Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

How They Do It: J. Mark Lowe

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I’m so happy to publish another interview in my popular How They Do It series! This time, it’s with J. Mark Lowe, FUGA, a professional genealogist, author, and lecturer who specializes in original records and manuscripts throughout the southern U.S. A course coordinator for southern research for multiple genealogy institutes, Mark is a past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and past president of the southern Kentucky Genealogical Society. I had the pleasure of working with him when we both presented at the Henderson County (Kentucky) Public Library seminar last year. I can tell you first hand that he is an organized individual. And he’s a delight to work with!

How They Do It: J. Mark Lowe

How long have you been doing genealogy research?

I became interested in family and connections when I was seven years old after my Grandmother passed. (Dad’s Mom) My Dad had some of the answers, but he connected me with his Aunts (my Grandmother’s Sisters) who started filling in some spots. One of those Aunts was the Secretary for the local Congressman and her office was across the street from the County Courthouse. She arranged for my Dad to bring me to visit, along with clothing. When he dropped me off, she took me to the County Court Clerk’s office in the Courthouse. Mr. Oval Motley, the Clerk, introduced me to original records, and encouraged me to create transcriptions from the originals. (Plain Paper copies were not yet available.)

That opened the door to a continuous flow of curiosity.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

Learning the stories of my ancestors and the often untold/unheard stories of others.

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

Widely diverse records with a mixture of Archival documents, copies, and digital records. Making them all accessible for different reasons.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

My cell phone, using the Ancestry app and Newspapers.com. I can answer my own question or a query on the fly about family or history.

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

Focus on each person’s story more – I would not rush to collect the tree. This is especially when you have opportunity and time to learn about “near” living relatives before they or witnesses are gone.

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

I use 4×6 index cards, Google Keep & Google Tasks, and ToDos in my genealogical software.

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

I maintain a private tree on Ancestry that I share with folks who have an interest. I also maintain a Family website primarily for cousins.

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

I take some time to mull & ponder the project, define the purpose of the trips, and determine the tasks to be completed with a timetable.

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

Locations are more important to research that just the single families. You are likely to have multiple family members in each location. Being able to look at the location independent of each family will save you time, money, and headaches.

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

Everywhere! I have a library/office, but often do research on my front porch, in my living room chair or occasionally while lying in bed. Good wifi!

Do you have anything to add?

The best researchers are persistent. They don’s stop when the record they seek is not where they look. They back up, rethink the options, learn about the record creation, and go find the record.

So many wonderful nuggets in Mark’s concise responses! I think his advice to organize information around location as well as family is really interesting. It’s something I don’t do currently but will explore. I also love Mark’s wise words on taking the time to learn from your close relatives while they are still living and able to share family history information. Thank you so much, Mark, for sharing your wisdom and expertise! If you’d like to learn more about Mark, check out Kentucky Tennessee Research Associates. You can also find him on YouTube channel and Twitter.

NARA’s Genealogy Series starts May 3

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In 2021, the National Archives transformed its annual one-day virtual Genealogy Fair into a multi-week Genealogy Series. The theme of this year’s series of lectures is is Public Service: Military & Civilian.

There will be one lecture each Wednesday from May 3 to June 14 (six Wednesdays), from 1 to 2 pm. No registration is required; you can watch live and ask questions of the presenter at the NARA YouTube channel. (You can also watch later without the opportunity to ask questions.)

Visit the NARA website to see the program and details about each talk. The page also includes links to the talks and handouts, available on the each event day (and after). According to the website, “You are invited to attend, participate, and ask questions during our sessions’ YouTube video premieres. Presentations are pre-recorded videos broadcast on NARA’s YouTube channel. Throughout the broadcast, you will be able to ask questions, and the presenter will respond in real time. After the initial showing, the video and handouts will remain available on this web page and YouTube.”

I’m excited about this free learning opportunity and I want to thank reader Marian Kowalski for telling me about this year’s program. It had escaped my notice!

The rejuvenating effect of switching my research focus

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I’ve been researching my family pretty seriously for more than a dozen years. My progress has been slow and careful and the excitement of beginning that research is a dim memory. If I’m being honest, I’ve been less motivated about my genealogy research over the last year or so; that’s because of other pressures in my life but also because the research may have become a little stale.

This month I decided to research my husband’s family, for the first time. It started over an idle question about what year they were married, since I’m privileged to wear my mother-in-law’s engagement ring.  I did a quick search and came up with two wedding dates. It turns out both dates were right–they were married secretly out of state at the age 17 (they lied and said they were 21!) and then again a year later in an official ceremony, something that is part of family lore. Just finding those dates was a thrill and it was so fun to share what I’d learned with my husband, Barry.

So I’m off to the races with a new family. I’m sure I’ll get back to my familiar ancestors before too long, but in the interim it’s fun to relive the thrill of discovery with something new. If you’re getting bored with your research, you might try picking a new branch of your family or researching the family of a spouses or friend!

 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Creating a virtual RootsTech playlist

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It’s that time of year again! The RootsTech conference will be held March 2 to 4, 2023. This year, they’re offering the conference both in-person and virtually. I made the decision not to attend in person, but I did register for the virtual conference and spent a little bit of time this morning putting some sessions onto my playlist. (It’s not too late to register for either option!)

I’m easily overwhelmed by choices and I found the choices of sessions to watch over the last two virtual conferences a little overwhelming. In case you’re the same way, I thought I’d share how I went about creating a playlist for me to watch next week or beyond. (I’m assuming, though I don’t know for sure, that the main stage sessions will be recorded for future watching.)

  1. First, I registered for the conference. (I did that back in January.)
  2. Then I logged into the Rootstech website by clicking on Sign In in the top menu bar.
  3. I clicked RootsTech 2023 in the top menu bar, then Calendar (in the Virtual section). I went through both the Main Stage and Sessions listings, clicking the Add to Playlist button for those sessions I didn’t want to miss.
  4. Then I clicked On Demand in the top menu bar, then Browse the Library. I was pleased to see 2023 sessions listed, though I won’t be able to watch them until the conference starts. I added to my playlist the sessions that caught my fancy.
  5. I didn’t want to have to browse all the offerings, so I clicked on Search the Full Library. Then I put the Filters to work for me. I selected English and 2023 (that narrowed it to 228 classes) and then I used the Search function. I searched for Organizing and got a very manageable 13 results. I selected some of those to add to my playlist.

In less than ten minutes, I added 22 sessions to my playlist. And I noticed that my playlists from 2021 and 2022 are still available!

There are so many learning opportunities at RootsTech. I’m sad not to be attending in person but I am very grateful that RootsTech makes it so easy (and inexpensive–it’s free!) to participate from home.