I hope you have been enjoying the gorgeous weather we have been having (if you live in western Washington at least). As I was enjoying the warmth, the front porch, and the dog sitting beside me I was reviewing some previous journalling I had done and ran across the quote, "don't get lost in the steps only to lose focus on the objective." I believe it came from the book Ikigai by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles.

So. what do I mean? Sometimes I get caught up in the steps too much? But in photography, and in family history I believe as well, there is a visualization process. Instead of snapping off as many photos as possible in the 30 minutes I may have (which could be hundreds in digital photography), the creative process would be to think about a subject, consider the light and the potential compositions, and what it would take to make that photo happen and then to take action and photograph the subject. Isn’t that kind of true with family history? What am I visualizing for the use of this research and how do I make that happen?

It might mean that there are classes to take to help you understand the technical skills or research skills needed to make your vision become reality but that is the process. We learn new skills to meet our objectives. True for any undertaking.

That brings me to classes for family history whether from HQRL or elsewhere. There are 2 approaches, 1) Find classes at your favorite site (HQRL I hope) and take them and apply them as you can or 2) Look for classes anywhere that fit your current research focus, take them and apply them. Now as I write this, I realize it is probably a bit of both.

I am not trying to discourage you from taking our classes; however, I am an educator, and I can’t compete with the learning tools available to all of us beyond our own library. If you are truly trying to learn about how to do family history for your own family story, anything you can find that teaches you about history and genealogy is invaluable especially if it helps you meet your objective.

With all that said, I just found another “gold mine” of learning tools, Allen County Public Library video collection. Perhaps you are ahead of me and have already found this site, but there are over 400 videos in this collection alone and they are free to watch. My recommendation is to look at HQRL’s class list and then go to places like Allen County Library, Mid-Continent Library, and Ohio County Public Library, for example, to find resources that can help you learn what you want. Other libraries in larger communities may also have this kind of collection as well as libraries connected to universities. Family Search and Ancestry also have classes that you can take. Don’t be afraid to browse or to go to Cyndi’s List to find “Libraries, Archives and Museums” or to go to YouTube.

Well, happy learning and happy researcing.

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com