Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Learning to use Ancestry effectively

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Ancestry.com is my go-to website for my research. It’s typically my first stop when I’m looking for the answer to a research question. I’ve been using it with a lot of success for many years. As you may have noticed, they’ve recently changed the interface somewhat and I have to admit that’s thrown me for a bit of a loop.

So when I saw that Amy Johnson Crow was offering a workshop called All About Ancestry, I jumped at the chance to sign up. I took her similar workshop on Family Search last year and it was excellent. (Amy’s teaching style really clicks with the way I think. It’s not too slow or too fast…it’s just right.) One of the things I love about taking her workshops live is that she allows time for students to actually try out what she’s talking about on the website we’re learning about, using our own research questions.  And she leaves open plenty of time for questions.

Rather than signing up for the $99 four-part workshop, I decided to spring for her $270 Annual Pass. I’ll get the Ancestry workshop plus at least one other workshop and access to all the previous workshops, access to community forums, and a monthly members-only Q&A Zoom with Amy.

The All About Ancestry workshop starts next week. It will be held live at 6 pm central time on January 18, 20, 25 and 27, 2022.  Each session is recorded, so you can watch later it you’re not able to catch the live presentation. And you can listen to it repeatedly if you want to. The fee is $99. Learn more and register at Amy’s website.

If you sign up, let me know in the comments so I can look for you during the Zoom classes!

My 2022 genealogy goals

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Are you a goal setter? I sure am. Every year I set aside a day to work on my personal and business goals. This year, I did it on December 16. But I ran out of time to consider my personal genealogy goals, so I did that this morning.

I sat down with a pad of paper and I did a little brainstorming session with myself. I achieved some clarity really fast. The release of the 1950 census on April 1 creates a natural break in the year. I decided to focus the first quarter of the year on preparing for that day and cleaning up my existing research. The latter three quarters will be about new research and avoiding a backlog.

So here’s what I decided:

First quarter 2022:

Rest of 2022:

  • Glean as much information from the 1950 census as possible
  • Shift my family focus to the Jeffries line (that’s my maternal grandmother’s line)
  • Do a deep dive on my Civil War ancestor Richard Anderson Jeffries

One overarching intention for the year is to try harder to do daily research. For the last few years, I’ve found that in the absence of a 30 x 30 challenge, I ignore my research. Sometimes, I’m able to sustain daily research for months at a time, but that’s fallen by the wayside. In 2022, I’m going to try to do at least a little something every single day to keep my mind in the game. I know that, for me, that means researching in the early morning. Perhaps I’ll try to go to bed a little earlier so I can get up earlier to accomplish this. I plan a 30 x 30 challenge starting January 1, 2022, so I’ll have that support as I kick off the year.

I realize that I didn’t so much set goals this year as clarify my focus. And that’s good enough for me. It feels great. The plan for the year feels simple and attainable.

If you’ve set goals that you feel like sharing, please share in the comments. I’d love to hear them!

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Preparing for the 1950 Census

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I’ve had April 1, 2022–the year that the 1950 census is made public–on my calendar for ages. But that distant day started to feel real when I attended the terrific webinar “Get Ready for the 1950 US Census!” presented by Marian B. Wood for the Kentucky Genealogical Society last night.

To be honest, I hadn’t thought much about all the things I could do to prepare for the census release in advance. But now I’m very excited to get to work so that on April 1 I can find my people on the census easily.

Here are some of my takeaways from the seminar. You can bet I’ll be blogging more about it!

  • The National Archives announced a few days ago that it is going to use artificial intelligence and optical character recognition to create a (probably crude) surnames index available on April 1. They’re also spearheading a public transcription effort. Check out their news release about it.
  • I’m not going to count on that index and instead intend to look for the Enumeration Districts for my ancestors so that I can browse the 1950 Census with ease. Marian Wood suggested creating a spreadsheet of ancestors, their 1940 addresses, their 1950 addresses and the corresponding Enumeration Districts. I can’t wait to dig into that.
  • To find the Enumeration District for an address, go to Steve Morse’s website to search the Unified Census ED Finder. Marian Wood suggested using Google Maps to narrow down the intersection and thus the number of Enumerations Districts you have to browse. I remember doing this for the 1940 Census but I’m looking forward to preparing in advance this time.
  • There’s a public Facebook group called 1950 US Census for Genealogists that will share resources about the 1950 census. I’ve joined and look for keeping an eye on the news there. It already has some great resources listed.
  • FamilySearch has created a landing page for the 1950 Census where you can sign up for updates.

In the webinar, we learned about some of the questions asked on this census and the instructions enumerators were given in recording the answers. Hidden assumptions were revealed! I’ll blog more about it later.

The release of the 1950 census is a big deal for those of us in the United States. I can’t wait to see the snapshots of my ancestors’ lives it reveals.

