This Basic Genealogy Course is targeted to Beginners, and will focus on your immigrant ancestors and their immediate families in the United States. It includes 6 lessons (about 15 pages each), delivered online (which you can download) including: an introduction to data collection, techniques for organizing your data, as well as how to research and interpret census, vital records and Ellis Island passenger manifests.

This course is a personal mentoring program which features an online FORUM. Students post one ancestral branch (one surname), set goals for their research, and work one-on-one with the instructor to research that branch. This course does not include research beyond what is available on the internet for United States research. The focus is on the census, vital records and N.Y. passenger arrivals.

If you have already found the names and dates and former towns for your immigrant ancestors, you may be ready to take the Intermediate and Advanced courses.

Requirements: Students must be comfortable on the computer, browsing the Internet and downloading files. To best utilize this class, we suggest students have 8-10 hours per week to read the lessons, search online and interact with the class FORUM.

Tuition for Basic Genealogy is $80, This fee is waived if you qualify for JewishGen's Value Added Services, having made a $100 donation to JewishGen’s General Fund within the past 12 months. You are then welcome to enroll at no additional charge (the system will recognize you and will not ask for a credit card). Registration will open March 15, 2013; please make a note on your calendar as the class fills quickly.

The FORUM, class interaction with the instructor, has no scheduled times. It is open 24/7 as our students are international; read/view/post at your leisure. To see a short video on how our courses work, close this window then click on the video at the very bottom of the page.

For questions, please email the instructor by clicking here: Nancy Holden, Instruction Manager, JewishGen