Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree

University of Strathclyde via FutureLearn

Go to class Write review

Details

Go to class

Provider

FutureLearn
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

$109.00 Certificate Available
Duration & workload

6 weeks, 4 hours a week
Sessions

On-Demand
Level

Beginner

Found in

Genealogy Courses

Overview

Discover the basics of genealogy and build your own family tree

Have you ever wondered about your family ancestry or wanted to create a family tree of your own? On this 6-week genealogy course for beginners, you’ll learn how to uncover the past and record your family history.

The information on this course does not apply to just one country, so you can learn about your family lineage no matter where you’re from.

Gain an introduction to genealogy

Learn how to find and analyse sources, discover different research strategies, and tackle genealogy databases and wildcards. You’ll learn about the importance of names and explore the challenges that name changes cause for genealogists.

You’ll be introduced to the main source types including civil, church, census and military records and learn how to use these different kinds of data.

Discover DNA testing

Learn about the more technical sides of genealogical research such as the principles of the Genealogical Proof Standard, where you’ll discover how to establish proof.

You’ll be a scientist for the day and find out how DNA testing works in genealogical research. You’ll learn about the principles of genealogical inheritance, find out how autosomal DNA testing helps genealogists and learn about Y chromosome inheritance.

Create a family tree

Uncover the secrets of your family’s past and turn your genealogy into a tangible family history. You’ll discover the best ways to record your research, document it and protect it so that it lasts for generations to come.

You’ll learn how to balance genealogical data and historical context, delve into local and general histories, and use maps and photographs to bring your family history to life.

Throughout the course, you’ll also follow one woman’s journey as she researches her family tree and learns about her past.

This course is designed for anyone with an interest in genealogy.

The course will be suitable if you:

have no experience with genealogy or family history research;
have some experience with genealogical research but want to develop your skills and knowledge further;
are a more experienced genealogical researcher but want to learn new searching, analytical or communication techniques or
find it difficult to access opportunities for training and development.

Syllabus

Analysing documents

Welcome to the course
Welcome to Week 1
The basics
Documentary evidence
Transcriptions and indexes
What's in a name?: 'An unusual name'
End of week tasks

Effective searching techniques

Welcome to Week 2
Research strategies
Names
Genealogy databases and wildcards
What's in a Name?: 'The Riepenhausens'
End of week tasks

Using major source types

Welcome to Week 3
Major source types
Using sources and sources in archives
Evaluating genealogy databases
What's in a Name?: 'Land and sea'
End of week tasks

Genealogical proof and DNA testing

Welcome to Week 4
Principles of Genealogical Proof
Genetic Genealogy
What's in a name?: 'The Patersons'
End of week tasks

Putting your research into context

Welcome to Week 5
Turning genealogy into family history
Accessing sources for context
What's in a name?: 'Voices from the Past'
End of week tasks

Documenting and communicating your research results and sources

Welcome to Week 6
Recording and organising research
Documenting and protecting
Creating a family history
What's in a name?: 'Sharing the story'
End of course tasks

Taught by

Tahitia McCabe

Reviews

4.5 rating, based on 6 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree

Pat Bowden @pat

I began this course thinking I only wanted to know how to find out my ancestors' names along with their dates and places of birth, marriage, and death. By the time I finished this well-presented course, I realised the story of their lives, what they did and how they lived would be much more interesting than dry numbers and facts on the page.
The estimated hours taken each week could be easily doubled by counting the time taken researching and beginning to write my family history.
Joan Greene-Fisher

I found the course to be easy. It was informative, but I was hoping for more detail. If a person is a newbie at genealogy, it would be an excellent course. However, if you have researched genealogy for many years, there is little new here. I did enjoy the course though.
Anonymous

I really enjoyed the Genealogy Course: University of Strathclyde, and I had written eBooks about the subject so I am an experienced family historian with links to many famous people and I have invented a Dynasty system to help folks with their own c…

I really enjoyed the Genealogy Course: University of Strathclyde, and I had written eBooks about the subject so I am an experienced family historian with links to many famous people and I have invented a Dynasty system to help folks with their own clan history. It is an Ideal course for people to research their family trees and was one of my favourites and I have enrolled on 40+ FutureLearn courses. I expect Class Central will let me Submit this four star review. I did notice that my one star review of Confronting Captain Cook, was not published and the reason that the course, 'which has already got a couple of one star reviews', was so controversial: It was unfairly critical about Cook and my kinsman Sir Winston Churchill. Not very good publicity for N.M.M. and Historic England?
Sally Mahoney

Good introduction to genealogical best practices such as how to track research and how to find sources.
Good links to sources, especially for people researching Irish ancestry.
Sheree Putt

excellent very good it be great for people to learn who they are where they come from. The family tree is very important to me because you can learn all sorts ofthings like you can find your lostrelatives
Sheri Havens