Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #32: Found a bad scan? Look again

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. I’ve benefited more than once from this one!

Found a bad scan? Look again.

If you’re like me, you’ve encountered some documents that were scanned poorly. It can be so disappointing to locate a document, then realize you can’t read everything on it. Here’s what I suggest when that happens.

If the poorly scanned document you found is on Ancestry, see if you can find it on FamilySearch (and vice versa). Documents found on both sites were probably scanned (and indexed) by different people and there may be a better scan on the other site. If you can’t find it on a search, try browsing.

Early on in my researching I found a terrible scan on Ancestry for the 1910 census my grandmother was on. I didn’t think to look for it on FamilySearch and when finally did, nine years later, I found a beautiful scan.

Looking elsewhere for a better scan can be worth a few extra minutes of effort!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Quick Tip #31: Don’t forget to include counties

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This is one has come in handy over the years.

Don’t forget to include counties

When I add a place in my genealogy software, I always try to include the county, even if I have to look it up. I didn’t used to do that. But I’ve learned that including the county is beneficial for a couple of reasons: (1) Records are often held at the county level, so knowing the county your ancestor resided in is helpful and (2) It helps you differentiate whether a locality is a city/town or the county of the same name. One locality that is in my database is my hometown of Walla Walla, which is located in the county of Walla Walla, in the state of Washington. So I repeatedly type Walla Walla, Walla Walla, Washington. It’s a little tedious, but it actually makes me smile. That’s just one of several same-named cities and counties in my database. I find it’s worth the time to type it twice. And, of course, this applies to counties that don’t have the same name as the town or city.

If you don’t already routinely include the county when you’re identifying a locality as a matter of course, I encourage you to make it a habit!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Quick tip #30: Don’t forget to have fun!

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This is one I need to remind myself about when the going gets tough.

Don’t forget to have fun

Those of us who aren’t professional genealogists are more than likely pursuing this passion for the fun of it. But sometimes it doesn’t feel like fun does it? Butting up against a brick wall can make your head hurt!

When I start to get frustrated with my research, I remind myself that I’m doing this because I enjoy it. And then I step away from the frustrating problem and do some genealogy activity that I find particularly fun. Your idea of fun will certainly be different, but you might give this a try. You might even keep a list of fun tasks that you can turn to when you to reignite your love for genealogy.

Remember, this is supposed to be fun!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Quick Tip #29: Pick a line for focus

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This one  helped me gain focus in my research.

Pick a line to research

Choosing what to work on in a given research session can feel overwhelming. It used to be my number one genealogy challenge. Then, in 2014, I decided to focus on one of my family lines per quarter. I assigned each of my grandparent’s ancestors a calendar quarter and switched every three months. This kept me from jumping all over the place but still gave me some latitude so I didn’t feel too hemmed in. (I blogged about it at the time and discussed the pros and cons of the strategy.)

If you find yourself darting all over your tree, this technique might give you some much-needed focus.

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

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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.