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GFO Study Group

The GFO Study Group is designed to help you sharpen your genealogy research skills.  This study group environment will keep you focused, enrich your skills,  and provide you with a network of like-minded individuals interested in genealogical research.

Online Zoom meetings are held on the 1st Wednesday of the month, at 1:00 p.m. (PT).  This group will begin meeting on May 1st and will last approximately 14 months (accommodating for holidays, research-heavy chapters, etc.)

Please fill out our enrollment form and join us today!  This study group will be limited to 20 participants.  If more than 20 participants enroll a waiting list will be generated.

The GFO Study Group will cover the research methods found in Research Like A Pro with DNA by Diana Elder AG®, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin.  You may recognize Diana and Nicole as the mother/daughter team from Family Locket.  This book may be purchased from AbeBooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's Books.

The GFO Study Group is FREE and open to GFO Members only.  Not a member of the GFO yet?  Please see the GFO Membership page for information and membership enrollment forms.

What does it mean to be a member of this study group? 

It means that you will be expected to read a chapter a month and to complete the task given at the end of each chapter.  Some of the tasks include:

  • creating a research objective
  • writing a research plan
  • creating a locality guide
  • maintaining a research log
  • developing citations
  • building one or more descendancy charts
  • evaluating and using DNA analysis tools

One of the most rewarding and perhaps the most challenging is to share your written documents with the other group members and group facilitators.  The study group Zoom meeting is a time to network with the other participants, discuss the chapters, share our progress, ask questions, and learn from one another.  No one will be graded! 

Interested in joining the study group but not feeling comfortable with technology?  On Monday, April 29th at 1:00 p.m. (PT) we will hold a two-hour demonstration of some of the tools and techniques we'll be using throughout the course, such as Google Groups, Drive, Docs, and Sheets; Microsoft Word and Excel; Airtable (an optional relational database tool); and sharing of documents for review by the other participants.

Enroll today!

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