Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Making good use of my time at the Family History Library

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An aisle of microfilm at the Family History Library

I leave for Salt Lake City on Wednesday, to attend the RootsTech conference. I arrive noonish and have decided to spend the afternoon and early evening at the Family History Library. I’m finding myself wishing I’d opted to go a day early to research, but I didn’t, so I’m trying to make good use of the fairly narrow window of time at the library.

I’m really fortunate because professional genealogist and Organize Your Family History reader Maria Tello has offered to meet me at the library and get me oriented and off to the right start. Thank you, Maria!

I’m looking to keep myself focused on one nuclear family; I have some questions I’d like to get answered. But I don’t want to have such tunnel vision that I might miss out on opportunities to learn about other families.

I’m wondering if any of my readers have any advice for me. I bet I’ll be there five hours or so. I’ll have my laptop. Is there anything you think I should bring along? Anything at the library that is not to be missed? Any pitfalls to try to avoid? I’ve been there once before, when I attended RootsTech in 2014. I remember being unfocused and overwhelmed and hope it will be different this time!

Also, if you’re attending RootsTech and would like to meet up, please comment here or send me a note from the Contact page. I’ve always had such a great time meeting readers!

A final note: Tuesday I’ll be posting my next installment of my How They Do It series. Keep an eye out!

Go ahead, contact that courthouse!

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Not all genealogy documents are available on the internetLike many people, I rely primarily on documents I find by searching the internet. When do I library or cemetery research trip, I find information not available online, but when I’m in my office, I search online and if I don’t find what I’m looking for I typically move on.

I know it’s possible to contact courthouses or state archives for documents but over the years I’ve done little of that. In the last couple of weeks, however, I hit the jackpot when I took that extra step.

I’ve been working on transcribing the Civil War pension file of George Washington Adams, my 2nd great grandfather. In it was a divorce decree for his 1920 divorce from his second wife, Della. (I’m descended from his first wife, Henrietta.) That piqued my curiosity because it gave George custody of their “infant son” and the only son I knew about was 12 at the time of the divorce. I wondered if there was another son and also why the 75-year-old father was given custody over the 50-year-old mother. The decree referred to pleadings and depositions in the case and I wanted to get my hands on those. It was Christmas, so I couldn’t pick up the phone (and I don’t like picking up the phone), so I wrote a letter to the Circuit Court Clerk of McLean county, Kentucky.

To my delight, just a few days later, she got back to me telling me that the documents I sought were in the State Archives and giving me a little extra information to make easier for the archivist to find them. She also gave me a phone number for the Archives. So I called and talked to a lovely young man and gave him a credit card number. That very same day he emailed me photos of the entire file. I think it cost me $8. If I’d wanted, he would have mailed a certified copy but I didn’t want to wait that long. (And get this: He added another divorce petition that I didn’t even know about! Six years into their 14-year marriage, Della filed for divorce from George, but she must have dropped it.)

The 30-page divorce file he sent had numerous depositions and probably sparked as many questions as it answered, but it’s another treasure trove. Turns out there was only one son from this marriage, Horace, who was indeed 12 at the time of the divorce. I don’t know why he was called an infant in the decree. But George went into the Old Soldier’s Home just two years later, so now I need to find out what happened to teenage Horace!

Neither the pension file nor this divorce file are available online, though I did order the pension file online. Both are outstanding sources of information about this ancestor. I’m processing the divorce file like I’m processing the pension file, by transcribing the documents and properly sourcing every fact I glean from them.

I encourage you to look beyond those documents available online, even if you’re not in a position to travel. There’s a whole world of documents that haven’t yet been digitized!

The research log habit: Could you use some accountability?

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Earlier this week, I blogged about how I’m trying to create a research log habit in 2017. A couple of commenters mentioned that they, too, would like to create a habit of logging their research every session and have found it difficult in the past. One of the commenters, Barbara Schmidt, suggested that perhaps a peer support group would be helpful. I think she might be onto something.

I know first-hand that accountability can be very powerful for creating habits. So I’d love to offer a simple way for readers of Organize Your Family History who are so inclined to get that accountability for creating a research log habit.

Here are a few options. Could you let me know in the comments if you’re interested in participating and, if so, which format you’d prefer? I’ll probably go with the one that gets more votes (unless it’s trumped by an option that is easier and more sustainable for me). If you have an idea not mentioned here, please let me know.

  • A monthly accountability blog post from me in which people can check in via the comments all month
  • A weekly post on the Organize Your Family History Facebook page in which folks check in
  • A closed Facebook group where people post when they’ve used their research log. That could also be a place where people bounce around ideas for research log formats.
  • I pair you up with one other person with whom you can become accountability partners and communicate privately
  • Another option I haven’t thought of but you have

If this appeals to you, please comment on this post and let me know what option would work best for you (or if you have a better idea). In the next week or two, I’ll set something up. Unless, of course, no one is interested.

Creating a research log habit

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Creating a research log habitI’ve been doing genealogy research long enough to know the value of keeping a research log. Yet I really resist it. I’m not sure why and it’s driving me a little crazy. I was thinking about it this morning as I was walking my dog and I vowed to amend my 2017 genealogy goals to add this important goal:

  • Create a habit of logging each research session

I think one of the reasons I’ve resisted using a log is that I find myself a little intimidated by complicated spreadsheets. The research log created and shared by Thomas MacEntee is a thing of beauty. Used regularly and properly it would elevate anyone’s research. Yet the idea of filling it out is just too much for me. And so I’ve been very hit or miss on writing down what I’m researching.

On my walk this morning, it hit me that a research log is like any organizing system: The very best one is the one you will use. It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing. There’s no right way to do it. The important thing is to just do something.

When I got home, I mindmapped what a simple research log I might create for myself would look like. Then I looked back at my previous attempts, all in Evernote, and I realize I actually have something in place that I can just pick up and start using again.

Back in late 2013, I partnered with the personal organizer app Springpad (RIP Springpad!) and created a Family History Organizer custom notebook. Part of it was research tracker template, a very simple form to track what you’ve done in each session. A Research Log Lite, if you will. I think I never felt my research tracker template was good enough to qualify as a research log and I didn’t fully commit to it. (I’ve blogged about my attempts.) But now I feel that if I use it regularly, I’ll actually have a nice body of knowledge. I’m going for it.

Today’s the first day of a new focus on keeping a research log. I created a 2017 Research Log notebook in Evernote, which is my preferred place to keep track of information (genealogy-wise and otherwise). I revised the original research tracker template a little and placed in my 2017 Research Log Notebook. (That’s the template, in its entirety, up in the top of this post. Click on the image to see it larger.)

I created my first note in the notebook, titling the note with today’s date and the names of the ancestors I researched. I copied the template into the note and filled it out. I tagged it with the ancestor’s surname (Adams) and created an “Adams RL tag”, so I can easily pull up all my research log notes about the Adamses.  I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful habit.

Bonus! I made the research tracker template, public, so you can add it to your own Evernote account if you want to give it a try.  Just click on the link and it should open up in Evernote for you. (I’m a novice at public Evernote notes, so if it doesn’t work for you, please let me know and I’ll figure it out.)

I’m always excited about creating new habits in the new year; I hope to be reporting here that it’s become ingrained!

I’m curious: Do you keep a research log? If so, in what format?