In the last two years I have taken advantage (in a sense) of all the time from being indoors given the pandemic and I have dedicated this time to genealogical research and education. Back in 2020 I decided to study under Boston University’s Online Certificate Program in Genealogical Research (which I will refer to as “BU” in the blog) and initially I swore off taking another course in the time being (explanation to come) but then immediately I signed up for ProGen’s Study Groups 14-month course (which I will refer to as “ProGen” in the blog) back in 2021 which I am finishing up now in May 2022. I wanted to reflect on these experiences and to create a space for Puerto Rican researchers who might be interested in taking one or both of these courses to get a better understanding of both opportunities. I will reflect on my experience but keep in mind that you might have a completely different one than I did. I will talk about my experiences with genealogy before entering the programs and my personal situation before breaking down the programs into various categories where I will compare the two. Make sure to do your own research and consider your own previous experiences before signing up for one or both of these programs.
Background: Prior to 2020 I had been researching for 16 years. However, most of my research (over 90%) dealt with Puerto Rican genealogy, a bit in Spain (specifically Mallorca), and the French overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. I had dabbled in genealogical research in other countries, such as: Brazil, Canada, Czechia (Czech Republic), Dominican Republic, England, Germany, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Russia (and former Russian empire) Scotland, Sweden, and the United States.
These varied searches allowed me to better understand records such as immigration, name changes, naming customs, etc. I had never taken a genealogy course before 2020 and I had seen some webinars for genealogy but not many. I was also a member of the SPG (Sociedad Genealógica de Puerto Rico) at the time.
Situation: When taking both the BU and ProGen courses I was working full-time as a teacher. From 2020-2021 there was a mix of hybrid/in-person learning while in 2021-2022 I was full-time in person. Teaching has only gotten more difficult throughout the pandemic and so I was very busy trying to balance my work life and my personal life.
A closer look AT...
Cost
BU
ProGen
The Boston University program is expensive seeing as how you are receiving educational credits for this course. At the end you are given a transcript with your class credit, grade, and hours.
Currently as of May 2022, the course is at $2,965 USD.
ProGen is a much cheaper and an easier course to pay, this is because it is not tied to a university like the Boston University program. At the time I began the course, the cost was only $90.
Currently as of May 2022, the course is listed at $150 USD.
Books
Bu
ProGen
Both programs use basically the same books. Both use “Board for Certification of Genealogists: Genealogical Standards” as well as “Professional Genealogy: Preparation, Practice & Standards“.
The BU course also uses “Mastering Genealogical Documentation” and “The Family Tree Guide to DNA testing and Genetic Genealogy“.
The books are super important to have in your genealogical library and so they are definitely worth purchasing!
MATERIAL
BU
ProGen
The program each week supplies you what you will be working on in each module. Very few modules allow you to use your own research or material (I can only remember one assignment that I used my own family).
If you have low experience with research in the United States this can make the program difficult. For example, immigration records and land deeds are not common in Puerto Rico and so using these for the first time creates a learning curve.
In ProGen you’re allowed to use your own research – this can be both good/bad. Good because you can focus on bettering your skills in your areas of interest and create reports for your own family tree. Bad because if you’re planning to apply for the BCG (Board of Certified Genealogists) you can not use any ancestral branch in which you have published work that has received feedback.
So if you decide to do ProGen be very careful which branches you research.
Skills
Both programs focus on similar skills such as researching, solving genealogical mysteries, using the genealogical standards to prove discoveries, using DNA to supplement research, and writing reports of what you have discovered so that it may be digestible for a genealogical (or even sometimes non-genealogical) audience. Report writing was new to me but since I work in academia, I didn’t find this too difficult. If English isn’t your first language, writing reports may be a challenge and may require proofreading from an outside source (this might be allowed in ProGen but not sure how this would work in BU).
Feedback
BU
ProGen
Because of the nature of the program (read: intense) you sometimes don’t have time to fully digest the feedback you are given. Also, since you are being graded the relationship between you and the grader feels much colder. You don’t want to risk any negative interactions so sometimes you hold back any comment or question that might burn you in the future.
