Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

What should I work on today?

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I try to work on family history research at least once a week. (Writing a post on this blog twice a week has helped motivate me!)  I appreciate that I have the time to work on it that frequently, but I’ve discovered that sometimes it seems not quite frequent enough to keep my momentum going. By the time another week rolls around, I can’t quite remember where I left off and I don’t know what I should work on.

I know from my experience as a professional organizer that not knowing where to start can be paralyzing. I see this in my clients who are dealing with a lot of clutter: they can’t figure out where to start, so they don’t start at all.

This happened to me last Saturday. When I sat down to work on genealogy research, I couldn’t think of where to start. Of course, the truth is that I can start literally anywhere on my family tree. There’s always something to work on. I’m working my way up my tree and sometimes when I make a link to a new generation, I’ll skip ahead to work on finding information about those folks, even when there’s still plenty of information to seek on a generation closer to me in time.

So I could play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey when it comes to my family tree and pick any relative and start looking for more information on them. But I’m not keen on such a random approach (though that might be fun to try some day).

As it turned out, last weekend, I remembered that I’d found military information on an ancestor in a family history I’d downloaded, which led to some fun exploration.

At one point, when I first got back into this research, I kept a hand written research journal, which I filled out at the end of each research session and one of the items I would enter is next steps. Somehow, that has fallen by the wayside, but it would be a good habit to get back into.

Here are some ways I can think of to make sure that I don’t get paralyzed or delayed by the “what should I work on” question:

  • Keep a running list of questions to research. When I come across something I want to look into further (but don’t have time to research at that moment), I can add it to the list
  • Keep a “next steps” journal that I add to at the end of each research session
  • Start an electronic checklist for each ancestor of items to research, so I can tell at a glance what information is still up for grabs
  • Pick an ancestor at random and start exploring
  • On the other end of the spectrum, I could set up a very systematic approach and work through a single surname before I move to another

My personality is such that a systematic approach would feel constricting. I think keeping a list of things to work on and selecting the puzzle that jumps out at me that day is probably what’s going to work for me.

The key here, I think, is to know that there’s no wrong answer to the question, “What should I work on now?” That’s the beauty of this research. As long as I’m documenting what I find so that I don’t end up spending loads of times on false leads, any research I do is productive.

Finding Civil War ancestors

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If you have male ancestors born between about 1820 and 1850 and who lived in the U.S., I encourage you to look into their military records! I have been able to find large packets of information on two Civil War ancestors through Fold3.com. These are images of forms filled out by hand–Civil War Muster Roll, Pension Files and other documents. Fold3.com is a membership site. I paid only $40 for a year’s membership, though I think I got in on some kind of special. In just finding documents for two ancestors (there are probably more!), I feel I got my money’s worth.

A month or two ago, I found information on Benjamin Franklin Igleheart, my great great grandfather, on my father’s side. As I read his  Compiled Service Record, which consists of 15 pages of printed forms, filled in by hand, a story unfolded. I learned that he entered the war as a substitute. In other words, he was paid to serve for someone else (a man named Jacob Gish) who was drafted. He was only 18 and I guess had managed not get drafted himself. Thankfully, he survived that experience. I found the concept of a paid substitute an eye opener.

This weekend, I researched my great great great grandfather (on my mother’s side), Richard Anderson Jeffries. I was able to find his Compiled Service Record (29 pages!) and watched his story unfold as I read backward through time. I learned that on October 1, 1864, his rank was reduced from First Sergeant to Private. And on October 4, 1864, he was hospitalized in Atlanta, Georgia (with no indication why), where he appeared to reside until his discharge, due to the expiration of his term of service, on November 14, 1864. That’s mysterious. I’d love to find out why he was demoted. I also learned, that he went missing in action during the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862 and was compensated upon his return for seven months as a prisoner of war. Wow. Now I want to learn more about that battle and about what conditions he might have endured as a prisoner.

To find this information, I needed to know the military unit my ancestors fought with. A good starting place to find that information is the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database from the National Park Service. Searching for Richard Jeffries turned up two possibilities in Missouri, where I knew my Richard lived at the time. There was one record for a Richard Jeffries in the Home Guard in Putnam County (his county) and another for serving in 18th Regiment, Missouri Infantry. I took that info to Fold3 and found his records. I was able to verify that the 18th Regiment, Missouri Infantry was him, since his death date was on the included pension form. (This was also the regiment listed in the genealogy compilation book I’d found online a couple of weeks ago, which gave me confidence.) I’m not certain if he’s also the Richard Jeffries in the Putnam County Home Guard. That will take a little more digging.

Both these ancestors fought on the Union side, so I only have experience with Union records. Your experience may be different if you’re researching ancestors who fought for the confederacy.

If you haven’t yet researched your Civil War ancestors, I think you’re in for a treat. I was amazed at how easily I found really exciting information that I was able to verify. Fold3 has been a goldmine for me, well worth the investment.

Find your people on the 1940 census

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I’m a happy subscriber to Ancestry.com, so have used it primarily when searching the 1940 census. When it was released in April, the 1940 Census wasn’t indexed. In other words, you couldn’t just enter in a person’s name and find them. You needed to know their enumeration district, which you could get if you knew the address.  I was able to track my parents down by asking them their childhood addresses–I was so grateful they remembered where they lived in 1940.

Through the months, volunteers have been working hard to index the site (reading the hand-written entries and entering them into databases), and gradually states have been completed.

I just received an email from Archives.com, stating that the entire 1940 Census has been indexed and can be searched, free of charge, on  that website. (Archives is a paid service, so I suspect the free part is on a limited basis.) I clicked the link and searched for my father and, sure enough, there his nine-year-old self was. It took only a couple of links and I was looking at an image of the census form. I have an account (though I’m not a member) and I suspect that hastened the process.

According to the email from Archives, over one hundred thousand volunteers worked on indexing the census. That’s an amazing effort!

If you are just starting to dip your toe into family history research, here’s a chance to find a genealogical record for someone you might have known. Give it a try!

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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.