Organize Your Family History

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How They Do It: Sunny Morton

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The latest interviewee in my How They Do It series is genealogy educator Sunny Morton. I’m familiar with Sunny’s work with Lisa Louise Cooke (who was the subject of my January How They Do It Interview) and Family Tree Magazine. She leads the Genealogy Gems book club and is the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites. I haven’t yet met Sunny, but based on what I read in this interview, I really look forward to meeting her! Her love for her genealogy and her family shines through.

How They Do It: Sunny Morton

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I’ve participated in personal and family history for just about my entire life. I began keeping a diary at around age 8. As a young teen, I created my first travel scrapbook: a magnetic album packed with notes, receipts, ticket stubs, postcards and even pine needles from a cross-country trip with my family. I kept every letter I ever received, filed alphabetically by the person’s first name, until my early 20s. I still have a couple of binders filled with printouts of the first several hundred personal emails I sent and received, before I realized these were something you could (and should) archive electronically. As an adult, I have compiled more than 40 scrapbooks filled with memories from my own life and those of my relatives.

When I was young, my parents took me along on genealogy road trips. I remember finding gravestones in cemeteries and paging through enormous bound volumes of original newspapers. My grandmother loved to organize photos and negatives and I became her eager assistant. As a young adult, I digitized several years’ worth of family slides and tattered old photo albums. About 15 years ago, I began researching my husband’s family history, since he knew very little about it.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

Knowing stories about what came before me. I feel more confident about who I am and why I am that way. I believe that learning about my ancestors has made me less judgmental of my own parents and grandparents and strengthened my relationships with them. I’m a more compassionate human being and a more informed citizen when it comes to having a historical perspective on topics such as civil rights and immigration.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to organizing your genealogy?

The transition from paper to paperless. I mentioned that I kept hundreds of letters and emails: what do I do with those? What about those archival scrapbooks, in which I’ve invested thousands of dollars and which are just barely too large to put on my scanner? I know there are ways to digitize these things for safe-keeping and so I can share them with all 3 children. But “editing” which items to scan and doing it would take hundreds of hours that I currently prefer to spend making memories with my children.

The other challenge is organizing tree data. I research across all of the major genealogy websites. I keep “working trees” on all those sites because then I can search and receive hints from each ancestor’s profile. But it’s best to have a master family tree where all the data and record image copies gets compiled. I keep a master, private tree in RootsMagic software. I also participate in the FamilySearch global tree so my research gets shared more widely. Though there can be complications when others dispute details on this open-forum tree, I love the collaborative contributions of many people’s documents, stories and pictures to our common ancestral profiles.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

My smartphone. It’s always with me, and I can use it in so many ways. I can access my tree data through apps for my software, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. When I’m the road, I can take pictures of documents, microfilmed records (right from the reader!), other people’s old pictures, family artifacts and gravestones. I can even record oral history interviews, either in audio or video format.

If you were starting out new as a genealogist what would you do differently?

I inherited a lot of genealogy research from others, so for a long time, I ignored recent generations on my own tree. I considered this research “already done” and therefore kind of boring. If I were starting over, I’d spend a lot more time getting to know my grandparents’ generation.

Do you keep a research log? If so, what format?

I keep informal research logs in Word documents. Each ancestor has a document with running commentary about my discoveries and next steps for my research.

How do you keep track of clues or ideas for further research?

I keep them in my research logs for each individual. Toward the end of the document, in the “Next steps” section, I keep notes on intriguing questions to research or resources I’d like to explore sometime.

Sunny with husband Jeremy and her children Jeremy, Alex and Seneca.

How do you go about sharing your personal research with cousins or other interested parties?

Most of my sharing happens in the form of telling stories: mostly to my children, but also to my husband, parents or other relatives who may be interested. Telling a story helps me learn which parts are most interesting to which audiences. Sometimes, I take a next step by framing a photo, creating a display or sharing a quick post on Facebook. I do participate in the FamilySearch global tree, which is an easy and organized way to reach potentially thousands of fellow descendants. Although I have written longer articles for genealogy newsletters and historical journals, most of my longer writing projects will have to wait until I’ve finished raising my three children. (That’s Sunny in the photo at left, making memories by participating as a family in a 5k race in July 2018.)

What’s the most important thing you do to prepare for a research trip?