How They Do It: Gena Philibert-Ortega

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Here’s my latest How They Do It interview, this one with author, researcher and instructor Gena Philibert-Ortega, whose focus is genealogy, social and women’s history. She holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology and Women’s Studies) and a Master’s degree in Religion. Her published works include two books, numerous articles published in magazines and online, as well as five editions of the Tracing Your Ancestors series from Morsehead Publishing. Gena has presented to diverse groups worldwide including the Legacy Family Tree Webinar series. Her current research includes women’s repatriation and citizenship in the 20th century, foodways and community in fundraising cookbooks, and women’s material culture. I love her focus on women, as well as the confluence of genealogy and food in Gena’s work. Enjoy!

Photo of Gena Philibert-OrtegaHow They Do It: Gena Philibert-Ortega

How long have you been doing genealogy?

Professionally for a little over 20 years. But I’ve been in love with family history since I was a child. My maternal grandmother was family historian and she told me stories of our family and it intrigued me. I’ve always loved mysteries.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

Research. I love research. My favorite place to be is a library, archive, or museums. I like asking questions and finding the answers in records.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to organizing your genealogy?

Since I have been doing genealogy since pre-Internet days I have a lot of paper and then I have all the computer files. Plus, I have the genealogy paper collections of several relatives that I have inherited. So organizing all that is a challenge.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

My iPhone. It’s the one must-have tool I use whenever I research. It’s always with me and it can do the work of several stand-along tools (camera, scanner, paper and pencil). I use it to take notes, email, search online catalogs, refer to my online family tree, and take photos of books and documents.

If you were starting out new as a genealogist what would you do differently?

I know most genealogists answer that they wish they would have kept better source citations. I can relate to that but I really wish I would have done a better job writing up narratives and research logs. I entered information into my genealogical program but I didn’t do a great job of noting what I knew, what I didn’t find, and what my next steps needed to be. I find that older research today and really wish I hadn’t assumed I would remember everything. Isn’t that the biggest lie we tell ourselves? I’ll remember!

Do you keep a research log? If so, what format?

YES! It’s vital. I usually keep it as a simple Microsoft Word Table that I customize according to the project. If it’s a larger project involving various people (related or not) I use a spreadsheet.

How do you keep track of clues or ideas for further research?

I try to use the Research Log or I’ll note it in my genealogy software program.

How do you go about sharing your personal research with cousins or other interested parties?

This is something I’ve been concerned about since I realize I won’t always be around. I’ve been working on making sure everything is online, via an online tree. I also email family with images and pedigree charts/Family Group Sheets. In the past I’ve burned CDs with images and information and have compiled small booklets with images, pedigree charts and short narratives and then gave one to everyone. I did this for a relative’s 50th wedding anniversary. I’m a firm believer that the more people who have a copy of something the better. We never know what can happen to us, our homes, or our “stuff.”

What’s the most important thing you do to prepare for a research trip?

Study the online catalog first. I always go through the catalog and make a list of what I want to look at. I prioritize that list so that the items that I can’t live without have a #1 next to it or the day of the week I want to look at it. I always assume that the unexpected will happen such as getting sick, the repository suddenly closing, or the item you want is lost. I try to build in a day that I haven’t planned anything so that I can use it to chase leads I found on the other days or change course and do something I wasn’t planning.

You waste a lot of time and money by not going through the repository’s online catalog first. You never want to go to a library or archive and find out that that must-have record was digitized and available online since last year.

What’s your biggest piece of advice to genealogists in terms of organizing their research?

Organize it so someone else can understand it. One day my oldest son said something to me that I am always thinking about. “How am I going to know what’s important?” No one wants to inherit a pile of “stuff.” People do want to inherit what’s meaningful. My son had a good point. I have other people’s genealogy, items I’ve purchased at antique stores, and copies of documents I’ve made for articles. It’s not all important and it’s not all about our family. I need to not only organize what I have but do it in a way that he can effortlessly see what is vital to keep and why.

Do you have a dedicated space in your home for doing genealogy research? What’s it like?

I do! (Thank goodness). I have my own office (basically a small bedroom in our home) with my desk, bookshelves, and a filing cabinet (remember I have a lot of paper from decades ago). I also have a more comfortable chair for reading.

Do you have anything to add?

Let’s face it. For most of us, organizing isn’t what gets us excited about genealogy. We like the research, the hunt, the discoveries. BUT without the organization we end up with a pile of papers that no one will look at after we are gone. Organizing is crucial and it’s a great idea to turn to those who are good at it (Janine 😊) to get ideas that work for us. Everyone’s different and you need to choose a system that works for you. Otherwise, you won’t stick with it.

So many wonderful nuggets in this interview! Thank you so much, Gena. I really loved the wise words on the value of organizing our research so that others can understand it and value it when we’re gone. To learn more about Gena, check out her blogs, Gena’s Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera, and the articles she writes for the GenealogyBank blog.