Registration has now opened for another upcoming Virtual Institute course, “An In-Depth Look at the ‘Big Four’ Records of English Research,” featuring Paul Milner. This course will be held on two consecutive Saturdays, 30 May and 6 June 2015.

Paul Milner, a native of northern England, is a professional genealogist and international lecturer, having presented extensively on British Isles research in the USA, Australia, Canada and England. He is the author of several books on English and Scottish research. He holds an advanced degree in Theology and is particularly knowledgeable about the church and its role in record keeping.

Paul is the course coordinator for the English and Scottish research tracks at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He has also taught the Scottish track at the British Institute in Salt Lake City organized by the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. Paul is the past-president of the British Interest Group of Wisconsin and Illinois (BIGWILL), and a past board member of the Association to Professional Genealogists, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and the Genealogical Speakers Guild. Paul focuses on British Isles resources and methodology on his blog at www.milnergenealogy.com.

For more information and to register, visit https://vigrgenealogy.com/schedule/milner-big-four/.

Recordings for our latest course “(Finally!) Understanding Autosomal DNA,” with Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D., are now available for purchase in the Virtual Institute Store!

Each recordings package contains all four video recordings (including the Q&A portions of the sessions), all syllabus material, and the practical exercises (with answer keys) for self-study. For those of you who missed the course on its first offering, these packages provide the opportunity to learn on your own time.

This course was recently reviewed in the Adventures in Genealogy Education blog:

What an excellent course! Blaine is not only very knowledgeable about the subject, being among the first to begin using DNA for genealogical purposes, but so very clear in his explanation of the subject matter. While some of the topics could have been heavy on math and science, he really has a way of breaking down the subject matter so that even I could understand what was going on.

For full course details visit https://vigrgenealogy.com/store/bettinger-finally-autosomal/.

Registration has now opened for the next Virtual Institute course, “Reading German II: Introduction to German Church Books,” featuring F. Warren Bittner, CG. This course will be held on four consecutive Monday evenings, from 13 April to 4 May 2015.

F. Warren Bittner, CG, is a genealogical researcher and lecturer. He is a trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists. He holds a Master of Science degree in history from Utah State University. His master’s thesis looked at the social factors affecting illegitimacy in nineteenth-century Bavaria.

Mr. Bittner has coordinated German research tracks at the Samford University’s Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. For six years he was the German Collection Manager for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. He has done research in more than fifty German archives and in more than forty U.S. archives and record repositories.

For more information and to register, visit https://vigrgenealogy.com/schedule/bittner-reading-german-ii/.

Registration has now opened for the next Virtual Institute course, “Genealogical Applications of Dual Citizenship: Italian-American and Irish-American,” featuring Melanie D. Holtz, CG, and Melissa A. Johnson, CG.

If you are of Italian-American or Irish-American descent and have ever considered applying for dual citizenship, then this course is for you. You will learn everything you need to know in order to prepare a successful application. Let’s learn how to regain the citizenship of your ancestors!

Melanie D. Holtz, CG, is a board-certified genealogist, writer, and lecturer. She operates an international business that specializes in Italian genealogical research, Italian-American dual citizenship, and Italian-American heirship cases. She maintains offices in both the U.S. and Italy. She’s authored courses on Italian genealogy for the National Institute of Genealogical Studies and FamilyTree University and will coordinate a course on Italian research in 2016 at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. To learn more about Melanie please visit her website at www.holtzresearch.com.

Melissa A. Johnson, CG, is a board-certified genealogist, writer, and editor. She specializes in Italian-American and Irish-American dual citizenship, with a focus on New Jersey and New York City ancestral families. In addition to dual citizenship services, Melissa’s research specialties include New Jersey and New York City from the colonial period to the present, British families in the U.S. and abroad, and genealogical writing, editing, and publishing. She lectures on Irish and Italian dual citizenship throughout the New York and New Jersey area, and is the course coordinator for Elements of Genealogical Writing, Editing, and Publishing, to be held at the 2015 British Institute. For more information about Melissa, visit her website at www.johnsongenealogyservices.com.

For more information and to register, visit https://vigrgenealogy.com/schedule/holtz-johnson-dual-citizenship/.

This weekend, “The Photo Detective” Maureen Taylor is offering a special package for all “early bird” registrants prior to 10 February 2015!

You thought it couldn’t get any better? If you register for the class before February 10th, I’m adding in some bonus content just for folks who attend the live class and will not be offered to those who opt just to listen to the recorded webinars when it is all done.  Here’s a number of ways to win something special from the Photo Detective!

• Submit a scanned photo to me at [email protected] with the subject line “Virtual Conference.” I’ll pick 5 of those images to discuss during the conference.
• EVERYONE who registers before February 10th will receive a copy of my e-book, A State by State Guide to Finding Family Photographs Online.
• Early birds will also receive a coupon for a photo consultation for at my in-person rate of $40.00 (a 20% savings)
• One lucky person will win one of two of my books of their choice: Preserving Your Family Photographs, Photo Organizing Practices or Searching For Family Photos How to Get Them Now. (ONE WINNER)
• Early birds will all be entered to win a digital subscription to Family Tree Magazine and a copy of my book, Family Photo Detective. (ONE WINNER)

Click here for details about Maureen’s course.

Click here for Maureen’s message to registrants.

Registration has now opened for the next Virtual Institute course, “(Finally!) Understanding Autosomal DNA,” featuring Blaine T. Bettinger.

Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D., is an intellectual property attorney by day and a genetic genealogist by night. In 2007 he started The Genetic Genealogist (www.thegeneticgenealogist.com), one of the earliest blogs on the topic. For the past eight years, it has been his mission to bridge the gap between traditional genealogy and genetic genealogy. He has been interviewed and quoted on personal genomics topics in Newsweek, New Scientist, Wired, and others. He authored I Have the Results of My Genetic Genealogy Test, Now What? in 2008, which is distributed by Family Tree DNA to all of their new customers. An update to the ebook is in the works.

Blaine frequently authors articles and gives presentations to educate others about the use of DNA to explore their ancestry. He is an instructor for genetic genealogy courses at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research, and Family Tree University. Blaine was also recently elected to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s Board of Trustees, and is slated to graduate as a member of ProGen Study Group 21 in early 2015.

For more information and to register, visit https://vigrgenealogy.com/schedule/bettinger-finally-autosomal/.

Recordings for our latest course “Preparing the Field: Understanding the Agricultural Records of our Ancestors,” with J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA, are now available for purchase in the Virtual Institute Store!

Each recordings package contains all four video recordings (including the Q&A portions of the sessions), all syllabus and supplementary material, and the reading list and practical exercises for self-study. For those of you who missed the course on its first offering, these packages provide the opportunity to learn on your own time.

Here’s what some of the live attendees have been saying about this course:

“I now believe that a thorough review of the sources or kinds of sources that Mark presented in the course should be a regular part of any land study or platting.”

“This class was an out of the ballpark home run. Kudos to Mark and the Virtual Institute!”

“I am so glad I took it, and I know I will be using what I learned over and over again in my research.”

To purchase the recordings, visit the Virtual Institute Store.