Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots
I was so pleased at the enthusiastic response to the giveaway for Drew Smith’s book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy! I did the drawing for the winner and it is:
Carole Ashbridge
I’ll be sending the book to Carole on Monday.
For the 42 of you who entered but didn’t win, I urge to consider purchasing this terrific resource. Thank you so much for entering!
Recently, I’ve been republishing popular blog posts from the past to expose them to new people. Today, I wanted to share this post from June 2013 which provides a little table to make it easier to tell one US Census from another. I’ve updated it to include the 1950 census!
If you’re accustomed to looking at census documents for genealogy research, you know that the the number of the census (Thirteenth, for example) is clearly visible, while the actual year takes a little squinting to see. I created a simple table so that I can tell at a glance which census I’m looking at. I hope you find it as handy as I do. If you’d like to print a version, just click on the image and it will open in a new browser tab. Then you can right- or control-click it to save it to your computer (or email the image to yourself).
As I’ve mentioned here, I’ve been easing up on my genealogy research, mostly to make time in my schedule for YNAB budget coaching practice. But reader Jerry Hereford asked this week if I was going to do another 30 x 30 challenge and I remembered that I hadn’t done one! Usually I do one when I personally need it. But this time, I’m doing it for you.
Please comment below if you’d like to commit to 30 minutes of genealogy research every day for 30 days. You can change that goal if you’d like. Since I’m doing less research in general, I’m going to change my goal to doing something (anything) in service to my genealogy research each day, now matter how much (or little) it takes. We’ll do mid-month and end-of-month check-ins. Daily research can be so beneficial and the accountability of a 30 x 30 challenge can keep it top of mind.
So please let everyone know in the comments if you’re in!
P.S. If you missed Wednesday’s post, I’m doing a giveaway of Drew Smith’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy. It’s not too late to enter by commenting on that post!
When I was offered a review copy of the new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, by Drew Smith, I was happy to accept. I’m a big fan of Drew’s work (and was thrilled when he did one of my How They Do It interviews back in 2017). I ended up receiving two copies of the book, so I’m offering a giveaway for one of them. (See the bottom of this post for details on the giveaway.)
Drew Smith has been doing genealogy since the 1990s and has been working as a genealogy educator for decades. This genealogy book, written for beginners, is the book that he wished he’d been able to read when he was first learning how to research his family. It’s divided into two parts. Part I For all Generations: Preparing to Research discusses preparing to do research. It provides a foundation of understanding about various facets of research, starting with Names, Places, Dates and Events and ending with a chapter on Using Online Repositories. You can bet I first turned to Chapter 4: Tools and Methods to Keep Us Organized. (Drew is the author of the 2016 book Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher.) In that chapter, he succinctly and clearly lays out some ways to organize both digital and paper documents.
Part II Generation by Generation: Doing the Research is where things get innovative. Beginner genealogists are often advised to start with themselves and move up their family tree as their research progresses. Drew organizes Part II of this book in the same way, offering information about sources and record types for various time periods. Chapters include information about different types of records in each of these generations:
The bulk of Part II is obviously U.S. focused, so those genealogists (like me) whose families have been in the U.S. for generations will find this book especially helpful.
Like Drew, I wish a book like this had been around when I started doing genealogy research. It’s so clearly laid out and clearly written, with bits of humor tossed in. The depth of information is broad and Drew doesn’t go down rabbit holes, but he doesn’t just skim the surface. His explanation of the various types of DNA was one of the most easy to understand that I’ve read. The generational approach of Part II is very useful friendly and easy to apply to the moving-up-the-tree way that many people (including me) research. I’m not a beginner genealogist, but I benefited from the book!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS: If you’d like to win a free (physical) copy of the book, just leave a comment below and tell me how long you’ve been doing genealogy and how you think you’ll benefit from the book. To get an extra entry, share this blog post on Facebook. Be sure to tag Organize Your Family History so I see it. I will select a winner at random using the Random Number Generator and will let the winner know via email. Deadline is Friday, September 8, 2023 and I will reach out to the winner for a mailing address on Saturday, September 9.
PLEASE NOTE: THE GIVEAWAY IS OVER AND ENTRIES ARE CLOSED.
