Besides genealogical resources that do not require a computer, namely books and genealogy societies. I’ll add these non-digital educational resources.
Magazines and journals:
The most well-known general genealogy magazine is Family Tree Magazine, and covers a variety of topics — it’s published in print and online.
Avotaynu was the most well-known periodical for Jewish genealogy, but it recently ceased print publication. It plans on restarting as an online journal sometime next year, at which time it might make available free access to its 33 years of back issues.
There are also scholarly genealogical journals (non-Jewish), with articles written by genealogical experts, that teach advanced skills in problem solving.
The most well-known is the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.
Sometimes these kinds of periodicals are available at larger libraries. The main branch of the Denver Public Library has the state’s best genealogy resources on the fifth floor, and has many back issues of Avotaynu, NGSQ, Family Tree Magazine and others.
It’s an absolutely must-see destination — when it reopens. While you can still request material from the genealogical staff, it’s closed due to renovation until sometime next year.
Classes:
Some genealogy societies have regular or occasional classes, as do lifelong learning venues and libraries.
There are also numerous online classes.
Sometimes, genealogy societies offer full day or weekend seminars on particular topics.
Institutes:
There are a handful of genealogy institutes whose courses range from a few days to five full days of instructional classes, on a variety of topics.
This is a fire-hose approach to learning, with full days of top experts in their fields, along with homework and lots of networking with people who have similar passion for the topic.
The oldest and most known is the Institute for Genealogical and Historical Research, in Athens, Ga.
There are others, including the closer one, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.
Institutes, seminars and classes are increasingly available as hybrid attendance (in person and via Zoom.)
Conferences:
Related to both institutes and classes, genealogical conferences often last several days of day-long series of presentations. These annual events happen at the state, national and international level.
Like institutes, they are often a dense venue for learning skills, and are sometimes hybrid, at least for the next year or two.
I’ll now turn my attention to the world of online learning, which is vast. So I’ll just stick my toe in the water here.
Webinars:
One of my favorite and convenient venues, webinars are exploding in numbers and popularity — and they are usually free. Often lasting an hour (not including Q&A), these are great to watch, and especially good to view at your convenience and as many times as you want, if recorded. Most are available through a wide variety of genealogical societies, and you can also find them through the major databases.
One of my favorite resources is Family Tree Webinars, a collection of presentations by top genealogical experts in the field.
It’s free to watch the day of the presentation and for a week afterwards. It’s then put behind a pay wall. But it’s worth having a subscription — they have almost 2,000 recordings on just about any topic you can think of.
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