Category Archives: ICAPGen

ICAPGen

2016 Election Results Announced

Leave a comment

board-of-commissioners-1
The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGenSM) has announced the results of elections held in December of 2016.  Congratulations to these three individuals, who will serve as Commissioners for three-year terms:

  • Suzanne Adams, AG®
  • Fritz Juengling, AG
  • Dayna Jacobs, AG

We would also like to thank Danielle Batson, AG, who is finishing up her term as President of the Commission, for her tremendous contributions to ICAPGen and her leadership these past two years.  We welcome Russell S. Lynch, AG, as our new president, and look forward to working with him in that role.

What do you know about the ICAPGen Board of Commissioners and their roles in this credentialing organization? We thought it might be helpful to explain a bit about the make-up of the Commission and what they do, according to the ICAPGen bylaws.

The ICAPGen Board of Commissioners consists of twelve Accredited Genealogist® researchers. Six are elected at-large Commissioners serving three-year terms. They can then serve without reelection for an additional term of three years. Five are appointed Commissioners serving one year terms, which may be extended, who have specific qualifications that include the following:

  1. Testing specialist
  2. Faculty member of an educational institution which provides secondary instruction with emphasis in genealogy and family history
  3. Professional employee or officer of a major archive or library serving the genealogical community
  4. Someone whose specific qualifications meet the special needs of the Commission

Elections take place in years when a vacancy arises, so do not necessarily occur every year.

Some of the offices or roles the Commissioners fill are the President of the Commission, Vice-President Elect, Vice-President, executive secretary, and treasurer.  Commissioners also lead and serve on committees that manage testing, finances, public relations, conferences, and study groups, as well as other ad hoc committees as needs arise.

Currently, the Commission meets every other month in Salt Lake City, Utah, with some of the non-local members joining via WebEx.  What do we do? According to the ICAPGen bylaws:

“The principle purpose of the Commission is to create, maintain, and administer the accreditation examinations used for awarding candidates the title of Accredited Genealogist® researcher. To that end, the Commission establishes related examination procedures and protocols. It must approve new or rewritten examinations, and it determines the qualifications and appointment of each examination development team and exam proctors.”

So, naturally, most of what the Commission does revolves around the application and testing process. It is a challenge to develop exams for, and administer, a testing program that covers forty regions of the world —it requires a lot of work!  In support of our mission to promote excellece in genealogy we also co-sponsor a genealogy conference, have published a book, maintain a website and blog with educational resources, and facilitate study groups.

In future posts we plan to introduce you to the Commissioners and some of what they do for ICAPGen. We hope this glimpse behind the scenes of ICAPGen has helped you understand a bit more about the organization.

Accreditation, Education, Family History, Genealogy, ICAPGen, Websites

Mountain States Resources

Leave a comment

Mt Nebo

by Claire V Brisson-Banks

When considering accreditation, one has to take into account many different things besides the location of the families you’ll be researching in your 4 generation report like knowing the resources available to conduct your research.

From the ICAPGen website, one can find a resource guide put together for each of the various regions available for accreditation. An individual can view the resource guide which covers the Mountain States, click here. This region covers Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

In addition to knowing the variety of resources listed, one also has to learn to recognize various documents also from these same states. No one resource guide or website could have all of the possible set of records available for a particular location.

With old records being digitized, captured, and being made available on various websites, learning of new record sets coming online is helpful to all researchers regardless of what level they are at in the accreditation process. As record sets are brought to our attention, they will be shared in this blog and also on our Facebook page in hopes of helping others with their research.

The following are additional records available to help with research in Arizona. One of the oldest cemeteries in the Phoenix area is the Double Butte Cemetery, an online burial database has been created by the Family History Society of Arizona. This cemetery is located in Tempe, Arizona and was formally started in 1897 however, plot sales appear to date back to 1892. The history of this cemetery is provided along with other links to help with research in this area. There is a Surname Index where anyone can list their surname who has an email address and a section called Arizona Queries where you can send a message for guidance on research in this area.

Anyone having family in this area would be wise to check out their website. Look for future articles on various records for the different testing regions as they are made known to us. The Family History Society of Arizona has done a fine job of helping out researchers with ancestors in Maricopa County, Arizona.