Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Research sometimes means re-search

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At Ancestry Day last month, a thought occurred to me that has really stuck. While learning about various ways to search Ancestry.com and how their databases are constantly being updated, I realized that searching again for information (i.e. re-searching) is critical. I can’t assume that since I didn’t find information when searching Ancestry (or any other database) for an ancestor I never will.

I guess this really points to the necessity and usefulness of a research log. I have to admit that since blogging about creating a research log, my use has been sporadic. I guess I should redouble my efforts.

So you might want to take a look at your brick walls and try searching again the databases that came up short before. At the rate new information is being indexed and posted, you might be in for a pleasant surprise!

Getting ready for my research trip

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This weekend is the Ancestry Day conference, sponsored by the Midwest Genealogy Center of the Mid-Continent Public Library and Ancestry.com. It’s being held near Independence, Missouri, about four hours from my home in St. Louis. I love conferences and learning opportunities, so I’m really excited to attend.

Attending the conference has given me the perfect opportunity to do a little family history research and meet more-distant family members. My mother was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, and moved with her family to Spokane, Washington, when she was three. I was born in Seattle and moved to Walla Walla, Washington, when I was five. I moved to Missouri in 1989, but have never made the trek to western Missouri to meet my mother’s cousins there.

So on Friday, I will meet several first cousins of my mother, along with her aunt (my grandfather’s sole surviving sibling) and also visit the graves of my mother’s paternal grandparents. I’m really looking forward to meeting these family members ands seeing family landmarks.

The day after the conference, I’m going to travel to Meyer Cemetery, in Hudson, Missouri, to visit the graves of my mother’s maternal grandfather, great grandparents and great great grandparents. I sure hope they have gravestones to provide me with some data. (I struck out last summer with another ancestor’s graveyard.) I had downloaded the book, Genealogy: James McKinley, 1792-1872, Richard Anderson Jeffries, 1823-1914 and Joseph Price, 1818-1904, from Scribd. It’s providing me with plot numbers for the graves in Meyer Cemetery, so I’m hopeful!

It’s already Wednesday so I’m busy trying to get myself together for my first research trip. I figure the things I need to get together are:

  • Directions (of course)
  • Registration information for the conference
  • Synched family tree on my iPhone
  • My file of handwritten (unverified) ancestry charts from previous research attempts, which provide valuable clues and which I suspect I’ll want to refer to during the conference
  • The old photos my mother has given me, in case my cousins haven’t seen them
  • The printed out pages from the e-book, containing directions to Meyer cemetery and plot numbers
  • Chargers so all my devices are working!

It’s so nice to make a list–I already feel less overwhelmed! I’ll be sure and blog about some of the insights I gain at the conference, as well as reflections upon meeting my family members.

This weekend’s find: Application for headstone or marker

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Application for Headstone or MarkerThis weekend, I was searching for burial information for my great grandfather, James Earl Jeffries (1883-1944). His death certificate told me his body had been removed to Appleton City, Missouri for burial. I’m going to southwest Missouri next month and hope to visit his grave. So I’m trying to pinpoint where exactly to go.

Imagine my delight when the second item that came up on a search of his name at Ancestry.com was a link to a government Application for Headstone and Marker. James was a veteran: He had fought in the Philippine Insurrection. His widow, my great grandmother, applied to the War Department for a headstone for his unmarked grave two and a half years after he died.

The form not only tells me that he was buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Appleton City, but it gives me his military rank, company and regiment (and serial number), as well as enlistment and discharge dates, and the fact that he was honorably discharged. Even more intriguingly, it supplies an address in Pueblo, Colorado, for my great grandmother. I had not been aware she lived in Colorado after her husband died. I had thought (from conversations with my mother) that she had moved directly to Spokane, Washington, from Missouri after his death. Her sister, I believe, lived in Pueblo. Time for a conversation with my mother!

Finds like these are always so exciting. To me, there’s something so real about a form filled out by hand. I feel as though I’m there, witnessing a little bit of history. And it’s so wonderful when the hand written form, like this one, is completely legible.

Embracing Evernote

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A couple of days ago I wrote that I was ready to give Evernote a try in organizing my genealogy notes. The truth of the matter is that it’s been a crazy busy week in my business and I haven’t had a chance to do any family history research and give Evernote a test drive.

On Wednesday, I did a web search to try to get my head around how Evernote could help me with my family history research. I quickly was overwhelmed when I didn’t find exactly what I needed. So I stopped looking.

But then, while I was at the gym, I listened to Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast comparing Evernote to Microsoft’s OneNote. That led me to her Premium Video all about Evernote. And that was all I needed to really feel comfortable with giving Evernote a trial run.

I am so excited by the notion that, using Evernote, I can quickly keep and organize my notes, documents, newspaper articles as I come to them during the course of my research. I have a feeling that my consumption of printer paper and toner is about to go down.

I’ve known about Evernote for years and had friends show me how they use it. But I never felt like I had the problem it was solving.  But now I can see how it really might simplify my genealogy life. And I look forward to telling you that I’m right. (I promise to tell you if I’m wrong, too!)

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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.