Apprentice Adventures #8

This week we are looking at another article. My apprentice has been reading and re-reading Kay Germain Ingalls great article, “Cherchez la femme! Looking for Female Ancestors” in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol.88, No. 3 (Sept 2000) pp. 165-176. Her assignment was to create questions to be used either in a discussion group, or in multiple choice form for use in a test, or on-line course situation. The task of creating questions causes the reader to read a little closer.

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Apprentice Adventures #7

My apprentice was over on Thursday and we discussed her assignments. First we discussed her reading of Christine Rose’s book, Genealogical Proof Standard, Building a Solid Case (CR Publications, 2005).

This was excellant preparation for the other reading, Connie Lenzen’s article, “Heritage Books and Family Lore: A Jackson Test in Missouri and Idaho.”National Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol. 86, No. 1 (March 1998) pp.19-36. My instructions were to read the article four times very carefully. The day before our meeting she emailed, “Now I know why you said read it over 4 times! In the past, when I got to stuff like this I just put down conflicting information and bypassed it. Now I now what to do”

Apprentice Adventures #6

Spent almost three hours with the apprentice on Wednesday. She’s really pumped up from her reading and studies. She’s been finishing an excellent course, “Researching in the Family history Center” developed by Dr. Penny Christensen for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and has come back every day excited by new discoveries. And while this was great, she was excited to tell me about reading Helen F.M. Leary’s “Problem Analyses and Research Plans” chapter 14 in Elizabeth Shown Mills, Professional Genealogy: A manual for researchers, writers, editors, lecturers and librarians. (Genealogical Publishing, 2001) .  Let me tell you a bit about what she experienced.

Apprentice Adventures 5:

Events of this past week have dramatically shown me  the need to shift what my apprentice does up a pace. The challenge is to get her into a more productive pattern that provides mutual benefit. tomorrow we meet again and here’s what we’ll do.

Apprentice Adventures 4

Met with apprentice yesterday. Wore myself out. So much energy needing focus. I am starting to wean her off Ancestry depenency. The concept of a reasonably exhaustive search is a real challenge for her. Reading assignments included Christine Roses’ book, Genealogical Proof Standard, Building a Solid Case, the great Helen Leary’s chapter on problem analysis and reserch planning in Professional Genealogy, as well as the chapter on parish registers,with precis and 15 tough questions.

I get her to write the questions, so she’ll think out the answers. Subtle. I’ll use the questions for another time.

Apprentice Adventures 3

What can we learn from the questions Barb the apprentice created from her first reading assignment? I am not interested in the answers to her questions, but rather the power and value of the questions themselves. Let’s look at some of them.

Apprentice Adventures 2:

Met yesterday with Barb the apprentice. She’s motivated! Apparently she’s learning. Here’s what we discussed.

I had asked for ten hours a week. Barb confessed to 19. Like I say, she’s motivated. Made her husband drive the 6 hours to Seattle last week while she studied. this on top of online research, precis writing, creating the 15 questions, etc. assigned. Then she ordered a critical civil registration from England which miraculously appeared in time.

An Apprenticeship or an Internship?

I was asked what the difference is between an apprenticeship and an internship. Its a great question. Here’s how i see it. An apprentice enters the relationship with little or no

Apprentice Adventures

Met for the first time with Barb, my new apprentice. A recent stroke has made a lot of research tasks challenging for me, so I figure I could train an enthusiastic genealogist to do professional quality research while she does the keyboard, microfim reader and footwork under my direction. Here’s what we discussed today