Recently I started a project to research my cousin's maternal side to determine if she was part Native American. Running into several brick walls, I'm wondering if I'd be any good as a professional genealogist. I have charged her good money for my time and research, so I know that makes me a professional, but what do I do with those brick walls? I can see from the television shows on family history, that there are enough brick walls for everyone. Sometimes the initial question that someone has on their own background can't be answered so the research goes into another familial direction.
That's what I've always wanted to become. I've wanted it so much that I became an Archivist because when I was ready for grad school, there was only one place in the country that offered education in Genealogy, and I wasn't about to re-locate at the time. Now, several schools do offer classes and several are on-line. Why, even FamilySearch.org offers a many free classes that have gotten me going.
I met Thomas MacEntee on the 2011 Legacy Family History Cruise and he suggested Boston University which offers a Genealogical Research program for about $2,695. The National Genealogical Society NGS offers a home study course for $565 but it is only a step to further education and their website states that if you do their course, you can get a discount on the Boston University program. Brigham Young University offers 10 Family History courses that are on-line, uncredited, but FREE. Since money is almost always an issue, I think I'll start with BYU free ones.
The Brigham Young classes will help me to better determine if I can even study at home without the pressure and interaction of classmates. I seldom have any trouble motivating myself where family history research is concerned, but school is another matter. We'll see.
Legacy also offers a webinar (one of many) which talks about going professional. I'd better watch/listen to that first.