I like to do three things: review what I already know, see what else I can learn online before I go, and locate unique offline sources that may only be discovered while on that trip. This makes my research efforts on the road more productive. A few phone calls to local archives and libraries ahead of time can help me plan my time most effectively, identify must-consult sources and connect with local experts (and perhaps even descendants). I can set priorities about the most important things to accomplish while I’m there and systematically go down my list.

Occasionally, there’s not sufficient time to prepare fully for a research trip. When that happens, I’m just grateful I have my laptop and my phone—which together give me access to all my research, note-taking and organizing tools. I try to at least gather information about the people and libraries I will want to connect with in the future, and take as many pictures as I can.

Do you have a dedicated space in your home for doing genealogy research? What’s it like?

I have a home office with lots of bookshelves for organizing my how-to genealogy research library, storing whatever documents I have in print format and displaying favorite family artifacts and photos. It’s an inspiring, comfortable place, filled with memories and mementos. My favorite mementos are the special cards and crafts my children have made me over the years: they remind me to get up from my desk and make memories with them.

So many great nuggets in here, from the beautiful explanation of how being a genealogist makes one a better human being to the very practical (and, for me, freeing) suggestion of taking a smartphone photo of a document right from the microfilm reader. I tend to be phone averse, but Sunny has inspired me to actually pick up the phone and call local archives and libraries before a research trip. I so appreciate how Sunny puts the emphasis on the family in family history research and how her love for her family imbues the answers to these questions. Thank you, Sunny!

If you’d like to explore more of Sunny’s work, check out her website for her speaking calendar and links to articles. You can watch the video (and read the handout) of her RootsTech 2017 lecture on the comparing the four major “Genealogy Giants” websites on this page of the Genealogy Gems website..

How They Do It: Paula Stuart-Warren

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This month’s How They Do It entry is from Paula Stuart-Warren, certified genealogist and well-known genealogy lecturer, instructor and blogger. She is a long-time course coordinator and instructor for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. She has presented courses for Ancestry Academy, Family Tree University, and continues to present seminars all across the U.S. and in Canada.

I had a lovely time interviewing Paula for the What the Pros Know workshop I’m hosting for Family Tree University. I was delighted when she agreed to answer my How They Do It questions!

How They Do It: Paula Stuart-Warren

How They Do It: Paula Stuart-Warren

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I began working on family history a bit in 1977 when my oldest son had one of those magic school assignments that you are supposed to complete in a weekend. I was intrigued when my late father-in-law insisted his mother’s maiden name was Warren and I said that was her married name. Guess what! He was correct. His parents were first cousins, once removed. The biggest impetus was taking community college courses on Minnesota and local history. The professor provided much help for tracing a business owned by my maternal great grandaunts. A few years later I took a beginning genealogy course for adults at a nearby university. It gave me a great foundation. I was hooked.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

The investigation and the answers. I can’t stop. I need the answers. Then there
are the people I have met in the state genealogical society and at seminars, institutes, and conferences across the country when I do presentations.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to organizing your genealogy?

Making myself do it continually. I have small families so that part is not difficult. My best decision was to label one box “Dad’s Family” and another “Mom’s Family.” Then I can add new finds to that box and file properly later when I have time. I have less trouble downloading items directly into the appropriate file on my computer! For my research clients, I really do a better job. Why??

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

It’s actually my laptop computer because I can take it everywhere and work from anywhere. It’s truly an extension of my brain.

If you were starting out new as a genealogist what would you do differently?

I would do a better job of citing where I found information. I didn’t do a horrible job because I learned well at the beginning, but I am far from perfect.

Do you keep a research log? If so, what format?

I did that at one time and made my own with more space for citations and remarks. Today I do personal reports, the same way I do for clients.

How do you keep track of clues or ideas for further research?

I have lists in “to do” folders in my computer that are labeled by research repository and then divided by family or type of record. The repository or website set up determines how I structure my lists. I have begun to use Evernote for some.

How do you go about sharing your personal research with cousins or other interested parties?

I am now adding to my bare bones trees on some websites, provide material when they ask, do some personal stuff on my own blog, and I have shared special things at Christmas. I have had them open up a big envelope all at the same time.

What’s the most important thing you do to prepare for a research trip?

Thoroughly scour the websites of convention and visitor bureaus but most importantly do the same for the courthouse, library or archive I will be visiting.

What’s your biggest piece of advice to genealogists in terms of organizing their research?

