Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Going to your first genealogy conference? Start here.

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I’m excited for next week’s National Genealogical Society Family History conference, which will be held in St. Charles, Missouri, practically in my back yard. One of my clients is attending for the first time (her first conference ever, in fact) and I’ll be there to show her the ropes. But here’s a slightly edited version of a post I wrote a couple of years ago for people attending their first genealogy conference.

I love going to genealogy conferences and have attended probably a dozen or so. If you’re attending the NGS conference May 8 to 11 (or any other conference, really), you might find these tips helpful!

  • Bring your family tree or have access to it on a device. I frequently hear things at conferences that make me want to check my tree, to see whether I have ancestors in a locality, for example. Once, I was able to verify on my tree that the speaker, Joshua Taylor, and I were related! (I blogged about that exciting moment here.)
  • Bring some way to take notes, either a notebook or device. (I prefer to take notes into Evernote on my laptop.)
  • Eat a good breakfast, because you’re going to need a lot of brainpower. And bring along a bottle of water to stay hydrated. I always bring trail mix or something too.
  • Be prepared to keep a list of next steps, because the sessions you attend will surely spark ideas for things to look up or other actions.
  • Take a class that doesn’t necessarily interest you–you never know what new interests it might spark. (This tip came from reader Jan Rogge in a comment on my blog post about attending the Missouri State Genealogical Society conference in 2017.)
  • If it’s a large conference with an app (as NGS is), download the app and decide what sessions you’ll be taking in advance of your arrival at the conference.
  • Make conversation with the person next to you. You may be in a position to help him/her or vice versa. Or you could even meet a cousin that way!
  • Take time after the conference to read your notes and process the conference materials you bring home.

Basically, be prepared to write stuff down because you’ll probably learn so much you’ll never remember it. Most of all, enjoy yourself!

Five things I wish my early-researcher self had known

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Earlier this year, I found a pile of papers from early days of my genealogy research and went through them to see what was of value. As I reported back, I let go of a lot of it and scanned some, and it was a worthwhile, if somewhat tedious, endeavor.

In a separate project, I’ve been evaluating the source documentation in my Reunion database. The way I cited and processed early sources was not always great, to say the least. As part of this project, I’ve been reexamining each source, which has helped me make the citation better and glean more information.

As I looked at my early research efforts, five things emerged that I wish I’d known back then.

  1. Always write down a source or copy a title page when photocopying something. In some cases, while examining the paper pile, I had no idea where the document had come from. In a couple of cases, a little searching online revealed the source. But what a waste of time.
  2. Assume you’ll remember nothing. I now keep notes in my research log because the work involved in trying to figure out why I copied or downloaded something  is another waste of time.
  3. Siblings matter. Early on, I researched only direct-line ancestors. I think it was because keeping track of collateral relatives felt overwhelming. I know better now. Keeping track of siblings (and cousins!) helps you evaluate information and provides critical clues.
  4. Indexes are clues, not sources. Some of the early sources in my Reunion database are indexes. Now, I don’t include an index as a source unless I’ve absolutely exhausted the possibilities for finding the actual document that was indexed. There is so much more information available in the actual document than the index itself. And, of course, indexes, which were created after the fact, are almost by definition less reliable than original sources.
  5. Be really critical. Early on, finding anything that seemed to support an idea I already had felt like a big win and I didn’t necessary examine it critically. But I’ve learned to critically evaluate every bit of evidence. I don’t automatically accept documents that support my hypotheses, nor do I reject evidence that does not. I like to think of it as sources earning their way into my database.

Genealogy is a process of constant learning. We all make mistakes at the beginning and with any luck we learn from them. (I’m still making mistakes and still learning.) Perhaps this short list will help someone avoid a couple of mistakes.

How about you? What do you wish your early-genealogist self had known?

NGS livestream schedule released

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I’m excited to be attending the 2019 National Genealogical Society conference, which is being held 8 to 11 May 2019 in St. Charles, Missouri, where I’ll get to choose from more than 135 different classes being offered. If you’re not able to make it, you have the option of watching ten of the classes via live stream (and, later, on demand).

The sessions being streamed are offered on Thursday, May 9 and Friday, May 10. Three of Thursday’s five sessions will focus on DNA’s role in supplementing genealogical research. The other two lectures streamed on Friday are on ethnic research. The five selections on Friday feature lectures by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) that emphasize research, analysis, and problem-solving skills. For a complete list of the sessions being live streamed, go to the live stream page for the conference.

You can buy a one-day pass for either day for $95 or a two-day pass for $149. If you want to watch the sessions live, you must register by May 8. From May 9 to 11, you can purchase on-demand viewing of the ten sessions for that price. (After that, you can purchase a video pass for all ten but the price goes up to $249.) The sessions remain available to you to view, as many times as you’d like, for a year, until May 11, 2020.

Live stream registrants receive a copy of the electronic syllabus for the whole conference. For those registrants who miss the live broadcast, the session will be available on demand about 48 hours after the broadcast.

Audio recordings of all the sessions will also be available for purchase. See the video and audio recordings page for details and pricing. The price for audio recordings goes up by $100 after May 11. If you purchase the audio package, you can download the MP3s with no expiration. Both video and audio purchasers receive access to the electronic syllabus.

If you are attending the conference, the syllabus is now available for download. (Check your email for login details.) And if you’re going to the conference and would like to meet up and haven’t already told me, please comment below!

April 30 x 30 challenge: check in!

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We’re a little over halfway through the month and therefore more than halfway through the April 30 x 30 challenge. If you’re one of the folks who is participating, how have you been doing with the challenge of 30 minutes of genealogy research for 30 days in a row (or whatever version you’ve created)?

I have to admit, this has been a tough one for me. I knew going in that it was going to be a challenge to do daily research. In the first two weeks of the month, I was out of town nine days. And when I was home, I was busy with organizing clients. So, as I said in the post introducing the challenge, I adjusted my goal to be daily research, no matter how small, with an average of 30 minutes a day stretched out over the month.

I’m happy to say I’ve managed to research each and every day, but I’ve been flexible on what I have to do to meet that standard. Some days I’ve research more than a half hour. Others, only ten minutes. Yesterday, all I did was read an article in the new NGS Quarterly. But the fact is that each day I’ve had something to enter in my research log and that’s made me feel good.

Last weekend, I was able to get a few hours of research in on a rainy day, so I think I’ll achieve my goal of 900 minutes over the course of the month (though I haven’t been keeping close track).

How about you? Have you missed a day? And if you did, did you get right back into it? Please share your progress!