The Plan

I have finally submitted my portfolio to become a certified genealogist. Now the wait begins. I was told it would be four to six months before I heard if I was deemed worthy. When you first apply for certification from the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) they give you 365 days to complete your portfolio and submit it. Until this year. In February BCG announced a pilot program where an applicant could submit their portfolio in two parts. The first half would include Development Activities, Document Work, and Kinship Determination Project (KDP), The second half would include a Research Report for a third party (client: paying or pro bono); and a Case Study. Feed back would be provided after the first half was submitted. If the first half is deemed sufficient then the applicant would have a year to submit the remaining elements of the portfolio.

I decided to stick with my original plan and submit everything in one portfolio. Since the last element I needed before submitting was my KDP I felt I would basically be done once I had the KDP completed, I would not be gaining anything by waiting for a review, for if the review was not deemed sufficient I would need to start over with a new KDP and Document Work.

Develop Activities

I applied in January. Actually, I applied on January 1, but my check was lost in the mail and was not received until the 29th. That was the date they started the clock for me. I had maintained a sort of resume of all the activities that I had done to develop my proficiency in research and writing the genealogy stories that I had been discovering. This resume will, at some point, be posted here on my website for prospective clients to review.

Document Work

Element 2 was the Document that BCG sent me. For this element, the applicant specifies a locality and a time period. I had chosen England early 1800s. What I received was perfect for me: an 1859 Will from Cheshire, England. Cheshire, England, is where the Heap family lived prior to their immigration to New York in 1882. The Heap line was my maternal grandmother’s family. So it was perfect. I was quite jazzed when I first looked it over so I got started immediately on my transcription. The document needed to be transcribed, and then an abstract was written. Once that was done, I was required to find a research question based on the information provided in the document and then develop a research plan. It was while I was working on my research plan that the new BCG Pilot program was announced.

The decision as to whether to submit in stages or all at once took some time for me. I listened to all the discussions and knew no matter what, I needed to make a choice on the subject for my KDP.

Kinship Determination Project

This element had a lot of requirements. First it could not have been previously reviewed or published. That meant all the family lines that I shared on this blog were probably not usable. I started looking at the research I had done for others. I settled on the Thomas Knox Family, originally out of Kentucky in the early 1800s. I liked their story because they came west after the Gold Rush in 1853 on the Oregon Trail. This fascinated me, and I hoped to be able to capture my reviewer’s interest with what I felt was the enticing story of this family’s journey west, which was also the story of this nation’s westward expansion.

The KDP took me on an adventure to learn the history of the Oregon Trail and other overland routes to the West. The stories were often written by pioneer women about their lives not only on their journey west but also their lives after arriving in Oregon. (See my previous blog “Looking for Oregon Trail Migrant- 1853.”)
This section was one of the more difficult sections, and when I was finally finished I started having second and third thoughts. Hopefully, when I send this narrative of the three generations to my cousin, he will be happy with what I wrote. My goal is to provide the family stories to give back to their descendants.

Research Report

The research report element had to be a report the applicant wrote for a client. It was to include the contract and initial intake information, along with the client’s permission to use their report as part of the applicant’s submission. I did several pro bono projects hoping one would work well for this element. I felt the last one I did could be used as submitted to the client. I knew he had been happy with my report and had shared it with other family members. This research required research in an area of the country I was unfamiliar with. I enjoyed the challenge and hope this client will ask me to dive a little deeper into those stories and follow that line into his early Canadian roots.

Case Study

The final element was the case study. On this, I went to one of my family lines. This was to resolve a conflict. With so much on the internet and more being added all the time, family historians need to have standards to make educated decisions about the information they find online. Stories we hear from our parents and grandparents are often stories they heard from their parents or grandparents. And like all gossip, it has probably changed over time and in the telling. Understanding history, the time period, and the culture of the times can help the family historian reach reasonable conclusions while leaving the door open to future discoveries that may clarify the situation. My sister has often been frustrated with the family lines she agreed to take on in the 1980s when she joined me in doing the family research. The line I refer to for my case study was the Clough line who were earlier pioneers to California immediately following the discovery of gold in 1848.

What Next

Going forward whether or not my portfolio is “deemed worthy” to acknowledge me as a Certified Genealogist (CG) I will get back on schedule of posting once a week my discoveries as a family historian and genealogist. I plan to work as a professional for clients who would like help in learning more about their own families. Please feel free to contact me with questions and follow my blog if you enjoy my postings,