Set up an appointment to do sorting and filing and KEEP that appointment. Once a week? Once a month?

Paula Stuart-Warren's genealogy space

Paula’s genealogy den

Do you have a dedicated space in your home for doing genealogy research? What’s it like?

I have a small den, but my computer and I are more likely to be found in the living room where there are nice big windows that add great light.

Do you have anything to add?

Bring in a friend, neighbor, aunt, or fellow genealogist and have them give you an outsider’s opinion on your work area. My daughter is great at this.

I love the idea of setting up (and keeping) an appointment with yourself to work on organizing your genealogy research. And, like Paula, my favorite tech tool for genealogy is my laptop. I take it with me wherever I research.

You can read more of Paula’s genealogy wisdom on her blog, Genealogy by Paula. Thank you so much for partcipating, Paula! 

How They Do It: Barbara Schmidt

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I’m delighted to present a How They Do It interviewee from Europe! Barbara Schmidt is a communication specialist and genealogy researcher in Frankfurt, Germany, whom I met at RootsTech in 2017. She’s active in social media for both her work and her genealogy. Her blog Connecting the Worlds is doing exactly that: Connecting her worlds of genealogy, corporate history (she is a member of the historical association of Deutsche Bank), and everything around being and living digital including Working Out Loud.

Barbara speaks at genealogy events on topics like how to connect with other researchers through forums, social media, blogs, and how to travel safely through this new digital world. She blogs in English and German with the same overall topics but different angles.

How They Do It: Barbara SchmidtHow They Do It: Barbara Schmidt

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I started with researching my family tree when I was about 20 years old. That makes it now 25 years, It’s amazing, how time flies. Sometimes it feels like I just started. There are still moments today where I act and research like a rookie.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

When I started I just wanted to get an overview of my big family at the usual family gatherings like weddings, baptisms and funerals. As a child I never really understood who was who and who belonged to whom. All those aunts and uncles and siblings of my grandparents who were called aunt or uncle. All of them having three names didn’t help either. But throughout the years my motivation to keep going is coming from the small and big stories I learnt about my family.

And my biggest highlight is always when I “meet” new family members. I re-connected my father with his cousin after 42 years, that was really emotional for me and his cousin’s wife. They behaved like they had just seen each other the week before. It was so typical northern German – not a lot of words.

I learnt about a family branch that emigrated to the United States and got in contact with one of the descendants. And just later I realized, he is a real cousin of my mom. Or I met a distant cousin of my Dad last year who was on a Germany visit from Australia. Those are the big moments. But there are lots and lots small ones. Too many to mention them all.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to organizing your genealogy?

I tend to re-invent my organizing system every couple of years. I haven’t really found THE system yet. I always want to go digital because I cannot stand paper. It takes up too much space and I always get lost in the paper piles and files. The bigger my family tree and the more documents I had to store the more I got overwhelmed with finding the “perfect” system. Until I realized there is no perfection in organizing my genealogy. I had to find MY system. That took about 20 years until I found something that really worked.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

Definitely my scanner! I mentioned before I want to go digital. Which means I either only order digital copies of documents or if I receive paper copies I scan them and destroy the paper. Only copies of course. Originals get stored in specific acid free binders. No paper clips, no glue, no rubber bands. [I asked Barbara what kind of scanner she uses and it’s an HP MP500 flatbed/sheetfed scanner. — Janine]

If you were starting out new as a genealogist what would you do differently?

I would ask more questions and would research more within my own family when they are still alive. I spent way too much money ordering documents from archives to receive information which would have been easily available if I would have just asked.

Do you keep a research log? If so, what format?

Upon your recommendation I actually started using a research log but I don’t really keep up with them, to be honest. Again, I haven’t really found a system yet how to really incorporate it into my research. I tried various templates, on- and offline. In the cloud or on my desktop but I find myself not really using them. Although I really understand that they are helpful. But I’m not there yet.

How do you keep track of clues or ideas for further research?

I use Evernote a lot. I take notes of ideas not only for further research but also for my blog. I travel a lot, therefore I need something that synchronizes on all my devices like notebook, smartphone and tablet. I am also a heavy user of audio notes on my smartphone. For me that is the best way to set reminders for myself when a thought crosses my mind.

How do you go about sharing your personal research with cousins or other interested parties?
 
