Thursday, January 15, 2009

Back to School: January Progress Report

I've been taking the National Genealogical Society study course, which I previously talked about here and here. Now it's time for a progress report.

The holidays forced me to shelve my school work for a few weeks. I had to do mom things like buy presents. I also had to prepare for a trip to California. It took some time to get back in the routine, but here I am.

I finished the first assignment in lesson 2 today. It was about family traditions. What you might think is a tradition is actually a custom. A tradition is more like a story passed down and I had to verify it with records. I had to fluff up my tradition example a bit. As a family, we're small and just not that exciting. My piece was a reach, but it was all true and I have the documents to back it up.

The lesson came with a writing example from a former student. His was about 1 1/2 pages. Mine was 4. What can I say? I do a lot of research. I like to talk about said research.

Part 2 of lesson 2 discusses family papers/memorabilia/heirlooms. This task is proving a challenge because the items that exist for my family are all in California and I am in Texas. I have to reach deep into my brain for ideas to list for this assignment.

So far I do like the experience of this course and do feel like I am learning something. I just wish the process was more interactive, but I'll save that rant for another time. Onward!

2 comments:

  1. I know exactly what you mean. The 4 semesters I took of Family History Studies at Monterey Peninsula College were fantastic. The classes are completely online in a "virtual classroom". The instructor, Karen Clifford, AG is one of the best in the field and your interact almost daily with your classmates. The NGS course is great and it is even better when you have the graded version, but you don't get that feedback until after you have completed the work and turned it in.

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