Advanced Research Methods Class with Tom Jones

Friday, March 17, 2017
jones_thomas_2016

Our Instructor

Tom Jones writes and speaks frequently on genealogical methods with broad application across geographic areas, time periods, and levels of expertise. He is known for meaty lectures benefiting genealogists of all experience levels. Audiences typically leave his lectures understanding that genealogical research can be more challenging than they had thought, but also that it can be much more fun.

Read more about Tom Jones

Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, has edited the National Genealogical Society Quarterly since 2002. He is author of Mastering Genealogical Proof, a popular textbook on genealogical assessment and reasoning. He has been tracing his family history since 1963. Tom is a recipient of the Association of Professional Genealogists 2011 Professional Achievement Award and its 2004 Grahame T. Smallwood Jr. Award of Merit. Retired from a thirty-year career in higher education and professor emeritus at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Tom works full time as a genealogical researcher, writer, editor, and educator. He coordinates courses at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and the Institute on Genealogy and Historical Research. Tom’s research has encompassed records of every state east of the Mississippi, as well as Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, England, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Wales. He specializes, however, in Georgia, the Midwest, and Virginia and is most interested in solving “brick-wall” genealogical problems.

Tom writes and speaks frequently on genealogical methods with broad application across geographic areas, time periods, and levels of expertise. He is known for meaty lectures benefiting genealogists of all experience levels. Audiences typically leave his lectures understanding that genealogical research can be more challenging than they had thought, but also that it can be much more fun.

Seminar Topics

Session 1: Developing Research Questions and Hypotheses; Planning an Exhaustive Search

Pinpointing what a researcher wants to learn about an ancestor; strategies for determining which records to consult and where to find them; planning research of sufficient scope to answer a genealogical question convincingly; issues in variety, breadth, and depth of research scope; looking beyond the record of interest; knowing when the obtained evidence is sufficient; re-planning and developing subsidiary questions when planned research is unproductive; incorporating research scope into case building and reporting; testing hypotheses; challenging your own conclusions with alternative hypotheses and expanded research scope.

Session 2: Correlating Sources, Information, and Evidence to Solve Genealogical Problems

Analysis and interpretation principles applicable to any kind of genealogical source; working with evidence from many sources; seeing patterns, parallels, and conflicts in evidence; working with records in a series (including censuses, tax rolls, rent rolls, city directories, communion lists, guardian and estate accounts); timelines, matrices, and other ways of graphically arranging evidence; explaining how records correlate and using correlation to build a convincing case.

Logistics

Date
Friday, March 17, 2017

  • 12:30 PM-1:00 – Check-in
  • 1:00-1:15 – Opening Remarks
  • 1:15-2:30 – Session #1
  • 2:30-3:00 – Break
  • 3:00-4:15 – Session #2

Location
5th floor - Hamon Room
J. Erik Jonsson Central Library
1515 Young Street, Dallas, Texas 75201

Cost (Includes parking in the Library garage.).

Member:$40
Non-Member:$45
Feedback from Previous DGS Seminars
Fantastic! I have wanted to hear him for several years.
A wealth of information and none of the questions stumped him!
This is the first lecture about genealogy I have attended and I found it very helpful.