BCG Education Fund Putting Skills to Work In-Person Workshop 2025

The BCG Education Fund is happy to host Margaret Rose Fortier, CG®, Mary Kircher Roddy, CPA, CG®, and Patti Hobbs, CG®, CGGSM who will lead workshops on writing and reasonably exhaustive research.

The event will be held in-person at the National Genealogical Society 2025 Family History Conference. The event will not be recorded or available via live-streaming.

The event is all day. Attendees will attend both workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Lunch will be generously provided by the National Genealogical Society. Please note dietary restrictions when you register.

Margaret Rose Fortier, CG® and Mary Kircher Roddy, CPA, CG®

Detailed Workshop Description:

Chapter 4 of Genealogy Standards covers the standards for writing genealogical proofs and assembling research results into a variety of written products. This hands-on workshop is geared toward writing for publication, including peer-reviewed journals.

We will examine organization and flow of the material, and how to avoid repetition and dead-end arguments. Effective use of headings helps the author organize the material and provides an outline for the reader to understand the evidence and a map to find detailed information.

The class will discuss when to use running text for presentation of evidence and when and how to use other formats including charts, diagrams, lists, tables, maps, and other illustrations.

We will review working with an editor and avoiding common errors in writing for and submitting to journals.

Attendee Prerequisite Knowledge:

Understanding of Genealogy Standards, especially those related to reasoning from evidence (Stds 35–50) and writing (Stds 58–61, 64–71).

Pre-Workshop assignment:

Write a biographical sketch of an ancestor. It should be 350 to 500 words. Due to instructors by 1 May 2025. Additional information will be sent to registrants.

Patti Hobbs, CG®, CGGSM

Detailed Workshop Description:

In today’s digital age, the abundance of online genealogical resources can create the illusion of thorough research. However, the first tenet of the Genealogical Proof Standard—reasonably exhaustive research—requires much more than database searches. This workshop will guide participants in identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing all “potentially relevant” information, with a focus on navigating both traditional and digital sources. Through lectures and hands-on exercises, you’ll learn to identify source locations, evaluate their comprehensiveness, and assess their limitations.

Host or Publisher BCG Education Fund