Course curriculum

    1. About Your Instructor: Gena Philibert-Ortega

    2. Course Access: June 5 - July 2, 2023

    3. Course Overview and Outline

    4. Learn to use the Course Player

    5. Contact Us

    6. Before we begin ...

    1. 5 Tips for Getting Started with Ancestry

    2. Online Family Tree

    3. 5 Reasons to Keep Your Tree Online

    4. Protecting Your Privacy

    5. Starting Your Tree

    6. Adding People to Your Tree

    7. Member Connect

    8. Import a GEDCOM

    9. Navigating the Online Tree

    10. Accepting Hints

    11. Using Hints

    12. Syncing Your Tree

    13. Facts and Sources

    14. Lesson 1 Quiz

    15. Discussion and Exercise 1: Try it Yourself

    1. Overview of Online Collections

    2. Lesser-known collections

    3. Explore by Collection

    4. International Records

    5. Basic and Advanced Searches

    6. Why Isn't My Ancestor's Name Showing Up?

    7. Card Catalog Search Tips and Tricks

    8. Searching within Collections

    9. Accuracy of Records

    10. Public Member Trees and Other People's Stuff

    11. Lesson 2 Quiz

    12. Exercise and Discussion

    1. Testing with AncestryDNA

    2. What Will DNA Tell You?

    3. Activating the Kit and Taking the Test

    4. Ethnicity Estimates

    5. Migration

    6. Communities Q&A Article by Diahan Southard

    7. Ethnicity Inheritance

    8. Working with Matches

    9. Viewing Matches

    10. Contacting Matches

    11. DNA ThruLines

    12. Lesson 3 Quiz

    1. Using Ancestry.com to Solve Problems

    2. Collaborate with the Ancestry Community

    3. Message Boards

    4. Contribute

    5. Hire an Expert

    6. Advanced Tools and Search Strategies

    7. Use Search Engines

    8. Ancestry Library Edition

    9. Find Offline Records

    10. Other Properties and Tools from Ancestry.com

    11. Other Sites Owned by Ancestry: RootsWeb, Find A Grave, and Archives.com

    12. Other Sites Owned by Ancestry: Newspapers.com

    13. Other Sites Owned by Ancestry: Fold3

    14. Ancestry on Social Media and on the Go

    15. Lesson 4 Quiz

    1. Download the lesson text

    2. Please take our survey

About this course

  • Free
  • 62 lessons
  • 3 hours of video content

Instructor(s)

Gena Philibert-Ortega holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master’s degree in Religion. Presenting on various subjects involving genealogy, women’s studies and social history, Gena has spoken to groups throughout the United States and virtually to audiences worldwide. Gena is the author of hundreds of articles published online and in print. Her books include Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra (Arcadia Publishing, 2007) and From the Family Kitchen (F+W Media, 2012). Her current research interests include social history, community cookbooks, signature quilts and researching women’s lives.

Gena Philibert-Ortega

Instructor

How Family Tree University Courses Work

  • Courses

    Our courses consist of four or more written lessons that may also contain videos, slide shows, and other elements. There are self-directed quizzes and/or exercises to help you apply your knowledge. In addition, you'll have access to discussion boards where you can ask your instructor, questions about the materials during the course dates.

  • Instructor

    Instructor access for the duration of the four weeks, so you can ask questions about what you've learned.

  • Access

    Our courses are designed to be easily accessible! Once you've registered for the course, you'll be able to log in on the start date to see all the lessons. Each lesson is available within your browser. You can work at your own pace.

  • Materials

    All the materials will be available for download, and you'll have access to the course materials online for about a year after the start date. After the course end date, it will go into read-only mode, so you'll still be able to reach the materials, but you'll no longer have access to the instructor or message boards.

  • What You’ll Need

    Please ensure that you have internet access and that your browsers and computer system are fairly up-to-date. The course materials are designed to be compatible with most devices.