2014 British Institute
20 – 24 October 2014
Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah
Watch Here for DetailsLearn from expertsThe following courses were offered in 2013:Instructors for the 2013 British Institute
The Institute strives to further your education about the records and the locations that are important to your genealogical research. Classes are intentionally small in order for the participants to experience individual instruction.
All classes are held in a Salt Lake City hotel near the Family History Library in the morning with research at the Family History Library in the afternoons. Instructors are available all afternoon.
On Sunday evening there will be an informal get-together to receive name tags and syllabus materials. On Monday evening, there will be a welcome dinner and the opportunity to meet and get to know the attendees and instructors. Dinner is included in the registration fee and meals are available for spouses and guests for an additional fee.
Sources For Tracing Pre-mid-nineteenth Century English Ancestors – Maggie Loughran and Paul Blake
This course will concentrate on tracing pre-mid-nineteenth century English ancestors and will be of special interest to those whose ancestors emigrated to North America prior to the commencement of English civil registration in 1837, or those who have already tracked their ancestors back to the early 1800s.
Paul and Maggie will focus on the actual records themselves, giving you an in-depth understanding of them. For each record category we will be looking at examples of the original documents and guide you through how to interpret, locate and, lastly, how to access them using the Internet and any other available resources.
From Simple to Complex: Applying Genealogy’s Standard of Acceptability to British Research – Tom Jones
Through hands-on activities, lectures, and discussions, participants will learn how to use widely accepted standards to measure their genealogical work’s accuracy and to assess others’ genealogical conclusions. In the process they also will learn about genealogical research planning, its implementation, genealogical reasoning, and the preparation of credible genealogical products.
This course is based on the textbook Mastering Genealogical Proof (Arlington, Va.: National Genealogical Society, 2013), which is recommended for this course because it contains much more detail than the course handouts. Most of that text’s exercises use American research problems, but this course will use three articles applying the Genealogical Proof Standard to English research processes and outcomes. A few weeks before the course begins they will be distributed to course registrants to study.
Irish Land Records and Fragmentary Evidence Correlation – David Rencher
This course is designed to address Irish genealogical research for both the landed and landless families in Ireland. When land records are meager, there are still methods to research the landless in the land records and the associated record fragments created from land use. Assembling this meager evidence provides the clearest picture possible for an Irish family in the 17th to 20th centuries.
Using the Cloud for British Family History Research – Graham Walter
This course will provide a guide as to what “The Cloud” is and how we can use it to our advantage in our research. These services allow us to choose a variety and combination of computing devices that best suits the collecting of our family history data on any research trip. The Cloud will allow us to move that data to our other devices seamlessly and without complexity, as well as share it with our families and other researchers. Students in this course must provide their own WiFi-capable laptop computer.
Maggie Loughran
English by birth, Maggie is a lecturer, educator and author specialising in British ancestry. She regularly contributes articles on family and local history to various journals, magazines and websites and is co-author of the bestselling Discover Your Roots (published 2006). Maggie has lectured extensively both in the U.K. and U.S.A. at a national level and organized courses and conferences on family and local history-related subjects.
Paul Blake
Also born in England, in Wimbledon where he has lived all his life, Paul is a full-time researcher, lecturer and writer and holds the Diploma in Genealogy from the Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies. Paul has over 20 years lecturing and teaching experience throughout the U.K., in the U.S.A. and as guest lecturer on cruise ships. He is a regular writer for the genealogy press. Paul is joint author of the books The Complete Guide to Creating Your Own Family Tree and Discover Your Roots. He has undertaken research for several television series and worked as an advisor to the History Channel and the BBC.
Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CGSM, CGLSM, FASG, FUGA, FNGS
Thomas has been pursuing his family’s history for a half century. Co-editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly since 2002, a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and professor emeritus at Gallaudet University, he is an award-winning genealogical researcher, author, editor, and educator specializing in complex genealogical problems and advanced genealogical education.
David E. Rencher, AG®, CG, FIGRS, FUGA
David is employed by the Family History Department in Salt Lake City as the Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch. A professional genealogist since 1977, he was accredited in Ireland research in 1981. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1980 with a B.A. in Family and Local History. He is the Irish course coordinator and instructor for the Samford University Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research (IGHR) in Birmingham, Alabama.
Graham Walter, MBCS
In the real world Graham is an IT manager with Nissan and Renault in the U.K. He is a professional member of the British Computer Society. In the family history community, he is a volunteer with the Society of Genealogists’ Educational Outreach program. Graham works together with Jeanne Bunting as part of the “Census Detectives,” attending various family history fairs and society open house days showing people how to make use of online services for their family history research. He is also a member of the Guild of One Name Studies. and has given talks at their one-day seminars as well as presenting at family history group meetings.Questions can be e-mailed to the Institute Director.