How-to Materials
In the early years of GANS, most of the valuable genealogical material was published and circulated as printed material. The "How-to" knowledge, though, was largely word-of-mouth, communicated informally, often through mentorship or supervision. As work became more routinized, various ways were developed to pass on knowledge. We have some material for three of these ways.
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Members-Only Data
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Handouts
Once group talks started, there would often be handouts which were passed around to those present. Further along, those handouts became overhead presentations, sometimes copied as a "take home" handout as well. So, we have saved some really Great Handouts - 13 of them in all - and they can be quite informative.
Brick Wall Busters
A specialized demonstration was also developed as a teaching tool. A forum would be organized which allowed genealogy members to submit a "problem" they were having with their research, and senior genealogists would solve the problem for them and talk about how they did it. GANS ran about ten of these sessions, and have two Brick Wall Busters sessions recorded on video.
How-to Teaching Videos
Most substantive "how-to" teaching needs to be "hands-on as well". We do this kind of things in our Workshops, which follow a step-by-step approach to trying things yourself. However, there is some basic orientation that every aspiring genealogist needs to get started. We all need to understand basic terminology, the kinds of data which are useful, where to find records, methods to overcome obstacles, and common mistakes.
We were thrilled to develop a set of these introductory videos with well-known genealogist, Peggy Chapman. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Education and a Degree in Master of Library & Information Science (M.L.I.S.). She has obtained the Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) from the former National Institute of Genealogical Studies (now the International Institute of Genealogical Studies).
Peggy has done a series of four one-hour videos, titled "Finding Your Nova Scotia Ancestors", which provides a great introduction to doing genealogy, with a particular emphasis on doing research on Nova Scotia ancestors.
