Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com 6 May\u00a02015<\/p>\n
I was in a quandary \u2013 should I pursue becoming a Certified Genealogist or an Accredited Genealogist?\u00a0 In typical genealogical mindset I looked to the past for help.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve mentioned previously, I have attained National Board Certified Teacher\/Counselor (NBCT) status. \u00a0NBCT is a rigorous peer review program involving submission of a written reflective portfolio, audio and video tapes of counseling sessions, documentation of community involvement that demonstrates how one has gone above and beyond what is required and a day long exam.\u00a0 \u00a0I decided 8 years ago that the time was right to pursue NBCT as my youngest had just gone off to college and my husband, also a counselor, agreed to work towards obtaining NBCT, too.<\/p>\n
The timing turned out not to be so good \u2013 a family member became seriously ill and temporarily moved in with us, one crisis after another happened at the school where I worked and our roof gave out so money was tight (the NBCT process is not cheap!).\u00a0 The portfolio and tapes are submitted in February, the exam is in June and notification of achievement isn\u2019t made until November.\u00a0 When notification day finally arrived I was understandably relieved to learn I had made it.\u00a0 What I discovered, though, was the notification of achievement wasn\u2019t as big of a deal as the process itself had been. \u00a0The process made me think about counseling in a very different way \u2013 I became more skilled as a counselor due to the reflective aspect that is integral to the NBCT process.\u00a0 I became stronger professionally and that was what I wanted the outcome to be of whichever genealogical process I decided to follow.<\/p>\n
With that criterion in mind, I reviewed the information online from both the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) and International Commission for the Accreditation of Genealogists\u00a0(ICAPGen).<\/p>\n
From BCG\u2019s website \u201cCertification results from evaluation of work samples in a portfolio submission.\u00a0 BCG requires different materials for each certification category.\u00a0 If three to four judges recommend certification, you will be certified for a five-year period.\u00a0 You can perpetuate your certification with five-year renewal applications showing that you have kept your skills up to date.\u201d\u00a0 This is very similar to the NBCT process. BCG\u2019s requirements are:<\/p>\n
Challenging but doable.<\/p>\n
Next I looked at ICAPGen requirement.\u00a0 The bold and italics are mine to emphasize my concern, \u201c…\u00a0Your presentation of\u00a0four connecting generations\u00a0in your project\u00a0should represent your\u00a0knowledge of a variety of records that are useful at different times in your chosen region. The regional focus allows for practice in records that might be included in the written exams.<\/p>\n
Many of our U.S. ancestors migrated from one geographical region to another so we might have to choose a family other than our own for the four generation project. This might be the ancestry of another family member, a client, or a family that\u00a0is\u00a0known to have four generations that lived in the same geographic region<\/em><\/strong>. We might also select from our own ancestry a related descendant line that meets the criteria. Note that privacy issues are not violated because the\u00a0records are for events of people born before 1900<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and identities of living persons are not included in the report.\u201d<\/p>\n In our family, my kids are first generation Floridians so I would be looking for a client.\u00a0 Finding a client to meet ICAPGen\u2019s requirements in my area would be difficult.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why – for simplicity, let\u2019s say a generation is 20 years.\u00a0 To meet ICAPGen\u2019s requirement we\u2019ll say my client\u2019s Person 1 was born in 1899 since the requirement is a birth year prior to 1900.\u00a0 Person 1\u2019s parent (generation 2) would be born in 1879, grandparent (generation 3) would be born in 1859, and great grandparent (generation 4) would be born in 1839.<\/p>\n Florida is a large state and I don\u2019t claim to be an expert on its entirety.\u00a0 I\u2019d prefer to focus on the Tampa Bay region as that is where I research and where I have the most knowledge.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the historical population of Tampa, the area\u2019s largest city, from Wikipedia:<\/p>\n The first census is shown as 1850 because Florida did not become a state until March 3, 1845.\u00a0\u00a0 Citidata.com reports that \u201cThe 1830s and 1840s were marked by repeated violent conflicts between the Seminoles and white soldiers and settlers. Although Tampa emerged from the so-called Second Seminole War (1835\u20131842) as a fledgling town rather than just a frontier outpost, it subsequently endured a variety of setbacks, including further skirmishes with the Seminoles, yellow fever epidemics, and, in 1848, a hurricane-generated tidal wave that leveled the village.\u201d\u00a0I know there are Tampa families today that can trace their lineage back to pre-Tampa days when the area was known as Fort Brooke but I don’t want to use something that’s already been done. \u00a0Finding a new Tampa pioneer family with 4 generations going back to 1839 would be time consuming and a matter of luck.<\/p>\n I could expand my search area to meet the requirement. \u00a0The Florida population in 1837 was 48,000, half being slaves, and most people lived in the northern part of the state, between St. Augustine and Pensacola. \u00a0ICAPGen wants primary sources. \u00a0To find a primary source slave document from 1839 would be miraculous. \u00a0Remember, this was the period of the Seminole War and the document would have to have also survived the Civil War, hurricanes, mold, and courthouse fires. \u00a0Even finding a primary source for a white man in 1839 in Florida\u00a0is something to celebrate. \u00a0Plus, I don’t live close to where I would be researching to find the document.<\/p>\n This would explain why ICAPGen lumps Florida in the\u00a0Gulf South\u00a0region of the United States, along with Georgia, \u00a0Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.\u00a0 A client could have family from any of the other listed states which allows for the requirement to be met. \u00a0However, I would not be comfortable taking clients from the entire Gulf South region.\u00a0 I would be doing them a disservice as I don\u2019t have the knowledge or skills to assist them. I suppose others feel the same way I do as\u00a0there are only 11 ICAPGen\u2019s that have achieved Accredited Genealogist status for the Gulf Shore region.<\/p>\n So the criterion made the decision for me \u2013 I will be seeking Certified Genealogist through BCG.<\/p>\n Next time – I’ll be traveling to the Big Apple for a conference and my thoughts are on motherhood and the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com 6 May\u00a02015 I was in a quandary \u2013 should I pursue becoming a Certified Genealogist or an Accredited Genealogist?\u00a0 In typical genealogical mindset I looked to the past for help. As I\u2019ve mentioned previously, I have attained National Board Certified Teacher\/Counselor (NBCT) status. \u00a0NBCT is a rigorous peer review program involving … Continue reading “Certified Genealogist or Accredited 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":[27,22,26,25],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-certification","tag-accredited-genealogist","tag-bcg","tag-certified-genealogist","tag-professional-genealogist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","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=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n Historical population<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Census<\/strong><\/td>\n Pop.<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n %\u00b1<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1850<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n 974<\/td>\n <\/td>\n \u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1870<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n 796<\/td>\n <\/td>\n \u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1880<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n 720<\/td>\n <\/td>\n \u22129.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n