News and Views from GRIP

Bold Hall at La Roche College, home to GRIP students this week

Family history researchers from across the country are gathered in western Pennsylvania this week for the second annual Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. At dinner in the La Roche College cafeteria Sunday evening, directors Elissa Powell and Debbie Deal welcomed over 160 students and a distinguished faculty for what promises to be a busy week of learning and fellowship. They shared that of those registered, 42 percent have never been to an institute before, while 33 percent are students returning from last year and 25 percent have previously attended one of the other genealogy institutes. So it’s a neat mix of experience levels, and you can feel the excitement in the air.

Debbie Deal, left, and Elissa Powell, co-directors of GRIP

Elissa and Debbie also announced the dates and course line-up for next year’s institute. GRIP 2014 will be held July 21-25, and six courses will be offered. They all sound really interesting. The course coordinators and topics will be:

• Thomas W. Jones: Determining Kinship Reliably with the Genealogical Proof Standard
• Paula Stuart-Warren: Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper
• D. Joshua Taylor: Becoming an Online Expert: Mastering Search Engines and Digital Archives
• J. Mark Lowe and Deborah Abbott: Finding and Documenting African-American Families
• Judy Russell and Rick Sayre: Law School for Genealogists
• Debbie Parker Wayne, CeCe Moore, and Blaine Bettinger: Practical Genetic Genealogy

I’ll leave you with some views of my dorm room, in case you’re wondering what the accommodations look like. The dorm rooms are simply furnished, but have en-suite bathrooms, a mini-fridge, and a small microwave oven. Then I’d better get going—I don’t want to be late for class on the first day!

--Shelley