Update: Spring Genealogy Classes Set at Tri County Community College

It is that time of year again. The Spring genealogy classes at TCCC are about to begin. If you hadn't signed up yet, now is the time to get on that phone (828-837-6810), ring up Lisa Long and get on that class list before all the seats get taken.

I have four classes available this semester, enough to keep you all busy (and me as well). Our courses meet for 2.5 hours per session and are very inexpensive compared to other local and Internet genealogy education sources. Here is what is being offered this semester.

Genealogy: DNA – The New Tool in Genealogy Research
March 4 – March 18 Tuesday Nights (3 weeks) 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. $15
Science can help you with your genealogy research but you will have to take a test first. This course will cover the new and expanding field of genetic genealogy basics and is designed for DNA Newbies. Some of the topics to be covered include an introduction to DNA testing and technical terms, how DNA testing will help your research, what are your ethnic origins and how to interpret the results, the different types of DNA tests available and their applications, and DNA testing and interpreting resources. If you want to demystify genetic genealogy and use it in your family history research then this course is for you.

Genealogy – Hidden Genealogy Sources
January 23 – April 17 Thursday Nights (12 weeks) Class will not meet March 6. 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. $60
Discover facts about your ancestors in unexpected places--some right under your nose! Hidden Sources is a genealogy course to help you find family history in unlikely places. This course will help the genealogist discover a diversity of unexpected and productive resources capable of filling in the gaps of family charts and providing missing information on genealogical relationships. Family history researchers are accustomed to searching among vital records, censuses, and other commonly used sources, but there are a number of more obscure sources that can lead researchers to crucial information. This advanced course tackles these other sources and it will help you know how they can help you in your family research. This course will give you an overview of more than 100 sources, including: Adoption Records, Holocaust Records, Coroner’s Inquests, Licenses, Orphan Asylum Records, Slavery Records, Court Records, Patent Records, Diaries and Journals, and many more.
This is now open to all researchers and there are no prerequisites to take this class although experience in researching is helpful.

Genealogy – Beginning/Intermediate Genealogy (A Tuesday Day Class)
January 21 – April 8 Tuesday Day (12 weeks) 8:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. $60
This course covers the basics of genealogy research by exploring a variety of record sources used in the pursuit of ancestor hunting. Sources such as vital records, census, church records, court, military, land property, probate, and tax records will be discussed in detail. We will also cover the newest genealogy tool in that can open up your family history research – DNA testing. If you want to learn how to do genealogy research the right way, this is the course for you. This course is a requirement to take any of my advanced genealogy courses offered at TCCC.

Genealogy Classes: Genealogy- Advanced - Discovering Your Female Ancestors
January 21 – February 25 Tuesday Nights (6 weeks) 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. $30
“Discovering Your Female Ancestors” introduces students to special strategies and uncommon resources needed to research female lines in their family genealogies. Students will learn about genealogical sources created by and about women, and methods they can use to learn the maiden name and parents of our female ancestors. This is an advanced genealogy course and completion of the Beginner/Intermediate Genealogy course is mandatory to take this class.

To each of you I look forward to seeing and/or meeting you in class in a couple of weeks.

Family Tree Announcement from Ancestry.com

Since 1999, our Online Family Tree system has helped almost 2 million people build family trees, upload GEDCOM files and add their trees to Ancestry World Tree. We’ve maintained this system for some time, but the it’s finally become outdated and will soon be replaced with the Ancestry Member Tree system introduced in July 2006. We realize this is a bitter disappointment for some of you who have worked in our Online Family Tree system for years. This is an important step for us that lets us focus all our ability on creating one great system for everyone to use. At nearly 8 years old, Online Family Tree is an ancient product (in internet years anyway), and we feel it is important to move everyone to the new system while this one is still running. If we prolonged this, it would be much more difficult to do this while the OFT system is on life-support.

What does this mean for you?

For those that have a file in the old Online Family Tree system, you’ll be able to access your tree in that system through about March 2008. Between now and then you can easily transition your family tree file to the Ancestry Member Tree system and get used to it before the Online Family Tree system expires.
We know how much time and energy you’ve put into your tree and we’ve done our best to make sure you don’t lose a bit of it as you change systems. There are basically two phases to this transition period for Online Family Tree:

Phase 1 — Trial and transition.

Between now and March 2008 you can move your family tree file to the Ancestry Member Tree system and get familiar with it. Your file in the old Online Family Tree system will remain intact so you can double-check everything. However, once you’ve transitioned your tree to the Ancestry Member Tree system, any new information added or edits made will not be reflected in your Online Family Tree file. Do nothing during this timeframe and nothing will change in your Online Family Tree file. If you make changes to your Online Family Tree file after you’ve transitioned to Ancestry Member Trees, you’ll have the option to send the updated file to the new system once again.

Phase 2 — Tree expiration.

At the end of March 2008 we’ll send you another reminder to transition your tree. At this point, your tree will no longer be accessible in the Online Family Tree system, but the file itself WILL remain on our servers and in the system for as long as we can maintain it. When you come to view your Online Family Tree file, you’ll see only a link to move your family tree file to the Ancestry Member Tree system.

After March 2008 we plan to remove the old feature set surrounding your file. This means that all Online Family Tree files previously submitted to Ancestry World Tree will remain there permanently, unless you take steps to remove it.

About Ancestry Member Trees

The Ancestry Member Tree system will give you most of the same features as the Online Family Tree system. That includes integrated record search, the ability to invite family members to edit and contribute, GEDCOM import and export and much more. The Ancestry Member Tree system will also offer many new and exciting features.

Below is a comparison chart to show which features from the Online Family Tree system are available in the Ancestry Member Trees system:

We believe you will find much to enjoy about Ancestry Member Trees, and we hope to continue to add features and make you excited about the product.

Already more than 3 million people have created trees using the Ancestry Member Tree system, and we’ve been amazed at the work that has been done:

• 4.2 million family trees created


• 378 million names added


• 937,000 family members invited


• 48 million Ancestry Hints™ accepted


• 4 million photos uploaded