Unfortunately, my family is not really interested in my family research, except for my direct family like my parents and some of my siblings. But for interested parties I share my family tree online via Ancestry and wikitree. I am all for sharing and exchanging information. I make one exception though and that is pictures. Most important for me when we talk about a platform to share is the possibility to synchronize on all my devices. That’s why I work with the ancestry app.

What’s the most important thing you do to prepare for a research trip?

Portable battery chargers (powerbanks)! No kidding. When I started going digital in archives it happened more than once that I had to stop because I had no way to charge my devices. Now I always carry at least 2 powerbanks with me and make sure I have all the charging cables. I have a special tupperware for those. I always check for opening hours of archives. You never know what changes there might have been since the last visit. Another important thing? Comfortable shoes 😃

What’s your biggest piece of advice to genealogists in terms of organizing their research?

Don’t expect perfection. There is none. Find a simple system that works for you and don’t change it too often. Just because someone tells you of something different that works for him/her that doesn’t mean you have to change your way of organizing. If it’s not broken – don’t fix it. Leave enough flexibility for your family tree to grow. My first mistake was to make it too specific with colour coding and filing. It became way too complicated as my family tree grew.

Do you have a dedicated space in your home for doing genealogy research? What’s it like?

Not anymore. I just moved houses three weeks ago. I still have to find my spot in my new apartment which is a bit smaller than the one I previously had. But that is good in a way. It forces me to sort out everything which I don’t  need and to digitize even more. I have to downsize my storage and filing.

Thank you so much, Barbara, for your wise words. Your caution about not chasing perfection in a genealogy organizing system particularly resonated with me. It’s nice to see that genealogy research and organizing seems universal no matter where in the world you are!

 

How They Do It: Donna Cox Baker, The Golden Egg Genealogist

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The next interviewee for my How They Do It series is Donna Cox Baker, the blogger behind The Golden Egg Genealogist and the co-founder of the Beyond Kin Project. Donna has a PhD in history and is editor-in-chief of Alabama Heritage magazine. Her first book, Views of the Future State: Afterlife Beliefs in the Deep South, was published in January 2018. One of my readers suggested I invited Donna to participate in this series and I’m so glad! I found myself nodding in agreement as I read her insightful responses. Enjoy.

How They Do It: Donna Cox Baker shares how she organizes her genealogyHow They Do It: Donna Cox Baker

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I first got hooked on family history around 1986 at the public library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I lived briefly. Far away from family for the first time in my life, a local advertisement for “family history” caught my eye, and I was captivated. Since then, I have gone through long periods when I had no time for it, especially when I was pursuing graduate education while working full-time. As soon as I put the last touches on my PhD dissertation, though, I pulled out the old dusty genealogy box, and it was back to my first love.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?



At the risk of sounding corny, it is a spiritual thing for me. Oh, I love the thrill of the hunt, like everybody else. I love filling in the blanks that time has left. But there is something mystical-magical about reaching back to restore to memory the people without whom I would not be. It is an act of gratitude for those who came before, and an act of service to those yet to come. There is a grounding quality to the act of writing in birth dates and death dates again and again, person after person. You become truly conscious of the brevity of each life and want to make every day count.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to organizing your genealogy?

In the highest stress years of my career, I finally realized that I was psychologically allergic to paper. Piles and piles of sheets to remind me perpetually that the work was never done. That things had been forgotten. That I would never find what I needed. After a tornado wiped out 7,000 structures in my town and all the hoarded materials in them in 2011, I determined never to depend on paper again. Had the storm shifted two blocks north, every piece of paper my team had collected over 25 years would have been gone in three seconds. I make every effort to be paperless—for my sanity and the security of my research. The challenge, then, is in doing that in a smart way.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

My favorite tool is the one that got me through a PhD dissertation without giving up: Zotero. This free tool, developed by George Mason University, allows me to have everything I would have stored in paper files with me, wherever there is WiFi. I love it more than the unstructured tools like Evernote and OneNote, because it blends structure with free-form capabilities. It allows me to find a source online and click once to put all of the bibliographic information into its database. It can extract every comment and highlight I make in a PDF. It’s amazing and is the subject of my next book. I’ve written a number of blog posts about it on The Golden Egg Genealogist.

If you were starting out new as a genealogist what would you do differently?

