Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

How They Do It: Julie Goucher

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I’m so glad to bring you another post in my How They Do It series! This month’s interview is with Julie Goucher, a UK genealogist and one-name study expert who was recommended by a reader. Julie is a well-respected writer and speaker on genealogy and is the Pharos Tutor for three One-Name Studies/Surname studies courses. She is a Trustee for the Guild of One-Name Studies and has two One-Name Studies for the surnames Orlando and Butcher, which represent her parents. Julie writes for several genealogy magazines, including Family Tree Magazine (UK) and Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. Most recently she wrote a Surname Research Guide for the Guild of One-Name Studies, a new course for Pharos on the practicalities for One-Name Studies and is currently writing a book called Last One Standing which should publish later this year. You can keep up to date with Julie at https://anglersrest.net.

How They Do It: Julie Goucher

How long have you been doing genealogy?

Since 1988, so about 32 years. Where did that time go?

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

The thrill of the chase of information plus the journey our research takes us on. Not to mention the friendships we make along the way as we research and connect with others.

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

Keeping on track with the research and filing documents and items away when I am researching. I do though consistently keep notes.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

I think this has to be the availability of the internet, which shrinks the world to the size of a matchbox and a smart phone.

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

Spend more time with family members, asking questions. Even though I did that, there is still many I wish I had asked. The other thing I would do differently is to research and “deal” with that research immediately so there was no paper backlog.

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

Yes, I do. I am a prolific note taker, so have research logs since I began researching, though those early ones are sketchy in places. I have used a written log and an electronic log, which I kept as a spreadsheet. My favourite way is via pen and paper. I use a notebook and use it confirm what I have researched and what I have found (or not found). I build a to do list at the same time.

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

Trusty notebook and pen. On occasion I use my notes area of my iPhone, but these are migrated to my notebook as soon as I can. I use the same for blog posts, articles and presentation ideas too. I also date everything. Notebooks of choice are Leuchttrum1917 for notetaking and journaling. I use a Traveller’s notebook system for a catch all when I am on the move. I recently have moved into a A5 Filofax for organising and planning blog posts, especially useful if I am working on a series.

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

Blog and newsletter and website. I do have online trees, but they are not my preferred method.

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

Consider the aims of the trip. What specifics I want to locate, and I always do background reading. The most important thing I can share is to note down or photograph, if you can, all the records you see. Just in case surnames that originate in one area have moved to another. Our people were more migratory that we really think. If I am not sure if it is the same family, I note it down, and assess later as opposed to discounting it during the trip. Also, date everything.

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

Keep it simple! Use the right tools for the job and take the time to learn how to use a piece of software. Make use of genealogical programmes for studies that do not involve just your family lines, such as a surname study or place research. Spreadsheets are good, but they are not meant for storing or creating family trees.

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

Yes, I have an office at home. It has too many books, or perhaps too few bookcases! Two filing cabinets, an armchair, desk and shredder. I also have a stand with my printer (and several piles of filing) and a seat which houses a lot of genealogical data CDs. The tops of my filing cabinet house boxes of photos.

Do you have anything to add?

Genealogy gives me a great deal of pleasure, as do the friendships I have made along the way. The documentation that archives hold is so very important as that adds evidences to our family tree. Not everything is online, and the other important factor is citing the source. Even if you only cite where the material was found and not much else, it is better than nothing. The point of a citation is that you and others can follow the research pathway using the citations you provide.

I’m so grateful to Julie for taking the time to answer these questions. I found myself nodding as I read her responses, particularly the bits about processing documents as you find them and making decisions about whether something is relevant after you get home from a research trip, not during. And, of course, the advice about citing sources–even if it’s an imperfect citation–is so on point. Thank you, Julie!

How They Do It: Nathan Dylan Goodwin

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I am delighted to publish this How They Do It interview with novelist and genealogist Nathan Dylan Goodwin. I love Nathan’s genealogical crime mysteries books starring his protagonist Morton Farrier, a forensic genealogist. (If you haven’t read them and you enjoy reading fiction, you’re in for a treat.) Nathan has been doing genealogy research since he was quite young and I was very interested to hear how he organizes his research. Nathan lives in Kent, England (which you’ll notice in some of his responses).

Author Nathan Dylan GoodwinHow They Do It: Nathan Dylan Goodwin

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I started doing genealogy when I was twelve years old…I say started, but what I actually mean is spent an inordinate amount of time creating family trees and not really knowing what I was doing! I did have the presence of mind, though, to interview (on a basic level) several elderly relatives, including my great grandfather’s sister, who was born in 1895. At the wake after her funeral, I gathered up all of her unwanted photographs, which had been destined for the dustbin. It was around 1998 when my research became more serious and I began going to record offices, buying certificates, etc.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

First of all, I love the puzzle-solving element of finding out about my relatives and discovering things about their lives, which nobody else knows. My second favourite thing is making contact with living relatives, something which has been really important to me since I started in genealogy. I’ve met so many wonderful distant cousins from all around the world and very often they are in possession of photos and documents, which I would never have come across from record offices or genealogy websites. One of my prized possessions is a family bible belonging to my great-, great-, great-grandparents, which was given to me by a 3rd cousin, about whom I knew nothing prior to tracing the siblings of my great-, great-grandparents down to living relatives. Seeing my interest, she very generously gave me the bible.