For example, in one assignment my grader told me I should have added the age of my ancestor because church records include this information since if they married where they were baptized, the original record is consulted by the church – which is not true for Puerto Rican church records. Rarely, if ever, have I seen an age listed in a religious marriage besides “major de edad“, meaning they are allowed to marry. I said nothing to my grader because I still had time in that module and didn’t want to sound snarky.
You receive feedback at the end of each monthly project from your classmates. Sometimes everyone in your cohort gives you feedback while other times only a smaller group comments. The feedback is not officially graded and so there is a less of a fear to mess up. The comments you receive (both on what you did well and what you can work on are constructive and helpful to honing your skills).
You also receive feedback from the two organizers/leaders of the group. For example, right now my cohort is waiting for feedback on our family narrative from our main leader and the second organizer had given us feedback on a previous assignment. This is helpful because these projects are very BCG-esque meaning you will likely create similar reports in the future if you apply and having legit feedback on how to make a better report/what you did well is tangible and helpful.
Collaboration
BU
ProGen
Though we did have a discussion board to talk about things, it was only directed at the assignment at hand and it seemed like we were barely allowed to collaborate before turning in the assignment. So though I was in a group with various people I felt isolated from them because 1) I didn’t have a rapport with them and 2) it almost felt competitive in the sense that we were all trying to get the best grade.
Even though a lot of us became members of the BU course Facebook group post-completion, I can’t even remember who was in the group with me.
In ProGen, there is a greater feel for collaboration. You meet monthly on Zoom (my group meets every first Tuesday of the month at 4:00PM) and so I was able to see each member live and interact with the whole group based on our reading, assignment, and feedback. Each meeting was an hour but my group even met during the half-month to discuss the assignment at hand or other genealogical topics. This allowed for more cohesion in the group; I am friends with various members of my cohort on Facebook where we discuss genealogy and even have a text group chat with some as well.
TIME
BU
ProGen
BU is a much more intense program! Weekly (read that word again) you have to dedicate at least 20-30 hours of genealogical work. Given my full-time job this meant usually pulling crazy hours Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in order to complete my assignments. Easily I hit 20-30 hours and probably more with adding comments on the discussion board and other articles that I needed to read. By the end of the 15 weeks I felt very burned out (which is why I had initially sworn off any another genealogical course).
The ProGen Study Groups is much more spaced out – 14 months of work. This also can be both good and bad; good because you are able to work on one project a month along with different chapter readings that go along with your project allowing you more time to work. Bad if you don’t know what your life will look like in a few months’ time. Luckily as a teacher I have the summer off and so that usually allows me to get more work done. However, this past summer I was in an immersive French program for 7 weeks which meant I was doing a lot of work daily as well.
Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoyed both programs and I don’t know if ProGen would have been more difficult had I not done the BU course first. In the end, I truly enjoyed the ProGen study group vibe much more because of its pace, atmosphere, and collaboration. A couple of genealogy colleagues who completed both programs compared it to drinking from a firehose (BU) and savoring a good wine (ProGen). Some people aim to get an “A” in the BU genealogical course, honestly, I just aimed to confidently pass the class. ProGen also has more of a feel for genealogical professional networking within your cohort while in BU I never really interacted with my classmates (only post completion and then it dwindled).
If you’re considering getting into the professional genealogical field and/or applying to become a certified genealogist – then definitely both programs are worth taking. If money and time aren’t on your side, you might want to take the ProGen Study Group course and then see from there what you’d like to do. As a Puerto Rican genealogist you might enjoy ProGen more because you can use your own research, but be careful with using too much of it!
There are also more programs out there to consider taking and I would like to keep educating myself because I would like to ultimately make genealogy a profession for myself. I have my eyes set on GenProof – which is a similar program to ProGen except it focuses on a different textbook.
Remember that webinars, reading genealogical journals/books, networking, and constantly doing research are also great ways to improve your genealogical skills!