Last Saturday's webinar with Karen Clifford is now available to view in our webinar archives. Karen spoke to a live audience at the annual ICAPGen seminar in Salt Lake City, Utah, and at the same time spoke to our live webinar audience.
In her class, Evidence Analysis, Karen taught us how to rank the reliability of data found in a source as direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, collateral evidence, and hearsay evidence. She also explained the difference between primary and secondary evidence and described what to do with conflicting information.
Although the class was taught to a mixture of professional genealogists as well as aspiring professionals seeking advice on passing the accreditation exam, her principles can be applied by all genealogists. One webinar attendee commented that although she probably won't ever be a professional genealogist, she was happy to know that she was on the right track in her evidence analysis techniques. Another listener mentioned that Karen's class "reinforced all the steps necessary to research an ancestor. The explanation of the various terminology used – i.e. direct evidence as opposed to circumstantial evidence – was great."
I personally enjoyed Karen's explanation of how we can evaluate the sources we type into our genealogy computer program. She said that you can test your own evidence analysis and source documentation as you share your information with others. If someone else can easily find that same source that you recorded then you have done a good job entering your sources.
As many webinar attendees commented, I wish she could have kept going. Too bad there was another session in the classroom ten minutes after she concluded. If you want to hear more from Karen, you can sign up for her distance education classes at Monterey Peninsula College or even attend her classes at the Salt Lake Community College.
We also gave away great door prizes and special coupons to our live listeners. Congrats to the winners of Evidence Explained (PDF Edition) and the Legacy Family Tree User's Guide (PDF Edition).
Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to view the recorded presentation. The recording will be available until at least November 23, 2010.
>>We also gave away great door prizes and special coupons to our live listeners.<< Hmmm, so the dead listeners don't get prizes and coupons? That's probably only amusing to genealogists.