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

Organising it! I’ve been the family genealogist for a long time now and so frequently get passed various family documents, which invariably need preserving as they are and also in some digital form, which can be shared with other interested family members. This process, as genealogists are aware, can be very time-consuming. So, I’m ashamed to admit that I have a lot of semi-sorted box files pertaining to each family name that I am researching.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

I’m a huge fan of anything DNA-related and am delighted with the development and release of analysis tools on Ancestry, GEDmatch and MyHeritage. My current favourite, though, is probably the tools available on the DNA Painter website. I’m very often using the ‘What are the Odds?’ tool, as well as Blaine Bettinger’s Shared cM tool. Love it!

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

Had it been available at the time, I would have DNA-tested everyone in the family! I’m lucky to have my mum and maternal grandmother tested, but don’t have much on my paternal side. Other than that, I would ask far better questions of my elderly relatives. When I started out, I would ask questions about family members – names, birth dates, children, etc. – information I can now find within a few seconds online. I should have asked what life was like for them growing up, the personalities of their families, what pastimes they enjoyed, and any other questions, which cannot be found in other sources.

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

I do keep a written journal when I begin a complex genealogy problem, such as helping an adoptee find their biological family; something I have done several times, now. Owing to the complexities of such a challenge, it is easy to overlook something or forget areas of research which have been already explored. I usually note the date, what research I undertook and any next steps I need to take.

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

The main way in which I share my research is via my (private) Ancestry tree. I find this isn’t too overwhelming and is easily navigated. The line of my family, which I started working on at the age of twelve, was my grandmother’s maiden name, Dengate, and since 2002 I have maintained a website, www.dengates.com dedicated to the family name. It is also my one-name study. The website is currently undergoing a major overhaul, but once up and running it’s a great way to share information, stories, videos and photographs. Having the website also encourages others to share their information with me and other interested parties.

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

Before any research trip, I always make sure the records that I want to see are actually going to be available to me and pre-order them, if I can, to save time. I have an on-going Notes file on my mobile phone and so add document references to it until I’ve built up a big enough list for a particular repository to justify a visit.

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

Nathan Dylan Goodwin in front of his writing spaceI think everyone organises their research differently, so my advice would be to choose a way, which means that you can access something at a later date when you’ve built up a lot of material. Personally, I have (per family surname) a file for birth, marriage and death certificates (in chronological order), a file for wills, several for photographs, one for correspondence and one for artefacts. I must admit that my photographs files are slightly haphazard and need organising in a better way!

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

I have a cabin at the bottom of my garden, which I use predominantly for writing my genealogical crime mystery stories, but I do also undertake some genealogy down there, too. Otherwise, I’m sat at the dining-room table on my laptop!

A cabin at the bottom of a garden sounds like a delightful place to write and do research! You can read a short prequel to Nathan’s genealogical crime series at his website, www.nathandylangoodwin.com and the whole series can be purchased at Amazon and other retailers. Thank you, Nathan, for this peek at how you organize your research!

How They Do It: Megan Smolenyak

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This month I’m thrilled to present the insights of genealogical adventurer and storyteller (don’t you love that description?) Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak. Megan is well known as a writer, speaker and TV guest and is the author of six books, most recently Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing and Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History, the companion guide to the TV series. Her personality shines through in this interview. Enjoy!

How They Do It: Megan Smolenyak

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I’ve been doing genealogy since a 6th grade homework assignment got me started, so decades now!

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

I get to wake up every day and play detective to help other people. That’s pretty great, isn’t it? I love the thrill of the hunt, and playing at the fringes. That’s why I was one of the first to play with DNA, use genealogy for forensic purposes (e.g., military identifications, FBI civil rights cold cases, coroners’ offices, etc.), produce roots-oriented videos, and so forth. I like experimenting to find different ways to apply genealogical research and hopefully wind up doing some good.

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

My biggest challenge organization-wise is my personal research. I’m quite organized when it comes to others’ family history, but not so much with my own. I don’t get much time to play with it, but suffice it to say, I have decades of research in a variety of formats.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

I wouldn’t say they’re my favorite, but more the toys I’m playing with lately. I’ve been pondering recently how to ensure that my personal research survives me, and since there are no keen genealogists among my close family members, I’ve been looking for ways to share what I’ve learned in ways that relatives might find half-way interesting. So I’ve been experimenting with what you might call distribution tools.

Megan’s wall of Mixtiles

For instance, I have lots of my father’s slides from our time living in Europe, so I selected and edited some and now have a display along a long hallway. To do that, I used the Mixtiles app, and what’s great about it is that each “tile” can be applied and removed multiple times, so I can rotate the content over time. Then I took it a step further and made a slender book of these same slides using Blurb and sent copies to my dad and siblings.

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

When I first shifted careers to genealogy, I said ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came my way, and I would still do that again today. That said, I should have started turning down some invitations earlier than I did. While I’m beyond grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way, I got myself over-obligated and it took years to dig out.

