Category Archives: Education

Accreditation, Application process, Education, Family History, Genealogy, Hiring a Professional, ICAPGen, Professionals, Renewals, Volunteer opportunities

Why Becoming an Accredited Genealogist® Professional Is Worth It

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By Trish T. Melander

Considering accreditation? It may be one of the best investments you can make in your genealogical career.

Genealogy is more than a hobby or even a profession—it’s a calling. And for many researchers who feel that calling deeply, one eventually asks themselves: Should I become accredited?

If you’re exploring that question, you’re already on a path of growth. Earning the Accredited Genealogist® (AG®) credential through ICAPGen℠ is more than a professional milestone — it’s a transformative experience that elevates your skills, your confidence, and your credibility.

Let’s walk through some of the reasons why many genealogists choose to pursue accreditation—and why it might be right for you, too.

1. Join a Legacy of Professional Excellence and Ethics

For more than fifty years, accreditation has served as an independent, trustworthy way to demonstrate true genealogical competence. When you earn the AG credential, you join this heritage of quality research, ethical practice, and professional rigor. The Code of Ethics signed by each AG professional ensures the public that honest communication, transparency in research limitations, respect for client confidentiality, properly citing sources, and accurately representing results are hallmarks of your work. 

Your commitment sets you apart and builds trust before a client ever meets you.

2. Increase your Visibility by Developing Specialized Expertise in a Specific Region

One of the unique strengths of ICAPGen accreditation is its regional focus. Candidates choose a specific geographic area and must demonstrate deep, practical expertise in the records, history, and cultural context of that region. The “Find an Accredited Genealogist Professional” directory on the ICAPGen website illustrates the areas around the world where accredited professionals are already working. Your deep skills in one of these regions can set you above the rest as a specialist in that area. Additionally, your specific expertise allows you to add professional post nominals (“AG®”) after your name, be listed on the ICAPGen website, where many clients find accredited professionals, and become more appealing to clients seeking expert genealogy help.

By the time you complete the accreditation process, you’ll feel confident handling even some of the most challenging research problems.

3. Independent Verification of Your Genealogical Skillset

Anyone can claim to be a genealogist. A credential proves it.

Accreditation is an objective, third-party evaluation of your research skills, analytical thinking, evidence correlation, writing clarity, and ability to solve complex genealogical problems. Maybe you are already refining some of these skills without the benefit of a defined path and a measuring stick to help you see areas for improvement in your work. Often, we can be so excited about the research that we don’t spend much time documenting it in writing to help a client review the results. Striving for accreditation allows you to put these skills to work in a concise body of work that is reviewed and awarded the credential when it’s ready — with stepping stones along the way if areas of your work need to improve.

That independent verification can be incredibly empowering — both for you and for anyone who hires you. You will build confidence to take on more complex client work, present and publish with authority, communicate your findings clearly, and build stronger client relationships.

4. Strengthen Your Research Skills Through Training and Preparation

Preparing for accreditation makes you a better researcher—regardless of where you are in your career. ICAPGen offers webinars, study groups, practice materials, and guidance from experienced AG professionals.

By the time you complete the accreditation journey, you will have sharpened every aspect of your research process—from methodology and analysis to report writing and time management.

Renewing your credential every five years to keep it current allows you to continue to refine your skills and demonstrate that refinement to other AG professionals in a manner that supports your growth. Your client’s ongoing mystery weaving through Georgia and Alabama may allow you multiple opportunities to use new methods of analysis, and come to sound genealogical conclusions over time.

5. New Opportunities to Serve, Lead and Expand

Once accredited, you will also have opportunities to serve within the ICAPGen organization. Some of these include serving a term as a commissioner, working with one of the testing committees, as a mentor or study-group leader, or supporting accreditation development. 

AG professionals are committed to building the genealogical community, and take opportunities to lead genealogical societies, our credentialing organization, libraries, and special research groups. It’s a chance to give back to the community, collaborate with other professionals, and help shape the future of genealogical standards.

Will the benefits make your effort pay off?

If you’re passionate about genealogy and committed to professionalism, accreditation can be one of the most meaningful steps you take in your career. As we’ve discussed here, it can expand your opportunities, broaden and deepen your knowledge, and connect you with a community of researchers who have demonstrated their skills as a professional.

The journey requires dedication, but the benefits last a lifetime.

And who knows? A few years from now, you may be the one inspiring new candidates to begin their own accreditation journey!

Accreditation, Application process, Education, Family History, Genealogy, Skillbuilding, State resources, Study Groups

Choosing a Family for your Four Generation Project

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By Lisa Stokes, AG®

Have you ever wondered if the family you chose for your Four Generation Project was a good fit? Are you struggling to find a family that is ‘just right’? ICAPGen Study Group mentors have compiled some suggestions to help participants fine tune their selection for their Four Generation Project.

The family you chose does not need to be your own family. Sometimes in researching your own family you’ll find yourself so invested that it’s difficult to draw the line on ‘reasonably exhaustive research.’

Pick a family that will illustrate your skills as a genealogist! Look for a family that shows off your skills using a variety of original sources. Look for opportunities to use indirect evidence, analyze and correlate, discuss your findings and resolve conflicts.

A family that demonstrates any of the following would not be a good fit:

  • They don’t stay in the region long enough
  • There are insufficient original records
  • There is insufficient proof of relationships and events
  • There is a lack of record types from the Regional Resources document for your region

If you are planning to use research that you conducted a long time ago, be sure that you remember how connections were made. Is your research log complete? If not, it may be difficult to accurately recreate your research log and articulate your research in the report. Keep in mind, though, that many applicants successfully make prior research work for a Four Generation Project.

Demonstrating Your Research Skills

One of the purposes of the Four Generation Project is for applicants to show they know how to research. Look for a family that shows off your research skills. Use a variety of strategies and methodologies to present the research in your report. Some strategies you might discuss include:

  • Distinguish people of the same name to show why one particular person belongs in the family and not another person of the same name.
  • Emphasize how a record applies to the individual or family. For example, how does the census household enumeration add to the proof that they are from the family you are discussing (i.e occupations, religion, visitors, ages, age gaps, servants, addresses, correlating multiple censuses, etc.).
  • Point out a discrepancy that exists among records and display your knowledge of the location, the records, the family, etc. Discuss why one source is more credible than another.
  • Use negative evidence to help prove an identity, a death, a migration, or other events. For example, show that an individual is not in a certain place and thus could be deceased or could have migrated from one area to another.
  • Use naming patterns to connect members of a family.
  • Use the FAN club concept of cluster research to strengthen your proof arguments. For example, connect people in the same location or connect a family in one location to a family in another location. This technique can also be used to strengthen evidence of likely relationships.
  • Find ways to use indirect evidence to strengthen proof arguments and reach a solid conclusion.
  • Apply understanding of the laws of the time period and region by accessing statute books or other documentation of the laws.
  • Explain the jurisdictional organization and who had custody of the records or any boundary changes that may affect the records.
  • Use cultural, or historical context to support a conclusion about a person’s identity.

Children of the second, third, and fourth main-line subjects should be well researched and documented in the research log and family group sheets. Covering these children in the research report of the Four Generation Project is not a requirement, and is discouraged if it distracts from the space needed to properly analyze the main subjects and their generational links. HOWEVER, showcasing research skills, analysis skills, and/or correlation skills with the children is a good technique in a Four Generation Project.

For more detailed information, consult the Guide to Applying for an Accredited Genealogist® Credential which covers all of ICAPGen’s application requirements and guidelines.