Webinars, Webinars ... Everywhere You Look There is a Learning Opportunity

Are you interested in learning? How about learning genealogy and history related things?

Was that a yes I heard out there?

Well, for those that said yes there are a lot of opportunities out there on the internet. Some are for a fee but many of them are free. If you really like the webinars of a particular host or want to see an older, archived webinar the cost of membership is not very high for many of these webinar hosts.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars

Legacy Family Tree Webinars has released its 2015 webinar schedule. The webinars, mostly held at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, are free to view live and for almost a week afterwards at which time they become accessible to webinar subscribers only. Some webinars are held on Friday and this year a few webinars will be held at night. Handouts are available only to webinar subscribers/members. Easy multiple-webinar sign-up at one time was added to the webinar registration system earlier this year. This greatly simplifies the registration process so don't forget to use it. Legacy webinar membership is $9.95/month or $49.95/year. (Note: If you view a webinar, there is often a discount code word which will get you 10 percent off items from the store, including webinar memberships.) Webinar members get an additional 5 percent off when signed-in.

Southern California Genealogical Society

The Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) has released its 2015 webinar schedule. The webinars, held the first Saturday and third Monday of the month, are free to live viewers and handouts are included. After the live webinar, only SCGS members can view the archived webinars. SCGS membership is $35/year and includes other benefits.

Illinois State Genealogical Society

The Illinois State Genealogical Society has released its 2015 webinar schedule.  The webinars are held the second Tuesday of the month at 9 p.m. ET and are free to live viewers and handouts are included. After the live webinar, only ISGS members can view the archived webinars. ISGS membership is $35/year.

Wisconsin State Genealogical Society

The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society will be releasing its 2015 webinar schedule soon. The webinars are held the third Tuesday of the month at 8 p.m. ET and are free to live viewers and handouts are included. After the live webinar, only WSGS members can view the archived webinars. WSGS membership is $30/year.

FamilyTreeDNA

FamilyTreeDNA hosts a variety of webinars on various DNA topics. Topics are not announced very far in advance of the scheduled date. The webinars are free to view, live or archived. There are no handouts.

FamilySearch

This year, the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City, Utah, began broadcasting the genealogy classes held in the library. Information about these free webinars are located at the FHL's page on FamilySearch. Classes through April 2015 have been listed but check back occasionally because sometimes additional webinars are added. Most of these webinars include handouts. And they are supposed to be recorded and archived in the FamilySearch Learning Center.

The societies and company listed above are not the only online webinar opportunities out there.

GeneaWebinars is a blog that hosts a calendar specializing in keeping track of the numerous genealogy webinars being held. About 35 organizers/hosts list their webinars in the calendar. Organizers/Hosts use a variety of webinar delivery systems from GoToWebinar to Google Hangouts to Twitter. Most entries have links taking you to the registration page for that webinar or the website of the host.

So if you want to learn something new or review a specific topic, there is likely a webinar out there for you. But you might have to find some patience if the webinar is not scheduled until later in the year.

Have fun learning.

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

LE