Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Raise your hand if you’re going to RootsTech!

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RootsTech 2018 is a little later than usual (February 28 to March 2) and I’ve just today started to focus on it. I deleted last year’s app on my so that I could download this year’s version. Turns out, if I’d read this blog post, titled 7 Ways the Mobile App Will Enhance Your RootsTech Experience I would have realized that all had to do was open the 2017 app, tap Exit to Show List, and select RootsTech 2018.

The app really is robust, allowing you to access information about conference sessions, exhibitors, schedules and more in a variety of ways. I’m going to make sure I budget some time in advance of the conference to go through it and put sessions on the app’s schedule so I’m not feeling stressed while at the conference.

Apparently 15,000 attendees are expected at this year’s conference to learn from their choice of 300 sessions and 200 exhibitors. I can’t believe I can attend a conference of that scope and not feel completely overwhelmed. It really is very well organized. One thing I’ve learned is to schedule down time and give myself permission to skip a conference session if I’m feeling exhausted. (I find that being around so many people can be draining.) If you’re attending for the first time you might want to check out this RootsTech blog post, A Survival Guide to RootsTech.

In years past I’ve had a great time meeting readers of this blog at RootsTech. If you’re going and you’d like to say hi in person, just leave a note in the comments and we’ll figure that out. I hope to meet some of you in person this year!

Broaden those search terms

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For about a year, I’d been trying to find my great grandfather’s half-brother, Wayne Horace Adams (1907-1976), on the 1920 census. His parents had divorced and I could not find Horace or his father, my 2nd great grandfather George Washington Adams, on that census. I knew that 74-year-old George had received custody of 12-year-old Horace in the 1919 divorce. And I knew that George would enter the Home for Disabled Soldiers in 1922. My curiosity about what happened to this teenager was strong.

I searched for him hither and yon, using everything I knew about him in my search terms. I thought I had searched for him with all his half siblings but in September I found him living in Oklahoma with his half brother John Quincy Adams, whom I apparently had missed checking on. That was an exciting find! (Because I was in a library when I found it, my cheers had to be silent, but that didn’t make them less exuberant.)

Once I found Horace on the 1920 census I wondered why he hadn’t come up in my searches on his name. I found the culprit: The enumerator had made a correction making Horace’s  age, which was 12, look like 42. (That’s a close up at the top of this post.) It was indexed as 42 and so he didn’t come up in my searches.

I realized that if I had left out his year of birth in my searches, I would have found him more easily. Lesson learned!

Join the Worldwide Indexing Event this weekend!

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I just learned about Family Search’s Worldwide Indexing Event, October 20 to 22. People from all over the world will work together to index as many documents as possible this weekend. So far, almost 60,000 people (including me!) have signed up.

I’ve long wanted to help with indexing since I know how helpful it is to find indexed documents and I’m so grateful to Family Search for making these documents (and indexes) freely available. A few years ago, I tried to volunteer to index but at the time it required downloading software and the indexing software–despite my best efforts and calls to tech support–simply would not play nicely with my Mac.

Things have changed! One can now index via the web, so no software is required.

Before committing, I thought I’d give it a try. I searched the available indexing opportunities and indicated I was interested in beginner level batches in the United States. I selected Divorce Records from Colorado, 1900-1939. The instructions and the indexing form were clear and I quickly indexed my first batch of ten divorce documents. I’ll hold off until Friday to do more, but I found the process enjoyable. Some day soon, perhaps, I’ll graduate to more challenging documents (these divorce records were typewritten), but I’m setting myself up for success by at least starting out with beginner documents this weekend.

I can’t wait to learn how many documents are indexed this weekend. Think of all the genealogy researchers who will be helped. I’m excited to be a part of it!

NARA’s 2017 Virtual Genealogy Fair is coming up

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Once again, the National Archives is having a Virtual Genealogy Fair, with a day’s worth of lectures available free of charge. This is the fifth year in a row they’ve offered this webcast.

You can read the lineup here. Detailed descriptions of the sessions are posted here, which is also where handouts will be posted when they’re available. (Classes are marked either Beginner” or “Experienced.”) There will be six one-hour sessions each day, including one on storing and handling family heirlooms.

Since I live in St. Louis, I’m excited that two of the sessions are about the National Archives facility in St. Louis, including one on accessing records burned in the big fire there in 1973.

The event takes place on Wednesday, October 25, starting at 10 am Eastern time and ending with closing remarks at 4 pm. I’ll be traveling that day, so I won’t be able to watch live, but I’m thrilled that the recordings will be available for a period of time after October 25.

Here’s a link to the YouTube Channel where you can watch the sessions. No registration is required!