online exploring-german-genealogy

[geocmoore]

https://university.familytreemagazine.com/courses/exploring-german-genealogy-march-2021

Does anyone have experience with these courses?

[sugarbakers]

Perhaps I shouldn't answer a question with a question, but have you taken this any further yet?

Enrolment today. Looks interesting though expensive (I'm so used to FutureLearn MOOCs being free).

Biggest concern is whether I shall get enough out of it regarding migration from Germany to UK ... considering Ancestry only have 27 records for 18C for my search name [Almeroth] and one of those is my website !
DNA suggests there may be connections to US Almeroths.

Think the chances might be slim.

[geocmoore]

Thanks for that.  Still thinking.

[sugarbakers]

Went out and did some gardening and have a think about it.

£72 is a day's research in a London Archive ... this £72 should give me 4wks of something different and may just unlock 20+ years of research.

Enrolled ... currently one of twenty. Fingers crossed.

[geocmoore]

Gardening or walking is always helpful!

[Mowsehowse]

Sugarbakers......
How do you rate the course?
As often, it seems to have such an American bias....
Good value for money?
Did it help you unlock your question marks? 

[sugarbakers]

mowsehowse ...

I contributed teaching material to the FutureLearn Genealogy MOOC, know the course really well and follow the discussion every time the course is run (12th run just finished), so it was against that that I made my initial judgement. The first week I thought was very good, a lot of text and audios, a lot of work to do and I looked forward to the following 3 weeks ... but oh dear, I had misunderstood, unlike the way the MOOC piles on work each week, the work displayed in week one of this course was the work for the whole course. So nothing new to be added. I did the exercises, found Algen-de and Archion very useful but very sparse in their coverage of German parishes and within those parishes little prior to 1800.

There was almost no discussion amongst students, which was unlike the MOOC, but the course tutor answered all student questions, prompted them and gave new directions, added his own knowledge, again unlike the MOOC.

This was a very narrow course (as expected) and yes it had a very American bias. So narrow that I had to prompt the course tutor to appreciate that a considerable number of Germans travelled to America via England, some even working here to raise the money for the next leg of their journey, and that for some researchers the UK records may hold useful info. I think I was the only person from the UK on the course.

I don't think it was worth £72 for the info I got, but as I said originally the £72 represents one day's research in London for me and I could easily come away from there with nothing.

Did it help me unlock my question marks ? ... No, but it gave me sources to look into that I'd not met before.
To be fair on the course, my research lacks any sort of direction ...
- I do not have any records of Herman's birthplace.
- He arrived before immigration records to UK.
- Herman made absolutely no mention of his life in Germany that has been recorded in UK. He did not seek naturalization even though he should have done in order to own a business in London 1806-1812.

I feel sure that many course students gained a lot from the course, but they were American researchers and many were the descendants of much more recent migrants.

[geocmoore]

I started this discussion and also took the course.  I think I expected less from it than the prior commenter.  It helped me understand how to find out about towns/villages throughout the continent via GOV.  It helped me better understand German-speaking naming conventions which was quite helpful.  The instructor helped assess some of my research and transcribe and translate some German script.  (I use an on-line translator for textualized German.)  Overall, I found it worth the money.  But, I am looking at ancestors that immigrated to America.

I do agree with the other commenter that the material was a bit thin, and that there was limited discussion among the students.  Many students didn't participate at all until the last week, then only did the first exercise.

Overall, it was worth it for me, but could have offered much more.

[Mowsehowse]

Interesting feed back.
Thank you both.