Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com 3\u00a0May2015<\/p>\n
Thinking about becoming a professional genealogist?\u00a0 That thought hadn\u2019t occurred to me until last fall.\u00a0 My professional background is in counseling psychology and I\u2019ve been employed as a school counselor in public and private settings for most of my career, with side ventures as a reading teacher, day care owner, rehab counseling supervisor, and an educational placement specialist (finding the right fit for both child and school).\u00a0 I admit I\u2019ve always been passionate about counseling but passion alone does not make a professional. To be considered a professional, one must have completed the educational requirements, obtained licensure and demonstrate day-to-day ethics in the field.<\/p>\n
I looked at genealogy as my hobby and counseling as my profession. \u00a0In fact, several years ago when I overheard my husband tell a neighbor I was an expert genealogist I quickly told him to stop saying that. Granted, I was passionate about my hobby but a professional genealogist, no way. \u00a0I didn\u2019t even know how someone became professional.<\/p>\n
Over the years I\u2019ve helped several family members become Daughters of the American Revolution and founding members of the Society of Descendants of Lady Godiva. \u00a0Alhough these experiences helped me gain confidence in my work they did not put me on the level of a professional genealogist.<\/p>\n
Co-workers, friends and distant relatives have asked for help and referred others to me – Can you locate my birth parents?\u00a0 What happened to my Great Uncle George?\u00a0 Can you show me how to find the names of my great grandparents? \u00a0Why did my family move to Florida?\u00a0 How is this person related to me?\u00a0 Seeing the recipient\u2019s joy when the result of my findings was presented was rewarding to me. I felt like I had joined my two passions – counseling and genealogy \u2013 especially when I had to delicately tell the person about some difficult truth \u2013 your great grandpa was an alcoholic who never married your great grandma, and by the way, he murdered someone.<\/p>\n
About 5 years ago I began a surname update project on my husband\u2019s mother\u2019s line. \u00a0I entered all of the Harbaugh family from the 1947 Cooprider & Cooprider Harbaugh Family History:\u00a0 A Directory, Genealogy and Source Book<\/u> of Family Records<\/u> into my Main Tree on Ancestry.com.\u00a0 Then, I added info from Henry Harbaugh\u2019s 1856 Annals of the Harbaugh Family in America<\/u> .\u00a0 (Yes, this is the same family as Coaches John& Jim Harbaugh who are my husband\u2019s 3rd<\/sup> cousins and no, we haven\u2019t met them.)<\/p>\n Since I made the project publicly accessible I was contacted by a lot of descendants who helped update the records further.\u00a0 Then I decided to do a surname project with my dad\u2019s line \u2013 the Leininger family.\u00a0 I added into my tree all of the various branches and tried to connect them together back to the original who knows how many times great grandpa across the pond.\u00a0 A work in progress which most likely only dna will ever be able to solve. By making my findings public, though, I have been able to corroborate with extended family. Still, I was shocked when a Nebraska librarian emailed me her appreciation as a number of her patrons were helped by my tree. I valued that feedback. \u00a0Then a professor contacted me as he was looking for an authority on the Leininger family. \u00a0I forwarded him on to a cousin who pointed out I had a more documented tree than he had.<\/p>\n Around the same time I was contacted by a reporter of a major newspaper requesting assistance \u2013 could I help locate a photo for a story that was being featured.\u00a0 I love a challenge and this was certainly going to test my skill level.\u00a0 I began to seriously start thinking about becoming a professional genealogist.<\/p>\n Online I found the Association of Professional Genealogists\u00a0(APG) which is an organization dedicated to promoting professionalism in the field of genealogy.\u00a0 When I think of a genealogist, I think of an individual who is researching lineage.\u00a0 I never thought about all of the specialty areas and related fields, such as adoption, author, geneticist, heir locator, lecturer, lineage society specialist, and document translator.\u00a0 Joining a professional organization would be moving in the right direction but I wanted to compare my work with those that are considered the experts.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve noticed the initials after the names of presenters on webinars but I never stopped to think what those initials meant.\u00a0 Digging further I discovered that there are only two credentialing genealogical organizations:\u00a0 The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) in Washington, DC and the International Commission for the Accreditation of Genealogists (ICAPGen) in Orem, Utah.\u00a0 This means BCG certifies (CG-Certified Genealogist and CGL-Certified Genealogical Lecturer) and ICAPGen accredits (AG-Accredited Genealogist).<\/p>\n What\u2019s the difference? \u00a0Per Google, certification is confirmation \u201cprovided by some form of external review, education, assessment, or audit.\u201d\u00a0 Accreditation is a \u201c\u2026process of validation\u2026\u201d with standards being set by peer review.\u00a0 Nice definitions but I still was unsure which I wanted to achieve and more importantly, if I was ready to do it. I took an online quiz at http:\/\/www.bcgcertification.org\/ruready.html<\/a>. \u00a0The results identified areas in which I needed to improve.\u00a0 I began reading more journals and referred to the Genealogical Standards when I was writing reports.\u00a0 The area that I still need to look further into is attending a Genealogical Institute.\u00a0 I\u2019ve taken a variety of workshops locally and online over the years to improve my skills but I\u2019ve never been formally trained.<\/p>\n In reality, the greatest hindrance was I lacked the confidence that I was ready for the next big step.\u00a0 I put the information aside and enjoyed the winter, snuggling on the couch in front of the fire with my laptop happily researching my Duer\u2019s and Hatton\u2019s and working on an EBook I\u2019m writing about my husband\u2019s grandpa in World War I.<\/p>\n My recent visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City motivated me to go forward in the field.\u00a0 The genealogists I met with to discuss my brick walls so impressed me with their expertise that I wanted to become like them.\u00a0 I asked a couple about becoming credentialed and was directed to ICAPGen and BCG.\u00a0 Understandably, since ICAPGen is Utah based and historically associated with the Church of Latter Day Saints, ICAPGen was what they had achieved.<\/p>\n So my next big decision was to become either certified or accredited. \u00a0Next time, I’ll continue on how the requirements influenced my decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com 3\u00a0May2015 Thinking about becoming a professional genealogist?\u00a0 That thought hadn\u2019t occurred to me until last fall.\u00a0 My professional background is in counseling psychology and I\u2019ve been employed as a school counselor in public and private settings for most of my career, with side ventures as a reading teacher, day care owner, … Continue reading “Becoming a Pro Genealogist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22,23,25],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-certification","tag-bcg","tag-genealogy-certification","tag-professional-genealogist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}