National Institute for Genealogical Studies Announces Acquisition of GenealogyWise

Press Release just in from NIGS. 

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National Institute for Genealogical Studies Announces Acquisition of GenealogyWise
(Toronto, February 7, 2011) Louise St. Denis, Managing Director of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, has announced that the Institute has acquired the website, GenealogyWise <www.genealogywise.com>. The Genealogy Community Director of GenealogyWise, Gena Philibert Ortega, has also officially joined the Institute. She can be reached at <genwise@genealogicalstudies.com>.
"I would say that GenealogyWise is a great fit with the National Institute's goals. GenealogyWise is a place to connect with new found cousins, share resources, and learn more about genealogy. As part of the National Institute, GenealogyWise members will benefit from the opportunities that the National Institute provides," said Gena.
GenealogyWise is the social network for genealogists. This is the place to network with other researchers, and make discoveries about your family history.
You can join or create surname, locality, or topic groups. The Group feature allows you to collaborate, share, and ask questions of other members.
You can also join the Chat Room for a quick question about research, a chat with fellow genealogists, or attend one of our educational presentations. As well, you can post a blog entry or a forum question from the GenealogyWise homepage. This is a great way to share your knowledge on a genealogy topic or to ask a question.
To date, there are over 23,000 members online.
A new feature will be added - the Live Meeting. GenealogyWise members will be able to access Live Meetings onsite, and this will open up more education opportunities to members that the Institute has to offer.
For the month of March, the Institute is offering a number of US courses as well as courses on Methodology, Electronic Records, and in Analysis and Skill Mentioning.
To read a detailed description about a specific course, please go to our website at <www.genealogicalstudies.com>, click on the menu item "COURSES", and click on "COURSES" again. Then click on "ALPHABETICAL LISTING" to make searching through over 60 courses given in March a little easier!
And to learn more about our instructors, please go to our site at <www.genealogicalstudies.com>, click on menu item "INSTITUTE", then click on "FACULTY", and click again on the instructor's name.
If you need more information, please call us toll-free in North America at 1-800-580-0165, or send us a message at <admin@genealogicalstudies.com>.
You can enroll in these or other courses by simply going to the Institute's website at <www.genealogicalstudies.com>, choosing the ones which interest you, and registering online.
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About The National Institute for Genealogical Studies About the National Institute for Genealogical Studies: The Institute now offers over 150 courses in genealogical studies, including courses in the records of Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany, and the United States.
If you are looking for a more formal educational training, the Institute offers—in affiliation with the Continuing Education Unit of the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto—Certificate Programs in the records of Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany, and the United States, as well as a Librarianship Certificate.

Louise St. Denis

Managing Director

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies

<www.genealogicalstudies.com>

<info@genealogicalstudies.com>

Toll-free in North America - 1.800.580.0165

Genealogy Wise - Progress?

When GenealogyWise  a social networking site for genealogists, appeared on the scene I had high hopes for its usefulness to genealogists. I was similarly excited when Google announced their Wave product and set up an Australian Genealogists Wave. This product was even les popular with Australian Genealogists than GenealogyWise.

In my first post about this product in July 2009 I said "I, too, jumped on the Genealogy Wise bandwagon very early and have watched its amazing growth over the past couple of days."  I took the initiative and set up a group for Australian Genealogists as I found the site very UScentric. "I did a quick search for Australians who had joined the Genealogy Wise site (found 14) and invited them to join the group. As of this morning the group has 13 members."

In a followup post 12 months later I wrote "Activity from the 263 members of the Australian Genealogists  Group  is patchy. Some days there will be a few posts and sometimes a couple of weeks go by without any activity."

Since July only 8 more Australians have joined our group and only a handful of the 271 members have posted anything to the site. Is this because others, unlike me, have no resources or news of events to share with others and have no brickwalls that they want to demolish?


There are a number of products that enable genealogists to connect with others via the internet. These include the wonderful free Rootsweb Lists and subscription sites such as Ancestry and Genes Reunited, general products like Facebook and Twitter offer further free opportunities for communication and collaboration.

Australian Family History Societies and genealogy groups could use GenealogyWise to promote their events and organisations. In this post http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/07/genealogy-wise-first-twelve-months.html I discussed how individuals can benefit from membership.

Membership of this group need not be onerous - one can set the preference to have no notifications sent; one can just log in whenever one has a few spare minutes.

I believe that having an online presence pays off so would encourage all genealogists with internet access to join GenealogyWise.

Genealogy Wise - First twelve months

On July 8, 2009 I joined the GenealogyWise  genealogy social network that is built on the ning platform. I found that, as site membership grew, the strong US bias became more evident so I set up a subgroup Australian Genealogists  "A group for genealogists downunder - with roots from all over the world". 

Any member of GenealogyWise can set up a group and members can join multiple groups. There are groups for all manner of interests:

Activity from the 263 members of the Australian Genealogists  Group  is patchy. Some days there will be a few posts and sometimes a couple of weeks go by without any activity. Within the group all members have the ability to set up discussions on topics of interest. Some of the Aussie discussions are:

• Hunt Family of Newcastle
• Australian Blogs
• Nicholls Family
• Mining Ancestors
• Professional Genealogists  

 Although using the ning platform can sometimes be tricky membership of GenealogyWise  is worthwhile. Belonging to this FREE network can produce results, break down brick walls and  foster relationships with researchers with shared interests. There are so many generous people in the world of genealogy.

Australian Genealogists members have said:

Hi everyone,
I just love this site. If I can be of any assistance to anyone please let me know and I will do my best my help.

Thank you Peter! What a lot of looking up you did.

Hi Everyone,
If anyone needs a hand in Ozzie research, I've got 20 yrs experience, and all the BDM's for Australia
Cheers

Thankyou, I never even thought of looking in N.S.W. as it said Brisbane on the certificate...should've known better, Once againg a big thankyou,

Everyone here is so friendly and willing to help, it is no wonder that GenealogyWise is getting more members every day : ) Best thing I ever did !


Thank you so much for the information, it helps to remove another brick from the wall and will hopefully enable me to go a lot further with my research.
Best wishes,

I believe that publishing your interests pays off so would encourage all genealogists with internet access to join GenealogyWise.