The class covers how to successfully conduct, organize, and record research for your genealogy. How to begin? How to evaluate evidence? What are the best sources? Where are the records--online and off? What can DNA tell us?

Start your journey on a foundation of good habits and best practices. Participation will help you develop great genealogy skills. The course finishes with a list of favorite sources for additional learning and an optional meet-up with a personal research session at the SGS library.

Weeks 1 - 4 will meet virtually and consist of lecture, discussion, and workshop for one-and-a-half-hours each session.

Week 5 (optional) includes a library tour and one-on-one research assistance.

Limit of 20 people per class.

Please register by Friday, October 13, 2025.

Class fee $80 (SGS members $60)

Instructors

With her Bachelors in Music Education, Masters in Distance Education, and participation in numerous genealogical institutes, Cecellia Rogers brings wit and wisdom to every SGS program she facilitates. A member since 2017, she served as Director of Volunteers and Director of Education. Ceil manages the SGS website calendar of events and its Zoom and Vimeo accounts. Ceil hosts Brags & Bricks, Tech Tuesdays, and the Ancestry Users and FamilySearch SIGs. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and offers one-on-one consultations upon request. Ceil has been researching her family history for more than 50 years.

Kathy Weber speaks, teaches, and writes regularly for global genealogy audiences. She has a special interest in effectively using DNA data to discover unknown family members. She serves as an administrator of the DNA project of the Irish clan of her 3rd great grandmother of County Monaghan. She designed this Beginning Genealogy course curriculum in response to her prior experience as a student. She plans to publish a book about the arrival stories of her eight great grandparents to Washington pre-1910.

Inspired by the Bicentennial, Lisa Oberg began researching her family history at the age of 12 and she’s especially enamored with her Luxembourg ancestors. Lisa received her Master of Librarianship degree from the University of Washington, where she is the Director and History of Science and Medicine Curator for Special Collections in the UW Libraries. Lisa regularly gives genealogy-related lectures at the Seattle Genealogical Society, across the country virtually, and teaches an online course aimed at library staff serving genealogists through the University of Wisconsin's School of Library and Information Studies.