ROOTS & BRANCHES

For years the genealogy world suffered from a reputation as a kind of semi-scholarly weak sister to the study history at best—and mere ego filled with a lot of unverifiable family lore.

There was time, not particularly long ago, when genealogists seeking to hone their craft—to become either a professional or an academic-level amateur—had really just one annual institute to attend.

Known by those in the know simply as “Samford” for the name of the university at which it was held until recently, it is formally known as the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research and now is held at the University of Georgia in Athens. It runs this year July 21-26 with 13 weeklong course tracks and several evening extra sessions.

Other annual institutes include the following—pay attention that they all have seemed to decide that a catchy acronym or nickname is needed:

• In and around Washington, DC, there’s the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed, formerly known as the National Institute on Genealogical Research) will be held July 28 to Aug. 2. As the name implies, its focus is federal records and the National Archives.
• Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP, of course) is holding two sessions in the city on Three Rivers, June 23-28 and July 14-19. The June session has nine weeklong courses and the July one has eight.
• The Utah Genealogical Association sponsors the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (which flows off the tongue easier as SLIG) and will next be held Jan. 12-17, 2020, with an offering of 15 weeklong tracks.
• There’s also a relatively new Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research, which sponsors webinar-style courses throughout the year.

While talking about genealogy education, several other programs should be noted.

Brigham Young University has a major in family history that results in a four-year liberal arts degree; there is also an online program available through BYU’s Idaho campus. Boston University offers online program and the Canada-based National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers a large number of certificate programs. The National Genealogical Society and the Family Tree University that is a product of the owners of Family Tree Magazine also offer a bunch of study-at-home online courses.

At one time, it seemed that the large majority of those attending these institutes were pursuing genealogy as a profession, but as these classes have proliferated, many more “average” genealogists are taking advantage of them, which hopefully will help the reputation of genealogy as a whole.