Anne's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Even though the last day of IGHR was only a half day, we did not slack on learning.  Our topics of the day were Church records and Newspaper research.  Lloyd Bockstuck led us with Church records and John Colletta presented Newspaper research.  Both instructors gave valuable insight into each of these records and what can be found if you only look.

Since we only had a half day, at noon we were presented with our certificates and headed home.  I ended up making it across the Texas border by the end of the day and stopped at a motel and called it a night.  On Saturday I finished my journey home to Austin.  I must say that I did enjoy the drive.  It gave me much time to think and reflect on the week’s events.  I have learned so much and already have a huge list of resources to apply to my own research.

I am already trying to decide on next years course: Land Records or Scottish Research?  I guess I have until January to decide and registration opens again.

Day 4 of IGHR has now come to an end.  This was another very full day.  Today in my course, Intermediate Genealogy & Historical Studies, we spent the day on the following topics; Westward Expansion, Lineage Societies, and Guides to Manuscripts Collections.  Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck, our course coordinator, presented the entire day.  Again the class was extremely informative and interesting.

Tonight was the evening of the banquet.  Everyone attending IGHR gathered for a very nice dinner.  I sat at a table with many other Course 2 attendees.  Dr. Larry H. Spruill was our speaker for the evening and he presented, “The Lazarus Factor: Genealogy and The Calling Forth of the Dead”.  We also learned that Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS, and Ann Carter Fleming, CG, CGL, FNGS, are both retiring this year.  I took a few photos of the banquet.

 

As I was leaving campus after the banquet, I took a couple of photos of the campus buildings.

 

 

I can’t believe it is the end of day 3 for the Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford University!  I am enjoying myself very much and am a little sad to know that we are past the halfway mark of our week here.

Today was a very busy day for course 2 – Intermediate Genealogy & Historical Studies.  Christine Rose was back again and started our day off with the Correlation and Analysis of Evidence.  She reviewed for us the Genealogical Proof Standard and used examples on its application and was a delight to listen to.

Next was Onomatology (study of the origin of names), presented by Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck.  I found this a fascinating topic. Lloyd filled us with plenty of examples of name origins, translations, nicknames, phonetic spellings, etc. This is a very important topic to understand or you will certainly miss records or possibly come to wrong conclusions without understanding this.

Then it was lunch time.  I bought my lunch today as the crowds at mealtime have diminished.  After I ate, I went to the bookstore and purchased a couple of Christine Rose’s books.

After lunch, John Phillip Colletta presented on Passenger Arrival Records. We walked through several examples and sources where you can find records.  Not everyone is going to be found a passenger list as they either did not exist (pre-1820) or the record did not survive. We were shown other sources that may be able to give us this information.

Then we had our break.  I went to the library to pick up the copies I had ordered last night. This is a great and organized service they offer during the conference.  My copies were ready and I just had to pay for them.

When we returned from out break, John Phillip Colletta continued on with Naturalization Records.  This was a very interesting topic learning about citizenship laws and how they have changed over time.  We were once again given many resources and examples during this lecture.

After the last lecture, I went to the library and worked on the computer for a little while.  I decided to eat dinner in the cafeteria as there were no lines.  It was a nice change to eat dinner in the cafeteria, not for the food, but for the dinner conversation.  I sat down with a group from my class and it was a very enjoyable dinner.

I went back to the library after dinner.  This is the last night the library stays open late so I wanted to take advantage of that.  The library closed at 8:00 p.m. and then I went back to my hotel room to relax.

Tomorrow is the last full day of classes and we have our banquet tomorrow night.  Friday we will have half a day of classes and then it will be time to say good-bye.

I woke up this morning ready to start the second full day of IGHR. Apparently I was moving a little slow and time got the best of me. Had to grab breakfast to go and I arrived on campus as the bells were ringing.  I made it to my class a a few minutes late.

Our first half of the day was spent with Christine Rose, CG, CGL ,FASG as she discussed court records. What a treat to listen to her speak.  She has spent many years researching in courthouses and really know her stuff.  She was a delight to listen to and I am very happy to have had the opportunity to learn from her.

Then it was off to lunch.  I brought my lunch again as the cafeteria has been very crowded.  There are a lot of other camps going on this week and it makes for big crowds in the cafeteria.  This was only supposed to last through today, so tomorrow should be much better.  I enjoyed spending some time outside during our lunch break as the weather was beautiful.  No rain and cool temperatures.

After lunch we were back in class and spent the rest of the day focusing on Military and Pension records.  Lloyd Bockstruck, FTGS, FNGS led the afternoon session and again it was jam packed with information.  We received some very good information on what records there are, where to find them, what information might be in them, and what records do not exist.

After the day of ended I grabbed an early dinner and came back to campus.  My plan was to attend one of the evening sessions that start at 6:00 p.m.  However, I ended up in the library to do a quick look up and ended up letting the time get the best of me and stayed til 7:30.  I found some good information though and ordered some photo copies that will be ready for me to pick up tomorrow.  I can’t wait for day 3!

Today was the first day of classes.  I woke up very refreshed after a good night sleep.  The hotel was very comfortable.  I had breakfast at the hotel and drove to the Samford campus.  If we had a car with us, we were given parking permits to use for the week.  Parking was close to the buildings and easy to find.

The first half of the day was Introduction to Genealogy II and Pitfalls in Genealogy, taught by Lloyd Bockstruck.  The morning flew by fast as everything was very interesting. It is amazing to me how much Mr. Bockstruck knows!  He could just rattle off all sorts of fascinating details off the top of his head.  I can tell I will enjoy this week very much.

We had a 1 1/2 hour break for lunch.  Since I brought my lunch, I wandered down to the bookstore.  Heritage Books is set up here through Wednesday.  I purchased a few books and ate my lunch.  It was nice to have that 90 minutes for lunch as to not feel rushed.

After lunch was had a most enjoyable session on Federal Land Records taught by Claire Bettag. This is an area I really want to learn more about and appreciated all she taught us in a short amount of time.

Students from every course had an afternoon break at the same time where we all met and mingled.  It is really nice to have these social events mixed in throughout our day.  And, after the break, we only had another hour of class.  We finished up some more Genealogy Pitfalls and then went on to Advance Bibliography.

Oh, and we did get a couple of little homework assignments.  I came back to the hotel worked on homework and then back to the campus for a very entertaining evening session.  John Phillip Colletta presented The Library of Congress: An Introduction and Overview for Genealogists.  The was the first time I have heard Dr. Colletta speak and his presentation was wonderful.  I am happy to see that he will be teaching some of the my classes later in the week.

Now it is time to get ready for bed to get ready for day 2 tomorrow!