How Courses Work
How do one to one tutorials work?
Pharos courses are easy to join. There is no new software to install and no
new technical knowledge required. You can timetable a Pharos course into a
busy schedule.
How Do You Join a Course?
All registered students in a course receive a welcome message from the instructor 7 to 10 days before the course is scheduled to begin. The message tells you the website where you can find the class message forum, the online notice board for the class. The message also provides the Web address, user name and password for the course chat room, where you interact with others together at the same time using your keyboard.
On the first day of the course the first lesson comes to you by e-mail. It is a PDF file (you probably have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer) that you can save on your computer and/or print out. Other lessons come to you once a week.
The forum is open from the time you hear from your instructor so you have plenty of time to check it out, test it, and also make sure you can get into the chat room. Your instructor is willing to help if you have any difficulties.How much time will you spend on a course each week?
If you read the lesson, do all the exercises without being distracted
by your own research, visit the forum a couple of time and attend one
chat, we think that will require from 4 to 5 hours in a week. Some people
work quickly and will take less time. Others cannot resist the temptation
to search for ancestors as they go along. If you fall into that group,
allow some extra time. Minimum participation – reading lessons, attending
chats – would take two to three hours each weel.
How long is a course?
Pharos courses last from two to six weeks. Most are five weeks in
length.
Does someone check your work?
That is up to you. There are exercises with most lessons and instructors
encourage you to put something from your work on the exercises into
the forum. It creates some discussion and gives the instructor an
opportunity to help you. There are, however, no requirements to
turn in exercises to instructors. Pharos courses are assisted self-study,
so you are able to work at your pace and your chosen level of involvement.
If you have never taken part in a chat, don’t worry.
The instructor acts as a moderator and guides the chat, usually along
the lines of the topics in the lesson that week. There is also time
for questions and free discussion. The exchange of “chat” is
all by typed text – type a sentence or two or three, hit a GO
button on the screen or your Enter key and your text appears for
all to read. Sit back and watch the discussion, or get involved.
Either way instructors are glad to have you there. After the chat is
over, the text is saved and sent round to the class. No need to worry
about taking notes during discussion!
Forums are easy too.
You will receive clear directions for registration. The forum is private to Pharos and only those in your class contribute. Once again, this is all done by keyboard. You can edit your own remarks even after you have posted them. Members of the class drop in at their own convenience, read what’s going on and perhaps leave a note. You can read what others say any time of day. The instructors keep an eye on discussion, add new topics, answer questions, and generally keep the activity going.
Are you going to find your lost ancestors?
Much as we would like to promise that you will, there is no guarantee.
We can promise that you will discover new ideas for searching online
and off, and that you will find out fascinating things about records
that you did not know before. We are all experienced researchers
and teachers, and we share our tips and strategies. We can help
you search more effectively and to accomplish more in less time.
Most of all, we are enthusiasts, and do our best to help you have
fun and increase your research success.
Still puzzled?
Why not take our free workshop Learning Genealogy Online?
About One to One
The tutor, Sherry Irvine, will initially communicate by email. The
questionnaire will come as an email attachment in a Word document.
Also by email, Sherry will find out about your computer skills and
which form of communication you prefer for the chat – a chat
room, MSN Messenger or Skype. The personal attention ensures you will
get clear explanations every step of the way.
Where do Pharos instructors spend their time online?
We have been keeping track of the websites we use all the time when
researching our own families or when helping others. Here is a list
of websites we use on a regular basis and which meet most of our own
research needs or provide links to help us find other sites we use
only occasionally.
There are several types of websites – portals to more information, archives,
libraries, free databases and commercial ones requiring payment.
This list is arranged by country, with a general list at the end.
Websites We Use
England
- British History Online takes you to some less well known resources as well as to any volumes of the Victoria County History series that are online.
- Ancestry,
1841 to 1901 census returns, civil registration indexes, church
record indexes, local histories, gazetteers are just a few of
the items in this huge collection of data
- FreeUKGen, the main page from which to access FreeBMD, FreeCen and FreeReg, which are volunteer indexing projects
- FindMyPast, also offers census and civil registration records, outbound ship passenger lists, Death Duty Registers indexes and many other resources [use a banner]
- Origins is the place where much valuable Society of Genealogists
resources can be found such as Boyd’s Marriage Index and apprenticeship
lists; also another place for searching some census records
- Family History Online is
where member societies of the Federation of Family History Societies
make their indexing projects data available
Scotland
- National Archives of Scotland now has the catalogue of its collections online and offers lots of useful research information
- National Library of Scotland, two great resources are the online maps and the interactive timeline of Scottish history
- FreeCen, lots of Scotland’s counties are represented in the indexing projects here
- ScotlandsPeople, the site for access to civil registration indexes, all available census returns, and Scottish testaments
- Ancestry offers indexes
and transcriptions to census returns 1841 to 1901 and a variety
of other databases
- Scottish Archives Network is a portal site to information about Scottish genealogy <www.scan.org.uk>
Wales
- National Library of Wales has a large website, a family history section, a few databases and helpful information
- Wales on the Web is a great portal to things Welsh
- FreeUKGen, the main page from which to access FreeBMD, FreeCen and FreeReg, which are volunteer indexing projects
- Ancestry for Wales has census,
civil registration and various other family and local history
databases
- FindMyPast is another place to search census and civil registration records, and has indexes to Death Duty Registers
- Origins includes
Wales in its online census indexes, and Welsh also are in Boyd’s
Marriage Index and apprenticeship records
- Family History Online is where member societies of the Federation of Family History Societies make their indexing projects data available
Ireland
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has databases and information about records, boundaries and the estate papers in their care
- National Library of Ireland website has useful information for genealogists and an online catalogue
- Irish Ancestors offers some useful record information at no charge, including parish boundaries and details of available records of Roman Catholic Churches
- Origins,
the best place to search Griffith’s Primary
Valuation and access to many more useful Irish records
- Library Ireland calls itself the “free online resource for Irish antiquities” and ffers lots of great resources
General
- Genuki, a huge resource and well worth taking time to explore at many levels
- Really
Useful Sources, a selective portal website and therefore not so overwhelming
as Genuki
British Isles GenWeb, a third option for finding information about all parts of the British Isles, arranged by country and county - Direct Gov, a useful way to find archives, libraries and local history information for any region or community
- FamilySearch, not only useful for the International Genealogical Index and the 1881 census, but for the FHLC and resource information
- The National Archives, records of the national government, exhibits, guidance, databases, and useful resources to take you to other archives and their collections
- UKBMD, a portal site to vital records and census returns online, both free and commercial sites
- Lost Cousins links
together people who have common ancestors in the 1881 census
- Family History Quests – An online family history shop
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