I would get formal training. I was arrogant enough to think I didn’t need it for the first couple of decades. But then I went to the Institute for Genealogy and Historical Research. I took the beginner’s class, just in case I had missed things along the way. And BOY had I missed things along the way. I had been making mistakes that rendered whole branches of my family tree questionable. This summer will be my fourth trip to IGHR.

Do you keep a research log? If so, what format?



Zotero replaces that for me. It gives me everything the traditional logs give, but in a much more efficient format. If I was doing genealogy for others, I might need a log to keep up with time spent, but I don’t have that need. With Zotero, I know what sources I consulted, where I found them, and what I extracted. It keeps up with the date I first added the source record and the last time I modified it—the only two dates I really care about. And unlike the traditional research logs, I only have to add the source and repository information once—no matter how many times I might return to that source and gather new information. In my notes, I make a habit of including a statement about what I was looking for at any given time—say, “All Mayberrys,” or “Ransom Payne.”

How do you keep track of clues or ideas for further research?



Again, Zotero is my hero. I have a master To Do folder, in which I add subfolders for places I might need to visit to do future research. As I encounter a library catalog record or some other notice of a source I want to see at that repository, I create the Zotero source record and drag it into the folder for the repository. That way, I’m collecting a to-do list for a repository and have it waiting when I have the time to make that trip. In fact, if I happen to find myself at a repository unexpectedly—say a meeting ends early at the state archives, and I have an hour—I can find a computer there, look up my to-do list in Zotero’s cloud, and get to work. I am also able to drag and drop the same source record into folders for the person or family I’m researching. So the record exists only once, but I can find it in multiple places.

How do you go about sharing your personal research with cousins or other interested parties?



I give them access to my Ancestry tree, which is syncing with Family Tree Maker. Because I still have some of that old questionable research that I mentioned in my largest tree, I keep that one private. I caution the curious cousin up front that they need to check everything behind me. My research is a clue, not the gospel. I have a couple of public trees that represent more recent (post-IGHR) work. I’ve had little time to work on the general family tree there. I am spending most of my time on a tree that is a slaveholding branch of my family that serves as a prototype for the Beyond Kin Project, which represents our method of documenting enslaved populations.

What’s the most important thing you do to prepare for a research trip?

I go through any available catalogs or lists of what the local repositories have, and then determine what specific research questions I need to try to answer. I also try to determine which of the local records might be available online through FamilySearch or Ancestry or are in a library in my vicinity. I want to spend my time on the sources I will not find any other way. I make sure I have my smart phone and laptop and the ability to keep both charged. My phone becomes my scanner, and I am often keying things directly into Zotero, as I work on-site.

What’s your biggest piece of advice to genealogists in terms of organizing their research?

Get rid of the paper. You cannot carry it with you on your research trip with any ease. If a piece of paper mentions twenty different people, will you make twenty copies of the page to file in twenty folders? And here’s another really important reason to break the paper habit. Your descendants will not want your file cabinets and boxes. If you depend on paper, your research may stop with you. Don’t let that happen. Now for those who have twenty years of paper piled up and wonder how they could possibly go paperless now, I say start today with a paperless ethic. Make everything you work on from now on paperless, and slowly work backward through the paper mountains in your home, scanning them as you are able.

Do you have a dedicated space in your home for doing genealogy research? What’s it like?



The beauty of paperless genealogy is that I can do 99% of my work at home on a laptop. Everything I’ve gathered has been scanned and can be accessed there (being backed up faithfully to the cloud at all times). I have a great little office in my house, but it feels too much like my day job. I usually work in an armchair with headphones on, so I can enjoy the company of my husband and cat-children. When I retire someday, maybe I’ll be willing to sit at a desk again. But more likely I’ll want to be on a lounge chair on the deck.

 Now all of this is possible because I’m not a person who wants to be the keeper of my family’s precious documents and photographs. If you are that person, you have to be able to preserve things in acid-free boxes, fire-proof safes. And I salute that person, but it will not be me.

I hadn’t heard of Zotero before hearing about it from Donna and now I’m excited to check it out. Her enthusiasm for it is contagious! I’m also intrigued by the Beyond Kin Project and can’t wait to learn more. And, finally, I agree completely with Donna about paper. (I love her phrase “psychologically allergic to paper.”) Eliminating paper creates such freedom and her advice to start with from this point forward with going paperless then chip away at the backlog is spot on. Thank you, Donna, for taking the time to answer these questions!