Introducing Pharos Tutors
This is a post I wrote when I was given the position of Course Director at Pharos Tutors back in October 2019. In June 2020 I bought the company.
I was absolutely delighted when I was recently appointed as Course Director for
Pharos Tutors® (the middle “a” is pronounced like a for apple). However, it occurred to me that some of my international followers may not be familiar with the services Pharos provides. What follows is an introduction to Pharos for those who are not familiar with it and some of the background as to how the company arose for those that are. This post therefore has a promotional element but I hope you find it interesting too.
Pharos Tutors is a provider of online genealogy courses. It is based in the UK and therefore the focus of many (but not all) of the courses is UK and Ireland records. There are many standalone courses but two of the most popular offerings are the Family History Skills and Strategies certificate programmes: the Intermediate Certificate and Advanced Certificate, run in association with the Society of Genealogists in London. It is expected that students will have have experience with the fundamental records, such as birth, marriage and death records and parish registers, before enrolling on the Intermediate Certificate programme. Both certificate programmes consist of a range of subjects, taking the students from the more often used sources such as wills and probate records through to more challenging records, like manorial documents, and bringing in the broader study of the community. I’m summarising in the interests of space but see here for more information on the Pharos Certificate Courses. The Advanced Certificate is recognised by AGRA (the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives) as a route to becoming a professional genealogist.
One of the big plus points of Pharos is its total flexibility. All courses, including those that are part of the certificate programmes, can be taken in isolation. We also have some specialised subject areas such as one name studies, DNA testing and how to become a professional genealogist.
The tutors are well known experts in their respective fields, many of whom have published books on their taught subject areas. I don’t want to list some tutors and miss others so see here for more information on the Pharos Tutors tutor team.
I have been tutoring and course writing for Pharos for five years but I decided to speak to Managing Director, Helen Osborn, to find out more about the origins of the company, which began in 2005.
What was the idea behind Pharos when you started the company?
There was no-one who was teaching family history online in the UK; everyone who wanted to learn had to travel to a face-to-face class or take an old-fashioned distance learning course at great expense. We wanted to bring short courses to everyone regardless of their ability or experience, and to bring enthusiasm and our experience as professional genealogists in not only finding people and breaking down brick walls, but also in adding that all important historical context which was lacking from many adult education classes in family history.
Who was on the original team?
Myself and Sherry Irvine were the founders and company owners; and we quickly recruited tutor Gill Blanchard, shortly followed by Liz Carter. Within a year we had a group of about 5 or 6.
Why the name “Pharos”?
We wanted something that stood out and had many discussions about what it should be called. Pharos is a lighthouse and we are all about shedding light on family history.
What was the very first Pharos course?
Now lost in time, I believe it might have been one of Gill’s which was a general course for England & Wales called “Planting the Tree”. Other early courses were “Scottish Research Online”, and “England and Wales Online”.
How have the courses changed over the last 14 years?
Almost all the courses have developed and changed, some have been more successful than others, some have been retired or totally re-written, but many of the courses that we have now have been running for a considerable amount of time.
What have been Pharos’ greatest successes?
Any course that gets good feedback is a success, and we have lots of wonderful feedback from students who have loved learning the Pharos way. Undoubtedly the joint certificate programmes we run together with the Society of Genealogists have been a huge success and particularly now the Advanced course is recognised by the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). For me as tutor and author of many of the courses the high I get when a student has success with learning something new, maybe finding a long-lost ancestor, or developing their own projects and writing cannot be beaten. For me, that is the greatest success.
