Awaken Your Ancestors

The Awaken Your Ancestors Elementary Family History Course is suitable for those who are new to family history, those who have already started but need guidance on how to do things properly and those who are looking for inspiration on how to break down that brick wall.

"It's a great introduction and confidence builder to family history research" E.S.

The course fee is £230

Enrol on the course

The course consists of ten modules and will cover the following:

1. Family Records
   Those bits of paper, war medals and newspapers filed away in the attic!
2. GRO Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths
   The key to birth, marriage and death certificates.
3. The Records of Civil Registration
   The certificates of births, marriages and deaths
4. Census Returns
   Tracing family groups from 1841 to 1911 plus the 1939 National Identity Register records
5. Methodology
   Using the GRO Certificates and census returns to construct a pedigree that extends into the 18th century.
6. Parish Registers
   Records of baptisms, marriages and burials that were introduced during the reign of King Henry VIII.
7. Formatting a drop-line pedigree
   How to correctly draw a family tree
8. Practical Use of Parish Registers
   Searching the parish registers to extend a pedigree back into the 16th century. Module 8 also includes:
9. The Parish Chest
   A collection of records that document the lives of our ancestors in the parish.
10. Pulling it all together
    Blend everything together to produce a pedigree back into the 18th century.

The course is self assessed. On completion of module 10 there is the option to sit the IHGS Elementary Level in Genealogy examination paper. IHGS holds examination days throughout the year, either at IHGS or invigilated remotely. The examination is optional and does not prohibit the student from progressing to the IHGS Intermediate and Advanced level correspondence courses. There is no fee for entry to the IHGS Elementary Level examination.

For those who prefer to choose their own learning path — our Bitesize Courses through our VLE, let you focus on the topics most relevant to your research, without committing to the full programme. 

Bitesize Courses