GEN 200 Kinship Theory: Part I is a fairly new class offered by Akamai University as part of their genealogy degree program. Taught by Caroline Earle Billingsley, Ph.D. and professional genealogist, students will learn how to unify history, genealogy, and kinship theory. Applying these three disciplines to the five main areas of family history research: (1) migration, (2) settlement patterns, (3) marriage and naming patterns, political and economic class status, and (5) religion, gives you a deeper understanding of your ancestors not in evidence by studying the families separately.

This is a college class, meaning you use both Evidence Explained and Turabian’s Manual for Writers … for citations. Turabian is a standard humanities version of EE which is genealogy-specific. Class is based on a semester time frame. You determine when the semester starts. However, once you pay your fee, you have 16 weeks to complete the course. You work on your own time, at home, using electronic means to collaborate with the instructor. Communities of Kinship by Billingsley is required reading for this class (and should be for every genealogist). Other readings are light and pertinent to the study. Most of the work and most of your learning experience comes from writing your research paper. Since I wasn’t using my own genealogy, I worked a little harder, because I had to enter data into FTM for 6 families. Had I been working from my own families, this work would have already been done.

I highly recommend this class, especially for learning how to work around brick walls and road blocks.