Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #16: Don’t forget about your local library

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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 think this one’s a good reminder.

Don’t forget about your local library!

Here in St. Louis, our city and county library systems have some remarkable resources for genealogists. Both have genealogy rooms that I’ve enjoyed researching in. And they have expert staff members who provide great assistance. All of it’s free of charge.

Of course, the pandemic has made using the local library difficult. Here, branches have been closed off and on. The St. Louis County library genealogy room has been closed since the pandemic began. I traditionally rely on it to give me access to those documents from Family Search that are available only if you’re using the wifi system of an affiliate library. The county library has generously extended its wifi reach to its parking lot. Last week, I parked there and was able to download some documents from Family Search. Maybe that’s something you can do at your library too.

Even if your local library branch is closed, I urge you to check to see whether they are offering access to online databases or perhaps are allowing you to consult remotely with librarians. They may have expanded online resources because of the pandemic. Here in St. Louis, for example, the library edition of Ancestry.com is now available to county library card holders at home (while the genealogy room is closed). If you don’t have a library card, now’s a good time to get one!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Family History Library offering free virtual consultations, online learning center

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The mammoth Family History Library in Salt Lake City closed its doors in March 2020 because of COVID. According to this news release from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, they’ve been spending time while they’re closed improving online services, which is a real boon for genealogists.

They’ve launched a new website for the Family History Library (which is part of FamilySearch.org) that will provide “new online patron experiences and up-to-date information on the library’s services and activities,” according to the press release.

One thing that exited me was the availability of free 20-minute research consultations. According to the website, in those consultations “We can help with evidence analysis or translation of key words, or we can help identify a good next step. The goal is to empower you in your research journey.” The sessions are offered in English, Spanish, Chinese and American Sign Language. Detailed information is available here.

It’s important to note that the researchers are not physically at the library (due to COVID) so may not have access to resources that you don’t have already have access to. But their expertise and knowledge of the collection is bound to be helpful. Doesn’t being empowered by professional researchers sound great?

Another exciting development is the new Online Learning Center, which is making hundreds of previously recorded how-to webinars available on demand, all free of charge. When I clicked on the Learning Center link at the new website, just a few popular lessons were listed on the resulting page. As a test, I searched for Civil War and got a listing of 120 available lessons. I haven’t taken any of these lessons, but I look forward to exploring what’s available and taking some to expand my knowledge this way.

The news release says that while the library is closed during the pandemic, improvements are being made to improve visitor access to materials and services. That’s fantastic. I’ve had the opportunity to research there several times and I look forward to visiting the new, improved Family History Library. In the meantime, I’m delighted about the enhanced online access to learning.

 

 

 

My simple 2021 genealogy goal

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I’m a big goal setter. I set goals for my business, some of which I actually achieve. I set goals for my personal life, too. (Creating a daily yoga habit is one I’ve actually achieved, and I’m working hard on drinking 64 oz of water a day.)

Every year, I set genealogy goals too. And I rarely achieve them. Last year I blogged about my tendency to set up complex goals and I detailed what I thought were achievable goals for 2020. But once again, I didn’t look the goals I’d set. (Despite that, I did pretty well with the ones that involved creating good habits.)

So this year I want to keep it very simple. My word of the year for 2021 is ease and I want that to saturate every aspect of my life. I really would like to do genealogy every day. (And for that reason I’ll probably have six 30 x 30 challenges this year.) In the interest of ease, I’m going to set up a single genealogy goal for the year, one that I can turn to whenever I’m in doubt about what to work on and one on which I can make progress just a few minutes at a time.

My genealogy goal for 2021 is to review all my source citations and source documents. Back in 2016, I exported my sources and created a checklist in Evernote. (I blogged about that here.) In 2018, I added to the list, which now has 834 sources in it. Of those, I’ve checked 86.

So my go-to activity in 2021 will be to make my way through the sources, checking them off as I go. I anticipate learning a lot and making a lot of notes for further follow up. Will I get through all 748 remaining sources? I don’t know. It’s possible.

I actually have 1195 sources now, having added 461 since the last time I updated the checklist. I’d like to think that perhaps those more recent sources don’t need checking since I’ve become a better genealogist. But if I get there and it feels productive, I’ll keep going.

Right now, this sounds like an interesting project. It remains to be seen whether it will stay interesting. In any case, it will be a nice starting point for the year. I like having a single goal so simple that I’ll remember it.

How about you? What are your genealogy goals for 2021?

Quick Tip #12: Don’t enter a fact without creating a source citation

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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 think this tip is an especially important one.

Don’t enter a fact without creating a source citation

When I first caught the genealogy bug at the turn of this century, I wrote down facts willy nilly without bothering to note where the fact came from. My “research” progressed quickly, but I ended up with an unreliable mess. I abandoned researching for a number of years and when I came back to in 2011 I vowed never to enter a fact into my database without creating a source citation and assigning that source to the fact.

That policy has served me well and is part of my digital workflow. Having a source for every single fact in my Reunion database means that when conflicting information come up, I can easily evaluate the sources and make a determination on what is more likely to be true. It gives me confidence in my research. And it makes my research more credible (and valuable) to others.

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash