SLIG 2019 Report & Why You Should Consider Attending A Genealogy Institute

Last week was an awesome week overflowing with genealogy education for me at SLIG!

I completed Advanced Genealogical Methods, coordinated by Tom Jones.  It was his last SLIG course as a coordinator and I didn’t want to miss that.

Dr. Jones is one of my very favorite genealogy educators.  He is brilliant.  I’ve learned more from him about how to think, in terms of genealogy, than from anyone else.

If you would like to learn from him as well, you can check out his list of Legacy Family Tree webinars here, you can see his books here, and I highly recommend any article he has written for the NGSQ – National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

So, what did I learn?

More than I can possibly express in a blog post.  It was an incredible experience and I can’t wait to attend another institute course.

SLIG is easiest for me because it’s only an hour away.  (I still stayed in the hotel because I knew it would be too hard to drive back and forth each day AND get the homework done, but it saved me the cost of airfare and I was able to drive up the morning it began.)  But I am definitely looking closely at ALL of the upcoming institutes in 2019 and 2020.

If you are interested in learning about your upcoming institute options, check out this great post by Judy Russell on The Legal Genealogist.  Judy was one of my stellar teachers this last week at SLIG.

So, why do I think you might like an institute course?

Here’s my mini-sales pitch based on my SLIG experience:

It’s a full week of focused learning that builds upon itself.  You are in a small-ish group – my group was just under 30 this week – you stay in one classroom and don’t have the crowds of larger genealogy conferences.  It’s a great setting for more introverted folks.  You have homework each night so you can really get in there and try out what you’ve been taught each day.  The next morning you review your homework as a group.  It’s a great way to learn together.

SLIG is held at a hotel in downtown Salt Lake, just a few blocks from the Family History Library.  All classes and main events are in the hotel.  It made the week so smooth and easy.  There were food options right in the hotel as well.  It was such a simple week as far as travel and personal needs go.  It made it easy to focus on classroom experiences and homework.

Based on my perusing of the options at upcoming institutes, it appears to me that the class coordinators really are the best of the best in genealogy education.

Give it a look, it might be right for you.

And now I’m off to keep applying what I learned.  I accomplished some great stuff the last two days based on my new knowledge!  I’m excited to see what else I can do.  xoxo