FamilySearch is an extremely popular genealogy website. They recently added 200 million records for genealogists to browse through. If you are new to genealogy, or just interested in learning more about it, you may want to visit the FamilySearch website, and take a free class.
FamilySearch, of course, is the genealogy website provided as a service from The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The more I learn about this website, the more impressed I am with the wealth of information that can be found here. The website is free to use, and new information is continually added to it.
You can take a online class directly from the FamilySearch website. These classes are designed to help new genealogists learn basic methods of research, to learn how to use key resources, and to get started working on your family history. The classes are given in the form of videos, which you can either watch from the website, or download to your computer. There is also a class outline you can download in pdf format, if you would like to. Some classes also have “handouts” that go along with the lessons. After you take a class, you can give feedback about what you thought about it. This is a great way to learn more about genealogy!
There are lots of different classes you can select from. Some include a single lesson, but most of them have three or more lessons. Several of their classes relate to specific countries. Choose from England Beginning Research, Germany Research, Ireland Research, New Zealand Research, Poland Research, Russia Research, or a newly added class called U.S. Research. New classes include “Reading Handwritten Records Series”, and “Research Principles and Tools”. There is also a series that deals with basic principles of genealogy research in Mexico, (which are done in Spanish).
The series of classes about reading handwriting focus on the alphabet of different languages, important words and dates in a specific foreign language, and some tips about reading things in that language. This might help if your research has led you to records that are in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian or Polish. There are also lessons about Latin, Gothic letters, and more. You can also find information about Spanish records, names, dates, keywords, and the Spanish alphabet, in three lessons, that are given in English.
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