland was first to have major records digitized and offer indexes and images online. It has also been a leader in placing resource information on the World Wide Web. This course describes the major sites, the types of information and data that they offer, the forms in which databases are presented and how to analyze results. You will learn to lay the foundations for searching a family, how to select best resources and what to do next either online or in libraries and archives.
• Scotlands People, Family Search, Ancestry, FreeCen: content, comparison, assessment
• Essential Maps and Gazetteers
• Civil Registration and Census Research Online
• Searching in Church of Scotland Registers Online
• Scottish Wills and Inventories Online
• Take It From Here
Researching Irish Ancestors Before 1820 Starts October 13th 2009 £29.99 3 weeks
Instructor: Sherry Irvine
Irish research becomes particularly challenging when working before the 1820s. Anyone taking this course should have taken Course 103, Ireland: A Practical Approach to Family History or have equivalent knowledge and experience. The six lessons of this course describe important and accessible records, notably estate papers and deeds, and provide information about the historical context that generated them. You will learn about content, survival, access and location, and understand the administrative structure in which they were used.. You will also become familiar with key finding aids online and in print, and will learn how to use catalogues to identify surviving records. The course will help you create a personal research strategy.
• Getting Ready for the Challenge
• Church Registers and Other Records
• Local Administration and its Records
• Land History, Land Records
• Deeds and Other Legal Records
• Identifying More: Calalogues, Calendars and Research Strategy
Each lesson includes set exercises and there will be at least one chat per week to discuss findings and research problems, lasting an hour each, as well as access to a dedicated forum. If interested, visit www.pharostutors.com for more information.
See you there!
Chris
www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
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