Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Appreciating my digital lifestyle

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For the past week, as I promised I would in this blog post, I’ve been going through a largish stash of genealogy-related paper that I found when I went in search of some tax documents. I vowed not to continue my online research (where I print nothing and don’t have to process paper) until this paper backlog was gone.

I’ve spent 30 minutes a day reducing the paper pile ever since. I’ve recycled a lot and I’ve scanned some documents. (I’m proud of myself that I scanned on the spot, rather than creating a “to scan” pile to deal with later.) It’s starting to get kind of tedious, but I’m really thrilled with my progress.

But here’s the thing that really hit me these last couple of days. Dealing with paper genealogy records puts a real strain on my eyes. I had sent away to the Alabama Archives for the Confederate pension records of my second great grandfather, Laban Taylor Rasco (1844-1926). They had kindly sent a whole bunch of paper, most of it downloaded from Ancestry. I think when I received it, I was overwhelmed and probably daunted by the fact that much of it was comprised of black-and-white prints of documents that were on yellowed paper at the time they were digitized. Very hard to read. That’s why the papers landed in the pile.

I’ve spent the last couple of days with these Alabama pension records, looking to see which of them I already have on my hard drive and then going to Ancestry to download better copies of the documents I didn’t already have digitally. (And I’m downloading a bunch of new-to-me pension documents from that collection at Ancestry while I’m at it.) In order to compare what I have (or what I find) with the paper version, I have to squint, dust off my magnifying glass, or move the paper to better light in order to read it. My eyes aren’t getting any better with age and this not my idea of fun.

Once the documents are on my hard drive, I can simply zoom in on them to read them. So easy. So painless. And a huge reason I favor digital over paper.

This little project has shown several benefits already: A reduction in paper hanging around my house (yay!) and an appreciation for the decision I made several years ago to eschew paper. I’m so glad I’m doing it!

If any of you who are joining me on this quest have enjoyed some benefits, please share in the comments!

Fun with ethnicity estimates

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I had my DNA tested by Ancestry a few years back and I’m just now figuring out how to use it in my genealogy research. I found the ethnicity estimate interesting. And then I found it even more interesting when Ancestry updated its estimates.

My brother, Larry, lives in Australia and when he visited recently he agreed to submit a sample. I was curious about how ours would compare, in terms of ethnicity. I was also curious to see what migration group was provided to him. (I was given North Alabama Settlers.)

When I first asked him, Larry’s response, “Don’t we have the same DNA?” I responded that while our DNA comes the same sources (half from our dad and half from our mom), what we get from each of them is different so our ethnicity results might be different.

The results arrived yesterday and I was tickled to see that there were what looked to me like some fairly large differences. Here’s a screenshot of our two results side by side:

 

As you can see, I have a higher percentage of Irish ancestry showing up in my results (41% vs 34% in Larry’s) and his results show 8% Germanic Europe, where I have none. I have a smidge of Greece and the Balkans and he has a smidge of Sweden. Fun stuff!

Oh, and the migration group provided to Larry was Lower Midwest and Virginia Settlers.

Have you compared ethnicity results with a sibling? I’m curious how different your results were.

A special gift for a genealogy lover

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I’m not a big gift giver and I when I do give gifts, I prefer to give experiences, rather than stuff. (I see how hard it is for my clients to let go of items that were gifts and I don’t want to burden anyone with that.)

But I dearly love one piece of jewelry that I bought myself as a gift. It’s the Original Family Tree Necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs. She creates custom, hand-stamped jewelry. This necklace is meant for moms, I think, to include the first names of their children. But I chose to have my grandparents’ surnames printed on the necklace.

I think it’s pretty and when I wear it, I feel connected to my family. If you ever see me at a genealogy conference, you’ll probably see it hanging around my neck.

As the gift-giving season approaches, I thought I’d mention it now in case you have a genealogy lover on your gift list. It also makes a good gift to give yourself!

When I bought mine (pictured here), it was being offered in pewter. Now it’s in sterling silver (and therefore more expensive). Lisa Leonard offers discounts all the time. In fact as I write this, there’s a 30 percent discount available, which brings the price down to $90 for the shorter chains. I love mine so much I just had to share!

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 on 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!