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

It depends on the project and scale, but for the most part, conventional research logs in good, old-fashioned Word. And I’m a big fan of white boards when juggling multiple sub-projects (e.g., orchestrating research for a TV season). I once worked in a place that had an entire wall made of white board and I’d love to have that again!

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

Again, fairly old school. For instance, a dedicated notebook for a particular project. Or a generic notebook for multiple projects where I scribble ideas and then create an on-going table of contents (from the back of the notebook in) so I can easily find what I’m looking for (color-coding often comes into play). Sometimes I’ll append pages for this purpose to a research log. Also, for those times when I trip across cool new sites I want to explore, but know I’ll get distracted by, I’ll add them into a slot in my calendar app and then give myself time – usually a random Friday afternoon – to play with several at once.

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

Homework, homework, homework. I explore the websites of all the repositories I plan to go to and dig into their catalogs, online collections, and the like so I know exactly what’s necessary and exactly what’s possible. I’ll often wind up back-and-forthing with an archivist or librarian in advance – sometimes to have materials waiting, perhaps to clarify details about a particular collection, or maybe to pick their brains for further ideas. I recently did this for a research trip to the Archives of Macau, and it saved so much time – not to mention, gave me some gems I probably wouldn’t have found on my own.

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

This is probably a blinding flash of the obvious, but get yourself organized when you’re first starting out. Form those habits early. If nothing else, you will save yourself so much re-work by not constantly re-inventing your research trail.

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

Yes, since I’ve been a professional genealogist for two decades now, I’ve always had a dedicated room for my office wherever we lived (Virginia, New Jersey and Florida so far), and they’ve all had their own vibe. My current one is lighter and airier than in the past – partly due to digitization reducing the need for filing cabinets and other storage. I have a large sit/stand desk (very reasonable at IKEA), a filing credenza, a bookcase, and a utility cart (IKEA again) and library cart (Demco caters to libraries, but sells to individuals) – the last two for current projects. I also have a sleeper ottoman (that’s hardly ever been opened into a bed) where visitors can plop themselves down and get comfortable. The walls are light teal, the furniture is mostly white, and there’s lots of colorful art. So all that, terrific views and Mixtiles. More Mixtiles.

I love Megan’s light-hearted, but wise, responses and this peek into the organizational life of such an experienced genealogist. I had never of Mixtiles and excited to explore more! Thank you so much, Megan, for sharing!

How They Do It: Kenyatta D. Berry

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You may well be familiar with professional genealogist Kenyatta D. Berry, a host of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow. She has a new book out, The Family Tree Toolkit and when I heard her talking about it on the podcast Genealogy Happy Hour, I knew I wanted to interview her about she organizes her genealogy research. So here’s this month’s How They Do It interview. Enjoy!

How They Do It: Kenyatta BerryHow They Do It: Kenyatta D. Berry

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I have been doing genealogy research and writing for over 20 years.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

I love helping people find their people especially descendants of enslaved individuals. Their reaction when I uncover and share some remarkable information about their family history gives me chills. It is my calling to help people uncover their family history and share their ancestors story. I have seen people literally change before my eyes on Genealogy Roadshow.

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

The biggest challenge is digitizing the research I have collected over the past twenty years. I have a closet full of binders and boxes of research from when I started doing genealogy and took field trips to my ancestral homelands.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

I like using Evernote to help organize research projects, stories and my family history. I also use Dropbox to share documents with clients and family members. I have created Dropbox folders for my maternal and paternal ancestors.

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

I would have cited my sources, developed better research logs and started an organizational system from the beginning.

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

I keep a loose version of a “research log” in Evernote for projects. When I am doing enslaved genealogy research, all of my notes are handwritten. I am a visual person and I need to track the movement of enslaved and enslavers on a blank piece of paper. Once I have analyzed my notes, then I enter them into Evernote.

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

I use notebooks and small sheets of papers to keep track of clues or ideas for further research. I type the notes into Evernote and update as needed. Transferring the notes helps me work through any outstanding questions and organize my thoughts in a logical process.

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

I share my personal research with my family members via family stories, biographical sketches and documents on Dropbox.

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

The most important thing is to know everything about the county including the resources available at the local repositories, courthouses and archives. Also, be nice to the court clerk because it goes a long way.

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

Create a system that works for you and don’t be afraid to try something new if something doesn’t work. We all learn differently and as your research expands you might need to alter your system for organizing research. There isn’t a right or wrong answer for organizing your research.

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

I do not have a dedicated space in your home in my apartment because I live in a one-bedroom. My research is stored in closets, cabinets and a portion of my bookshelves are dedicated to genealogy books.

Do you have anything to add?

Develop your library of genealogy and historical resources based on your interests. This will help broaden your knowledge as you continue to uncover your ancestors place in history.

I can so relate to these responses, especially what Kenyatta said there being no right way to organize and that organization systems sometimes need to change. Also, as someone who keeps a very casual research log in Evernote, I was thrilled to read that Kenyatta also keep a loose version of a log there. For more information from Kenyatta, I encourage you to check out her book, The Family Tree Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Uncovering Your Ancestry and Researching Genealogy.