Classes Form Around Tom Jones’s Mastering
Genealogical Proof
Arlington, VA, 10 June 2013: One of the National
Genealogical Society’s educational goals two years ago was to bring an
excellent learning tool to the genealogical community that would help expand
understanding of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). With the help of Dr.
Thomas W. Jones, phd, cg, cgl, fasg, fngs, that NGS goal was realized
recently with the publication of Mastering
Genealogical Proof. The release of this book has excited and enthused
genealogists of all skill levels and as a result classes and courses of study
are forming quickly around this excellent text. NGS President Jordan Jones
recently spoke to Dr. Jones about this new publication. Jordan shares that
conversation and his thoughts:
I had an opportunity to talk to Tom Jones about his book Mastering Genealogical Proof, recently
published by the National Genealogical Society.
The book is a culmination of Tom’s years of interest in the
topic of genealogical proof. While he
was serving as its president, the Board for Certification of Genealogists
published The BCG Genealogical Standards
Manual (Provo: Ancestry Publishing, 2000). According to Tom, this book was
“one of the first places where the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) was
articulated and laid out in its five parts.” He continues: “In fact, the Standards Manual was released at the NGS
Conference in Providence in 2000, and I did a presentation on the GPS at that
conference and have been doing them in one form or another over the years.”
Often, in the course of a one-hour lecture, Tom can share an insight into some
aspect of the GPS, but the proof standard is a large topic that requires far
more than a single hour.
The courses Tom teaches at Boston University and at the Salt
Lake Institute of Genealogy treat the GPS in a broader context, and this book
builds on that approach. “It’s the result of my learning from all the teaching
I have done, at BU and at the Salt Lake Institute particularly.” Originally,
the book was to have been an NGS online course. As he started to develop the
content, Tom felt that “the complexity and the length suggested that an online
course was not the best way to deliver the content.” The exercises also made
the work better suited to being a “textbook to accompany a course, rather than
a course itself.” So, the National Genealogical Society worked with Tom to
re-conceive the project as a book to support in-class coursework.
And now the courses are coming: Two study groups have formed
to study Mastering Genealogical Proof. One
study group is hosted by Angela Packer McGhie, a genealogical researcher,
lecturer, and instructor. Angela serves as the administrator of the ProGen
Study Program and course coordinator. She has set up a “train-the-trainer” model
where she is working through the content with a small group of mentors, who
will then teach others. The course is being held online via Google Hangouts.
For more information, see the “Gen Proof” groups post on her blog, Adventures in Genealogy Education.
Another study group is led by Pat Richley-Erickson, the
irrepressible blogger also known as “Dear Myrtle.” This course started with an
orientation session on Sunday, with fifteen other panelists. There will be
sessions through September, including a graduation ceremony. For more
information, see Pat Richley-Erickson’s blog Dear Myrtle
or her MGP Study Group schedule.
Of the audience for the Mastering
Genealogical Proof, Tom says he hopes it would include “everyone interested
in tracing their family history. Most of my teaching experience has been with
people that I would say are intermediate and higher in terms of their research
experience. I think the greatest interest in the book is among that group, but
I really hope people who are just embarking on their family history research
will pick this up and get a lot out of it, because it will get them started off
on the right foot. It will minimize all the hours of work put into something
that a few years down the road they realize is worthless. I don’t think
anything in here is too advanced or too complex for a new family historian to
digest and benefit from and apply to their own research.” I agree, and hope
researchers, those just beginning, and those with more experience, will take a
look at Tom’s book, and learn to benefit from the rigor and clarity of the
genealogical proof standard. The National Genealogical Society is proud to have
helped bring Mastering Genealogical Proof
to the community of genealogists. We are heartened to see that the book is
generating interest in advanced genealogical study, and that students and
teachers are using it to explore and extend their understanding of the GPS.
— Jordan Jones, President,
National Genealogical Society
Mastering Genealogical Proof
by Thomas
W. Jones (Arlington, Virginia: National Genealogical Society, 2013). Available at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/
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