Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Please weigh in on your biggest organizing challenges

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On December 1, 2015, I published a poll here asking you what your biggest challenges are with regard to organizing your genealogy research. As readership has changed, I’m curious whether the answers remain the same. So I created another poll. It’s almost identical to the last one, I just added a couple of choices.

Please take a moment to weigh in. If you completed the last poll, please feel free to do it again–I’ve closed the last poll and I’m interested in comparing the two results. So repeat answers are welcome! As are multiple answers–select as many of the choices as apply to you.

Thank you!

Using a calendar to introduce variety in your research

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Over on the Genealogy Research Loggers Facebook group, member Laura Aanenson posted her 2017 research plan and the brilliant method she uses to select the ancestor to research each session. I thought it was a such a great idea I asked her permission to write about it here.

She uses Family Tree Maker software that has a calendar function. Each day the calendar shows her the names of the ancestors who were born, died or married that day. Each session, she focuses on the ancestors that are listed that day, filling in blanks, answering questions and carefully logging her research, including her observations and further areas for investigation.

Laura wrote, “I find if I concentrate on just one branch of my tree, the others get neglected and I miss opportunities to connect with prospective cousins. My calendar-based log helps me turn nearly every leaf in my tree several times a year and move everyone at least one step forward.”

I find myself really excited by the idea, despite the fact that my 2017 research plan has me focusing me on a single line all year (and so far this year, I’ve just been working on one couple). I’m enjoying the focus, so I’m going to stick with it. But what I love about Laura’s method is the unpredictability of which ancestor will be researched each session. I think that makes everything more fun and exciting!

I imagine many family tree software programs have the calendar function. I checked Reunion, the software I use, and there is a calendar function I could use for this purpose, though it’s a little clunkier than what Laura is describing.

Feel free to join us at Genealogy Research Loggers if you’d like to learn other great ideas like these!

How important are formal citations?

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I may be opening up a can of worms here, but a conversation in the comments of my post about accountability for research logs has me pondering the question again.

How important is it for the hobbyist genealogist to use properly formatted citations?

(Please understand that my question is about the format of source citations, not about whether we should cite sources. I absolutely believe every fact should be backed up by at least one source.)

I think many folks would agree that Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book Evidence Explained is the gold standard source citations. I own Evidence Explained and I do consult it occasionally. But generally I relax the rules for myself. I make sure that my citations would allow me to find the source again and I typically use the citation templates found in my Reunion software.

Basically, I want to make sure that it’s easy to cite sources so that I always cite them. If I’m hung on doing it right, I may put off citing the source, which does not do me any good.  So, for example, I used templates in Reunion to create this census citation, associated with a fact in the record of my 3d great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Price:

“1870 U.S. Census,” Pleasant Gap, Bates, Missouri, 25 Jun 1870, Ancestry.com, 4 April 2014.

The 1870 date is the date the census was taken, and the 2014 date is the date I first viewed it. If I needed to find it again, I think I could.

So I’m curious: what do you do? Do you use formal citations are are you more casual? If you don’t use Evidence Explained, do you have another source you swear by?

If you think I’m making a mistake by not being more formal, feel free to tell me!

Go ahead, contact that courthouse!

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Not all genealogy documents are available on the internetLike many people, I rely primarily on documents I find by searching the internet. When do I library or cemetery research trip, I find information not available online, but when I’m in my office, I search online and if I don’t find what I’m looking for I typically move on.

I know it’s possible to contact courthouses or state archives for documents but over the years I’ve done little of that. In the last couple of weeks, however, I hit the jackpot when I took that extra step.

I’ve been working on transcribing the Civil War pension file of George Washington Adams, my 2nd great grandfather. In it was a divorce decree for his 1920 divorce from his second wife, Della. (I’m descended from his first wife, Henrietta.) That piqued my curiosity because it gave George custody of their “infant son” and the only son I knew about was 12 at the time of the divorce. I wondered if there was another son and also why the 75-year-old father was given custody over the 50-year-old mother. The decree referred to pleadings and depositions in the case and I wanted to get my hands on those. It was Christmas, so I couldn’t pick up the phone (and I don’t like picking up the phone), so I wrote a letter to the Circuit Court Clerk of McLean county, Kentucky.

To my delight, just a few days letter, she got back to me telling me that the documents I sought were in the State Archives and giving me a little extra information to make easier for the archivist to find them. She also gave me a phone number for the Archives. So I called and talked to a lovely young man and gave him a credit card number. That very same day he emailed me photos of the entire file. I think it cost me $8. If I’d wanted, he would have mailed a certified copy but I didn’t want to wait that long. (And get this: He added another divorce petition that I didn’t even know about! Six years into their 14-year marriage, Della filed for divorce from George, but she must have dropped it.)

The 30-page divorce file he sent had numerous depositions and probably sparked as many questions as it answered, but it’s another treasure trove. Turns out there was only one son from this marriage, Horace, who was indeed 12 at the time of the divorce. I don’t know why he was called an infant in the decree. But George went into the Old Soldier’s Home just two years later, so now I need to find out what happened to teenage Horace!

Neither the pension file nor this divorce file are available online, though I did order the pension file online. Both are outstanding sources of information about this ancestor. I’m processing the divorce file like I’m processing the pension file, by transcribing the documents and properly sourcing every fact I glean from them.

I encourage you to look beyond those documents available online, even if you’re not in a position to travel. There’s a whole world of documents that haven’t yet been digitized!

Join the mailing list!

When you first join the list, I’ll send you a few emails to help you organize your family history. After that you’ll hear from me at the end of every month when I send an email with links to that month’s posts. And every now and then, I’ll let you know when I have something special to promote.