Organize Your Family History

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Quick Tip #8: Imperfect research logs

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This lesson on imperfection is one I embrace on a daily basis in most aspects of my life.

An imperfect research log is better than no log at all

As I’ve written here before, I struggled for years with guilt over not having a research log. Every now and then I would try one and then I would give up because it felt like too much work. But then I embraced ease and I started a simple, extremely imperfect, Evernote research log where I simply free-write what I did during each session in a new note in my Research Log notebook. I go into it in some detail in this post.

The fact that it’s so easy to log my research means that I actually do it. One key component of my log is that I write down the next action at the end of each session so I can pick up where I left off. I find it really helpful to check my previous session’s log at the beginning of a new session.

It’s certainly possible to do a more robust research log. And you’ll surely benefit from it. But I’ve come to acknowledge that my imperfect log is perfect for me. And that’s what it’s all about.

P.S. If the topic of genealogy research logs is of interest to you, you might want to join my Genealogy Research Loggers Facebook group. It tends to be a pretty quiet group, but you can always post there looking for guidance.

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

What’s hiding in your unprocessed documents?

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One of the mysteries I’ve been pondering for years is the whereabouts of my great great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1938-1945) after his divorce in McLean County Kentucky in June of 1920 and before he checked into the National Home for Disabled Soldiers in Danville, Illinois, in July 1922. I haven’t found him on the 1920 census and it’s been bugging the heck out of me. In the divorce, he was awarded custody of his 12-year-old son Wayne Horace Adams (1907-1976) and for the longest time I was looking for the two of them.

A few years ago, I found Horace (as he was known then) on the 1920 census living with his half brother. I blogged about how an indexing error kept his whereabouts elusive. But I still haven’t found George on the census. When I was at RootsTech this year, I did a free consult with a genealogist from Trace, seeking help on the question George’s whereabouts between 1920 and 1922. The genealogist asked me why I wanted to know. I didn’t have a good answer, but I still wanted to know. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any Eureka! moments in that short session, but she gave me some avenues to pursue.

In any case, as I was working through my backlog of downloaded documents during the August 30 x 30 challenge, I processed a couple of newspaper articles that shed some light! It was very exciting. (I found out an article about him visiting a son in Oklahoma in 1921 and returning to Kentucky in 1922, a month before entering the soldiers’ home, with his son, after an extended visit to Oklahoma. I don’t know which son, but it’s something.)

Those newspaper articles had been languishing on my hard drive for two years! If I were processing my documents as soon as I downloaded them, which is always my goal, I would have had this information years ago. This is an inconsequential example, but it shows how these newspaper articles–which can be a bit tedious to process–can contain important nuggets. (Here’s a post I did on how I process newspaper articles.)

Lesson learned. My resolve is stronger than ever to eliminate that backlog, which I’m working on once again in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge.

Small lessons from a cemetery visit

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When I drove home to St. Louis from Walla Walla, Washington, last month I planned my route so that I could stop at the Carleton Cemetery, in Thayer County, Nebraska, where all four of my 3rd great grandparents are buried. These are the grandparents of my grandfather, Crawford A. Brown (1906-1996).

Though I had seen their grave markers on Find A Grave, I think it’s always nice to visit a cemetery in person and make that connection. (I blogged a few years ago about why I prefer in-person visits to cemeteries.)

What I was actually looking for were two shared graves. One was for Newton Perry Brown (1853-1938) and Antoinette Garlock Brown  (1855-1922), my grandfather’s paternal grandparents and the other was for Samuel Vorce Wheeler (1852-1937) and Elizabeth Jane (Jennie) Nebergall Wheeler (1857-1933), the parents of his mother.

I didn’t have the luxury of visiting when the sun was high in the sky (time of day can really make a difference in the quality of your cemetery photos), since I started the day in Wyoming. And I was a little distracted while I was at the cemetery because a pebble hit and cracked my windshield on the way there. Plus I had to pee. So I didn’t spend a lot of time at the cemetery looking for other relatives. But I’m really glad I went.

A couple of tips I occurred to me when I was there.

Look for a cemetery directory of graves. I knew what section of the cemetery to look in for the grave of one set of ggggrandparents because it was noted on Find A Grave. I looked around that section for the grave of the other set but I didn’t it. Then I went back to the entrance to see if I could find a directory. This is what the information area inside the cemetery gates looked like:

 

I wondered about the metal case and lifted the door. There I saw a set of drawers and, sure enough, each contained the cemetery records!

I found the section and plot number the grave and was able to go right to it.

If you’re casting a shadow, consider taking the picture upside down from the other side of the marker. Because it was late afternoon, my shadow was cast onto the gravemarker, which was flush to the ground. But I had the idea of taking it from the other side and just flipping the photo using my phone’s Edit feature. Voila.

Right side up:

Upside down:

I felt like a genius.

I think visiting an ancestor’s grave is a great use of time. I always feel more connected to my ancestor and I absolutely remember where they’re buried if I’ve visited the cemetery. It was nice to drive in the little town where my grandfather was born, even if I didn’t get the chance to spend much time there.

Quick Tip #7: Don’t ignore the siblings

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks. This one is about an important lesson I learned years ago. Please, learn from my mistakes!

Don’t ignore your ancestors’ siblings

When I first started doing genealogy research, I was easily overwhelmed by the ever-growing number of ancestors I encountered. I started out with census research, primarily, and when I looked at the long list of names on a given ancestor’s census form, I decided to focus on just the ancestor I was descended from. It felt overwhelming and tedious to enter information from all the siblings into my software. I didn’t see the point.

I was wrong.

I’ve since discovered (as I posted about here) that these siblings (called collateral relatives) are hugely helpful in my research. Not only do they flesh out the experience of my direct-line ancestors, they provide valuable clues that I’ve found the right family. So rather than feel overwhelmed by these large families, I now feel thrilled when I find them. It may take a few minutes to enter information for each person into my database, but it’s time well spent. The bushier the tree the better (as long as every person in the tree has been confirmed with sources)!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash