Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Documenting sources

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Properly documenting sources is really important to me as I explore my family history this time around. I want to be  confident about every fact I enter into my genealogy software.

I just read the article , “Genealogy GPS” in the current (October/November 2012) issue of Family Tree Magazine. I hadn’t realized that there’s a Genealogical Proof Standard (how great is that?). Reading the article added to my resolve about having high standards for the data I include in my family tree. In fact, I now think I want to go back and try to find a second source for any information I’ve already entered that has only one source.

I had a private conversation on Facebook with an old friend recently, who excitedly told me that he’d traced his roots back to the 12th century. He’d done so via clicking on family trees on Ancestry. When I mentioned that my own family history research involved using only confirmed data, he replied, “I resolved that sourced reference is terrific, but the speed and excitement of Ancestry.com is far more satisfying.”

Here’s the thing: My friend is having a great, satisfying time researching his family history this way and that’s perfectly okay. But I have to tell you, I get such a thrill when I track down a document that verifies the unconfirmed data I tracked down ten years ago during my own spate of that speedy and exciting Ancestry research. That’s what’s working for me.

The “Genealogy GPS” article is really terrific–chock full of resources. If you’re a subscriber, don’t overlook it. (And if you’re a newer family history researcher and not a reader of Family Tree Magazine, you really should consider subscribing. I love it.)

 

Excited to use Reunion 10

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I use Reunion software on my Mac and today upgraded to version 10. I usually am pretty cautious about updating software that I’m happy with, but one look at the video outlining the new features and I was in. (And that was before I learned I could get the upgrade at no cost, since I’d bought Reunion 9 in 2012.)

I’d had no complaints with Reunion 9. When I started doing genealogy research 10 years ago, I hand wrote everything. But when I got serious about it again this year, I knew I needed software and I decided on Reunion, which is native for the Mac. So I had nothing to compare it to, but I was very pleased.

But Reunion 10 is even more exciting. They’ve added many easy-to-use reporting and charting features. They’ve also expanded what you can see on one screen and increased the ease of navigation.

As I’ve mentioned in a post about my research plan, my strategy is to use Reunion to document my family history research and to add nothing to it that has not been verified and properly sourced. At first that felt like kind of a drag…Reunion felt like a necessary evil. As I add data to it and watch my family tree grown, fully confident that the information contained in it is solid, Reunion is feeling more like a friend. And now that I have Reunion 10 to play with, it’s become an even more interesting friend. (Like going home from college with a friend and discovering she has a cute brother!)

Click below to see the video that outlines the improvements to Reunion 10. If you haven’t already updated, you might consider it!

The Top Ten New Features in Reunion 10 (video)

Free family fan chart

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Family tree fan template
I love a family fan chart. With the software program I use on my Mac, Reunion, I can easily create one. (I love technology.) I think it’s a wonderful, pretty, easy-to-read way to see where I am in my family history research.

Martha Stewart, queen of crafts, offers a free family fan chart template for those who might like to make one on their own.(Me, I’ll let the computer do it.) If that sounds like fun to you, go on over to Martha’s website to download it!

Fun with old newspapers

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I was researching my great great grandparents (my maternal grandmother’s grandparents) this weekend and was on a quest for their death certificates. Alas, I have not found the death certificates yet (they died in Colorado, which doesn’t seem to want to share copies of death certificates with people as distantly related as I am). But I did do a search on the Pueblo, Colorado, library systemand located a citation for my great great grandmother’s obituary, which was published in the Pueblo Chieftain on November 5, 1945. I haven’t been able to put my hands on that obituary yet.

Newspaper article from Kit Carson County Record

From the Kit Carson County Record, August 15, 1912

The search for the obituary put me on a quest for copies of any newspaper articles about them and I found the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. It provides  images of Colorado newspaper articles from 1859 to 1923. That’s too early to find my great great grandparents’ obituaries, but I did find a few mentions of my people, including one that was kind of valuable.

I had seen on unverified family trees that my grandmother’s grandmother’s maiden name was McAdams (she was married to J. B.  Ruberson), but I had yet to verify that. But I found this fun little article about a visit from her nieces, whose last names are both McAdams, visiting her. (Ah, small town life.) To me, that provides some confirmation of the assertion that her maiden name was McAdams.

I’ve found several other places to read old newspapers (and I’m sure there are more). One is Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, from the Library of Congress. Another is Genealogy Bank, a paid service. And there’s NewspaperARCHIVE.com, another paid service. Don’t overlook the power of Google (which is how I found the Colorado Historic Newspapers, I think). And it’s also worth looking at the online public library systems in the area the newspaper was published in.

One of the things I love about family history research is the peek it provides into history. And looking at old newspapers is another great window into another time.

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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.