Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

No need to settle for bad scans

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I do a lot of my research online and I’m so grateful for the amazing digitization that has been done of genealogy documents. I’m frequently astounded by the high quality of the scans. It’s a little hard to imagine a genealogy life before this digitizing. (Hats off to those of you who did genealogy research prior to the internet!)

But every now and then I come across a document that was poorly scanned. It happened recently when I downloaded from Ancestry a death certificate for my great grandfather’s brother, Joseph Taylor Rasco (1872-1964). It’s a typewritten death certificate, which is always nice. But the scan was blurry. It was clear enough that I knew it was him, but too blurry to glean information without difficulty.

So I decided to look to see whether Family Search had a different scan of the same document. A few clicks later, I pulled up a crystal clear version of the same document.

Here they are side by side (click the photo to see them larger):

It was a good reminder to me to look a little harder if I come across a scan of a document whose quality makes it hard to read. I may not find a better one, but it’s worth a try!

 

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash

Searcher vs. researcher

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Genealogy searcher vs researcherI’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between being a genealogy searcher and being a genealogy researcher. It’s so much fun to go online and track down documents and attach them to a tree or download them. (I know some people like to print them, but not me.) Because so many searchers attach documents to Ancestry trees without evaluating them we end up with an alarming number of inaccurate trees there.

That’s being a searcher. In my opinion, we’re not really researchers unless we analyze the documents we find so that we know they pertain to the person we’re researching, then go through them with a fine-toothed comb, extracting information and storing that data somewhere–with a source citation.

As I’ve written in my post on how I process a downloaded document, I have a digital workflow for the documents I find online, after I determine they belong to my ancestor. In short, I create a source citation and analyze and extract all information from the document and enter that information into my genealogy software. (I use Reunion). I then file the document. On a good day, I process each document as soon as I find it. That’s always my goal.

But the reality is that, especially since I tend to research in short spurts (like 30 minutes a day), I sometimes end up with documents on my hard drive that I’ve downloaded but not yet processed. That’s been happening a lot recently. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have over 100 documents that I have downloaded that are hanging out on my hard drive, waiting for me process. (At least I changed the file name when I downloaded the documents, so I know at a glance what they are.)

The thing is, these documents won’t do me any good until I process them. I need to read and analyze them and add all facts (with source citation) to my genealogy software in order to benefit from them. But it’s so hard to resist searching, especially when search possibilities pop to mind as I read the downloaded documents.

I want to be a researcher, not a mere searcher. So here’s my vow:

Until the backlog is gone, I will not download any more genealogy documents to my hard drive. I also won’t go to any libraries and bring home paper documents. When searches pop to mind, I will store them in the appropriate follow up notebook in  Evernote to look at when the backlog is gone.

I’m hoping to take a research trip to Kentucky in October. This adds extra urgency to my resolve to get rid of my backlog. You can bet I’ll post here when the backlog is gone!

Do any of you have this particular challenge? Let me know if you’d like to join me in resolving to do no more searching until your backlog of documents you’ve already found is gone. I’d love the company!

Reviewing my source documents

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Last weekend I had the great fortune to hear genealogist and speaker Amy Johnson Crow give several talks at the Missouri State Genealogical Association‘s terrific conference. One of her talks was called “How to Milk a Source for All It’s Worth” and in it she shared tips and techniques for harvesting every bit of information you can from a source.

That got me thinking about the source documents I had found early on in my genealogy research, six or seven years ago. Back then, I was focusing on direct-line ancestors, so I’m sure I left a lot of information on the table. Rather than entering every scrap of information into my genealogy database (Reunion), I would have just glossed over it.

That was confirmed yesterday when I was going over an Alabama Census of Confederate Soldiers questionnaire my 2nd great grandfather, Laban Taylor Rasco (1844-1926) had filled out in 1921. I had found that source in 2012. (It’s source #127 in my database; I now have 834 sources.) I was shocked to see that I hadn’t recorded the information about his living children that was shared in that questionnaire. They were in my tree, because I’d added them at a later date, but back in 2012 I just wasn’t adding collateral lines. (I know, I was short-sighted.)

So I started adding that info and in doing so solved a little mystery. My grandmother Beatrix Rasco Adams, who was born in 1907, was living in Memphis, Texas, with her family on the 1920 census. In 1910, they were in Alabama, where she was born, and in the 1930 census they were in Washington state, where she lived the rest of her life. I never knew why they lived in Texas in 1920 (though I didn’t try very hard to find out). But I learned yesterday by focusing on that Confederate census, that her uncle, Joseph Taylor Rasco (1872-1964) was living in Memphis, Texas in 1921 and is nearby in the 1910 and 1920 censuses. Her family must have joined him. Mystery solved, or at least illuminated.

