The GRIP Experience

Last week I attended the Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburgh, commonly know as GRIP. This was my second time to attend GRIP. Last summer I took the Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper coordinated by Paula Stuart-Warren. Paula exposed the class to often obscure and overlooked resources using her own experiences as examples. This summer, I decided to jump into the deep end and take the class, Advanced Research Methods coordinated by Tom Jones. Let me be perfectly frank, by no means do I consider myself an advanced genealogist. But I felt that to increase my knowledge it was important to  challenge myself. And boy did I ever!

Tom is a professor, researcher, editor and writer for the NGS Quarterly, and a much sought after educator. His latest publication is Mastering Genealogical Proof, (Arlington, VA National Genealogy Society, 2013). Despite all these credentials, he is quite personable and a great speaker. He wants his students to learn and understand the who, what, where, when and why for analyzing information found in different records. He constantly amazed me how one could determine various generations just by using tax records. Or even better who was a step-child. Tom strongly suggests to his students to make charts whether it be an Excel type or time-line to analyze information. I ashamedly admit that I don't often do this, keeping everything in my head. Which of course leads to going over things multiple times because I failed to write down what I found or even what I didn't find; and where I looked. This is my biggest sin! How many times have I looked at the same record over and over again is simply too embarrassing to even think about. Between the class projects we did and the assigned nightly homework by Friday my brain was ready to explode from information overload! I was exhausted.

Despite the exhaustion, the week was stimulating, challenging and overwhelming and I loved every minute! It was a week to get reacquainted with friends I met last year and to make new ones. But mostly I came away with renewed energy and confidence that I could move forward with my research. Everyone should have the GRIP experience. And yes, I would do it again in a heart beat.