Researching in Washington D.C. without Leaving Home

The following is a guest post originally posted at Adventures in Genealogy Education.

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Researching in Washington D.C. without Leaving Home

This is a special post by guest author Pamela Sayre, CG, CGL, on her course "Researching in Washington D.C. without Leaving Home" featured at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. There is still time to register for the for the Institute which will be held January 13-18, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and you can get the early bird discount until October 31st. 
We (the course coordinators, Rick and Pam Sayre) are fortunate to live in the Washington, DC area with easy access to myriad repositories with more rich sources than we will ever be able to explore. But Pam has only lived here for four years. Prior to that, she lived out in the hinterlands--in St. Louis--and a week's research on-site in Washington meant an expensive flight, hotel stay, dining out, and transportation around the city. Still, in the not-too-distant past, researching in actual brick and mortar repositories was the only way to get the job done.

Fast forward to 2012, and the whole family history game has changed. It is possible to do vast amounts of research in Washington, DC-area repositories without ever leaving your home town. The Researching in Washington, DC without Leaving Home course at Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in January shows you how in a week of in-depth classes by leading experts. Learn how to navigate the massive National Archives website to find the very record you need, how to find just the ancestor you're seeking in government records of the past, and where to locate the perfect period map for your ancestor's area. We'll even show you how to find a historic map of nineteenth-century Germany in a Library of Congress collection and obtain a high-resolution print or digital copy.

This course delves into little-known repositories in the Washington area that hold gems most people never discover, and it introduces you to new ways of accessing resources at old familiar institutions such as NARA, the DAR Library, and the Library of Congress. Hands-on computer labs help ensure that you'll be able to do this research yourself when you get back home. You'll also learn how to obtain the records you need through interlibrary loan or microfilm loan at your local Family History Center.

Let's be honest. There ARE records that you'll only be able to see if you do travel to the particular repository in Washington, DC; it isn't all online. But if you invest in this one-week workshop in Salt Lake City, you'll learn to use online resources to their fullest capability, locate a lot of sources online right now, and find the most economical way to make a trip to Washington, DC by preparing in advance.

There are still a few seats left in the Researching in Washington, DC without Leaving Home Course at Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in January 2013. Register now for an exciting learning experience with like-minded individuals in the beautiful Salt Lake City area, just a stone's throw from the largest genealogy library in the world (where you can spend your evenings)