That made me realize that I have a lot of work to do with the source documentation that I have already downloaded and entered into Reunion. My genealogy research skills have improved so much that I find myself drawn to look at all those less recently found documents so I can pick all the meat off the bones.

Two summers ago, I started systematically going through my source documentation, primarily to correct the citations and to make sure that each source document was attached as a multimedia file to the source record in Reunion. At the time, I had 300 sources in my database. I got through Source #85 by the time I stalled out on that particular endeavor.

Fast forward two years and I now have an additional 500+ more sources, but I’m hopeful that the last several hundred were much better analyzed.

Last month, I shifted my focus to my father’s maternal line, the Rascos, and plan to work on them for the rest of 2018. So this is what I’ve decided to do: I’ve created a list of all the sources that pertain to the Rascos and I’m planning to systematically check each source record, making sure the citation is correct, that the source document is attached to the source record, and that all possible information is gleaned. When I see clues for further research within a document, I will either make a note of it in Evernote or, depending on time constraints and my whims, go ahead and pursue that clue.

I think this process will give me more confidence in my source citations and it will help me feel comfortable that my research is thorough–plus it will doubtless garner a lot more facts to add to my database! I also love that it will give me an easy starting point for research each day.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Understanding genetic genealogy (finally!)

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Understanding genetic genealogy (finally)I attended Diahan Southard’s series of DNA lectures on July 28 as part of the St. Louis Genealogical Society’s Summer Speaker Series. As I mentioned in a blog post last month, I’ve had a hard time using DNA in my genealogical research, mostly because I have a difficult time understanding and retaining what I try to learn about DNA.

Diahan is an expert on making this information understandable to non-scientists like me. I’ve heard her speak before but this time, a door in my brain cracked open. It may have been because at the seminar we had the privilege of listening to Diahan for four straight lectures, each of which built on the prior one. It was really a brilliant program and Diahan is an excellent speaker.

So I came home and started applying what I’ve learned and I now feel that genetic genealogy is part of my tool box. Hooray!!

Here are some of the revelations from her talks that really helped me:

  • A DNA match with a person whose tree has no familiar surnames is cause for celebration, not frustration. The DNA shows you’re related. When you figure out how you’re related, you’ll add names to your tree.
  • The Shared Centimorgan (cM) Project can help you understand how you might be related to someone, based on how much DNA you share. Here’s Diahan’s explanation of centimorgans and the Shared cM Project. It’s a great resource.
  • The solution to most DNA is quandaries is (drum roll): Do genealogy! DNA evidence can bridge gaps or open holes in brick walls. But traditional genealogy is how you build your family tree.
  • Create a list of your 32 great great great grandparents’ surnames to help you find commonalities with DNA matches. I had not compiled a list like that before and I see how it will help recognize how I might be related to those DNA matches that are fourth cousins or closer.
  • On Ancestry, even if a DNA match has not linked a tree to his/her DNA results (so you see “no family tree”), click on the “View Match” button and see if there’s a drop-down list of trees you might look at under the Pedigrees and Surnames tab. There may be a tree (or a few trees) for you to look at.

One thing I noticed when I took a look my Ancestry DNA results the day after the Diahan’s seminar is that the shared centimorgans don’t necessarily accurately reflect the relationship. For example, my mother’s first cousin, whom I know personally, shares only 183 cM with me, rather than the 439 that first cousins once removed usually share, according to the Shared cM Project. So Ancestry guessed that she was my third or fourth cousin. The Shared cM Project is a great tool, but obviously just a guideline.

Today in my research session, I explored the public tree linked to someone with whom I share 158 cM. This is a huge tree but I was able to easily focus in on a shared surname. The tree is beautifully sourced, so even though I had only a few minutes left of my 30-minute research session this morning, I was able to add a fact and supporting document to my great great grandfather’s record in my family tree software. Tomorrow I’ll go back and explore that tree more.

I finally understand how DNA can help me in my genealogy research. Better yet, I understand how to use it. This is such a revelation.

If using genetic genealogy eludes you as it did me, I heartily encourage you to check out Diahan’s website, Your DNA Guide, and to listen to Diahan speak when you have the chance. She’s speaking at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference later this month and I know she’ll be speaking at the 2019 NGS conference in St. Charles, Missouri, next May. (I’ll plan to be in the front row!) You can also do a consultation with her where she explains your DNA results to you. She’s a terrific resource.

Unmodified photo by Michael Knowles via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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