Harwell Goodwin Davis Library at Samford University, home to IGHR. Photo by author.
I am eagerly awaiting the start of IGHR (Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research), the oldest genealogy institute in the United States. 2016 marks the last year it will be held at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. I attended in 2011 and 2012, and am enrolled for the 2016 institute which starts next month.
I was fortunate to get registered for the sold-out Course 7, Metes & Bounds & Land Plats. In 2012, I took Advanced Land Research at SLIG with Rick and Pam Sayre, but this promises to be an even more hands-on class. We will be outside (in Alabama, in June!) part of the time doing compass and orientation work as well as hands-on with historic surveying methods. There is also time scheduled for a practicum, putting skills to work. I intend to search my files in advance for a few different metes and bounds deeds from New Jersey and Virginia to have with me in case we get to work on our own projects as part of the class.
To that end, I am purchasing the latest upgrade to my copy of DeedMapper, which I will be dusting off and installing on my laptop, and will also watch this series of nine short videos on YouTube by Direct Line Software, the folks who bring us the DeedMapper software.
Will you be attending IGHR this year? What are you doing to prepare?
Dawn, It sounds like you are back working on skill development in anticipation of being/continuing to be “on the clock.” Is that true? It has been some time since we have talked. I hope all is on the mend and that I am “reading into the post” a very positive position for you at this time.
After my first series of genealogy institutes in 2011-2013 I exhausted topics of immediate interest/application. I am back in the institute saddle, so to speak, for 2016-2017 with SLIG last January, IGHR next month, and SLIG again in January 2017. I still have to work around my full-time job and use vacation time to go to institutes. I love the experience, camaraderie, networking and opportunity to gain new skills though so it is worth it. I know of two others from SGS who will be attending, so I will have company in ‘Bama.