Thursday, August 1, 2013

NGS Home Study Course - Lesson 1

I knew this wouldn't be easy.  That was the whole point of taking the course.  I wanted to see what I was doing wrong before I do my BCG certification.  Lesson 1 of the NGS Home Study Course has two assignments.  Assignment #1 - Pedigree Chart and Assignment #2 - Family Group Sheet with Citations. 

Assignment #1 seemed simple enough.  I started with myself and added my parents, grand parents and great grandparents.  Then I filled in their dates and places of birth and death.  Done!  Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

Assignment #2 - a little more complicated.  I used my grandfather, William Smith Roberts and his wife, Mary Alvira McCormick, and listed their eight children and their spouses.  Here is where it started getting complicated.  Three of the eight children had been married multiple times.  I knew the names of the spouses, but finding the where and when was difficult. 

Boy, was I surprised when I found my aunt Charlene's marriage to her first husband, Lou Palfy!  I thought his last name was Palfry all this time!  Family legend has it that Lou was a "bit player" in the movies.  This is why I think I must have A.D.D.  I stopped what I was doing and went to imdb.com which stands for internet movie data base.  I put in Louis Palfy and bingo!  Lou was in such films as "Gilda" and "Wanderer of the Wasteland"!  Here's the link:  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0657650/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

O.k....back to Assignment #2.  I dug around for information to fill in the blanks on my family group sheet.  Then I worked on the citations.  I would like to mention here that I DO own a copy of Elizabeth Shown Mills "Evidence Explained". 

I attached the cover sheet and emailed NGS - Lesson 1

~ a couple days pass ~

I received an email with the results of Lesson 1

Assignment #1 results - Apparently I was used to the way I do things on Ancestry.com.  When listing a place of birth or death, I always list it as City, County, State.  Here's an example:  Anderson, Madison, Indiana the person who graded Lesson 1 said I did good, but I should use Co. or County after the county and resubmit it.  O.k., I can do that.  Here's an example Anderson, Madison Co., Indiana.  So I added Co. to all my counties.

Assignment #2 results - Simply owing a copy of Elizabeth Shown Mills' "Evidence Explained" is not enough.  You must take the book down off the bookshelf and use it!  The person who graded Assignment #2 (please let it not be Elizabeth Shown Mills or I will have to change my name) was kind enough not to ask if my brain fell out during the citation writing process.  After giving me an example of a proper citation, he or she asked that I rewrite my citations and resubmit my assignment.

I rewrote my citations...all 75 of them...proofread, spellchecked, re-proofread, and then resubmitted Lesson 1.

Now I'm waiting on the results...and thinking of a new name.









2 comments:

  1. I had the same problem with this lesson!!! I thought my sources were correct and in proper form until I submitted it. It was returned with all my sources that I had not properly sited. Most were those that I had added to my genealogy program years ago and had simply forgotten about. Ugh. So I redid it. Thankfully it was returned with a "Completed" stamped on it this time. I am so glad that I am taking the course. It is really helping me to see where I need to improve even after so many years of researching! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Hi Cheri,

      I'm glad to hear from someone who knows how I feel. I am reeeeeally hoping for that "Completed" stamp! Which lesson are you on?

      Thanks for reading my blog,

      Teri

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