Lessons I have Learned by Teaching Genealogy

In the summer of 2017 I began teaching a genealogy course to graduate students studying library science. I've taught the course four times now; three times as 5-week long summer intensive classes and once as a full 15-week fall semester course. I'm not sure which format I prefer but there have been a few lessons I have learned. First let me describe for you what I teach.

The course consists of readings, discussions, some exercises, a personal research journal, and a culminating project which consists of a family tree, two family group sheets, and a 1000-2000 word biography (which must include extensive footnotes in Chicago style format) on an ancestor who died before the student-author was born. We cover topics including:

1. Organizational forms such as pedigree charts and family group sheets
2. The difference between genealogy and family history
3. The field of genealogy and its relationship to popular culture including discussions of "Roots" by Alex Haley and genealogical television programming with specific attention to the incident which occurred regarding Ben Affleck on Who Do You think You Are?
4. Library services related to genealogy including collection development and programming
5. The Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS)
6. Interviewing etiquette and ethics
7. Database search strategies
8. Census records
9. Vital records
10. Community Created Resources including, newspapers, city directories, obituaries and death notices, published family histories, photos, discussion forums, listservs, and blogs
11. Family History Library and Local History collections
12. Ethnicities and cultural identities
13. Annie Moore
14. Cemeteries
15. Government created resources including ship manifests and passenger lists, naturalization papers, military records, court records, wills, probates, estate inventories, guardianship records, land deeds, and maps.
16. Chicago style citations
17. DNA

In short, A LOT!

Initially I thought the 5-week format didn't give students enough time to really think through the research process but students in my most recent 15-week format course seemed generally unfocused. 

Don't get me wrong; they all did extraordinarily well and accomplished an abundant amount of work. And generally, in an online learning environment it is challenging for me to get to know my students. However, there are certain skills and qualities that come through in one's work that makes me confident in saying whether or not a student possesses excellent interpersonal skills and an able to communicate clearly in writing. Additionally, understanding the difference between data and display is a critical library science skill if not one that is necessary for all of us to success in our modern day society. I strive to make certain my students possess the ability to carefully read, decipher, interpret, and convey the meaning of content contained in archival documents. 

This lack of focus I witnessed I blame, in part, on myself and on the nature of the subject. It's difficult to write guidelines or criteria for evaluation for this type of learning as each and every person's research will be different. Genealogists quickly learns that every family is different, every community and culture maintains records to varying degrees of quality, and not everything is available digitally online. 

Thus, I am giving some deep thought as to how to redesign the personal research journal component as it seems to me that most people don't see the purpose or value in journaling one's discoveries or experiences.

So, to walk the walk I talk, this is what I have discovered about genealogy through the experience of teaching genealogy; and these are the lessons I hope to have left with my students:

• This is hard: Despite the fact that many view genealogy only as a hobby, there are serious skills needed to do this type of research well; reason, logic, persistence, compassion, etc. Aside from genealogy though, life is hard, we all struggle at points and surviving the struggle is a noble act. 
• Mistakes were made: Your going to find errors and imperfections in all sorts of information, records, indexes, articles, citations, and people. Do you see what I did there? Digging up the past can be painfully revealing of imperfections. Just go forward knowing that everyone makes mistakes.    
• Spelling never counts: There are many reasons for variations in the spelling of names on records. Never dismiss potential evidence of the truth simply because it doesn't look the way you think it should.
• Truth is elusive: Unless you lived through something yourself you don't really know what happened. In fact, even if you lived through it, you're going to have a different perspective than those around you. My truth might not be yours. Own yours. Make it something that someone else has to cite.
• No one should be graded on the depth or breath of their family tree: Librarians should serve all equally. Again, every family is different, every community and culture maintains records to varying degrees of quality, and not everything is available online. However, no one should be judged based on those who have come before them. As Mr. Affleck stated, "We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors..."
• Lastly, no one reads: Thus if you have gotten to this point of my post, thank you. Some might perceive this to be a vicious statement for a librarian to make but what I have observed is people want to talk, they want to be heard and listened to.They overlook blatant signs. They skip right to the end. They "ctrl-F to find the answers. They want to fast forward to who dun it. And so I want to acknowledge that the exercise of writing is not solely for the reader but a gift to the author as well. Sincerely, THANK YOU.