Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

The joys of a research trip

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acplsignI just returned from my four-and-a-half days of genealogy research at the Allen County Public Library. (I went there on a National Genealogical Society research trip.) I’d been eagerly anticipating the trip and it didn’t disappoint.

Without a doubt, I made progress on my genealogy research. Some of that progress I can quantify:

  • I added 56 people to my family tree.
  • I added 28 sources to my family tree software.
  • I broke into a new generation three separate times.
  • I nailed down at least four maiden names of ancestors.
  • I found the identities of a bunch of children who passed away between censuses.

I didn’t have any huge breakthroughs, but I did have lots of little ones.

Beyond tangible progress, there were some other less tangible benefits to my getting out of the house and committing a week to library research. I’m a big proponent of snatching little pockets of time to do genealogy research, but having four full days of research without the distractions of everyday life was really wonderful. It made me feel closer to my ancestors. And it allowed me to scratch some itches, if you will. When I wondered about something, I was able to explore it. I did try hard, however, to stay focused on my Adams line, along with the Indiana portions of my Jeffries line.

Since I was at a really great library with a huge number of printed resources (as well as electronic ones), I wanted to make good use of my time there. I tried to identify in advance the items to explore that I couldn’t find elsewhere. One thing I came to realize, though, was that it was okay for me to use Ancestry or Family Search while I was at the library, even though I have access to those at home. The point was to make progress and take advantage of my dedicated genealogy time. I didn’t want to ignore a robust resource just because I could use it at home. So I found myself finding indexes in books that I would then use to more easily find digital versions of primary sources online.

Having two terrific genealogists, Pam Eagleson and Pat Stamm, available to us for consultation was great. They provided terrific ideas for furthering research when I was stuck. They also gave me confidence that was on the right track, which is always appreciated. As a bonus, they offered an optional lecture each day.

I’m eager to go back to the Allen County Public Library and when I do, I’ll probably focus on a different line. Staying at the Courtyard by Marriott just a couple of blocks from the library and near plenty of good restaurants makes it really easy. Next time I go, I know how easy it will be to get right back in the swing of things. I’ll miss my NGS buddies, though!

 

How I’m using Evernote for genealogy

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Evernote logoI have to admit I have been a slow adopter of Evernote. In 2013 and 2014 I posted here about how I wanted to give Evernote a(nother) try to help me organize certain aspects of my genealogy research. Well, it’s two years later and I’m happy to report that I am actually using Evernote to help organize a bunch of things in my life, including certain aspects of my genealogy research. I’ve become a big fan, though no one would describe me as a power user.

I thought it might be helpful to some people for me to describe how I’m using it for genealogy. Before I do, though, I want to emphasize that this isn’t the best way or the only way to use Evernote. It’s just the way I’m using it. And it will no doubt evolve.

So here’s a source list of ways I use Evernote in my genealogy life:

  1. Research log. I have a very simple template in Evernote in which I jot down what I’ve researched that session. Full disclosure: I don’t do it each and every session; I just do it when it feels right. Evernote makes it very easy.
  2. Genealogy task list. I have a notebook (in my Genealogy stack) called Genealogy clues/puzzles to check out. That’s where I make note of the things that come up that I don’t want to explore at the moment. I helps me stay focused on the task at hand.
  3. Source documentation project. As I described last month, I’m systematically reexamining all my sources in Reunion, verifying them, checking citations, ensuring that I’ve gleaned all the information I can out of them and adding images of each source to the citation. I keep the list in Evernote and check it off as I go.
  4. Keeping track of resources. I have a notebook called Genealogy resources where I clip interesting websites. Do I go back and look at it a lot? Not so much. But when I do there are usually some treasures in there. And clipping it means I don’t have to try to remember it, which frees up my mind.
  5. Genealogy travel. When I’m planning a research or cemetery trip, I keep notes about hotels, logistics, things to remember to pack, etc.
  6. Blog post ideas. I jot down ideas for this blog and my organizing blog when they occur to me. I consult it when I don’t know what to write. Which is quite often.

I don’t store my genealogy research in Evernote. After the 2015 National Genealogical Society meeting where I heard a detailed talk on using Evernote for genealogy, I briefly tried storing images of the genealogy documents I’d downloaded (census records, vital records, etc) in Evernote. I abandoned that as too labor intensive (though I can see the sense in it because it makes those documents exquisitely accessible). Instead, I attach those documents to the source citation in Reunion on my Mac.

In short, Evernote has become indispensable to me. It’s my go-to place to store and retrieve all manner of things (and I use it a whole lot for non-genealogy purposes as well). I pay for the premium version, so that I can access it when I’m not online. The price for the premium version just went up from $50 to $70 a year. I like it enough that I didn’t even consider not renewing because of the price hike.

Evernote is such a robust platform that I know I could be taking better advantage of it. And in a year I might be using it entirely differently. But right now it’s meeting my needs quite nicely.

How do you use Evernote for your genealogy research?

Digging deeper

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diggingdeeperI really enjoyed the Midwestern Roots family history and genealogy conference I attended last weekend in Indianapolis. The speakers were excellent and the content was really rich. And I met three of my blog readers, Candace, Jean and Judi. It was great  sitting down with them and getting to know one them. And it was wonderful running into ready-made friends throughout the  conference.

My big take away from the conference is that I want to dig deeper about my ancestors. Looking back at my blog, I saw that I wrote about this 18 months ago when I returned from RootsTech, in a post called It’s not about climbing the tree. This has been a recurring theme in my research and my thought process. But this year it feels a little different, because I left with some real tools I can use for that excavation. And I have a week at the Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Center next month where I can really get into it.

Here are some highlights of the conference for me:

  • I went to not one but three talks by Curt Witcher, the senior manager for special collections at the Allen County Public Library, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He did the opening keynote on the importance of telling stories in genealogy. That prompted me to attend his talk on how find those stories. And then, of course, I went to his talk on the holdings of his library. He’s an amazing speaker–I’m pretty sure I’d sign up to hear him talk on just about anything. He has a wonderful sense of humor–there was  a great deal of laughter in all his talk. But he is also so expressive that he actually brought people (and himself) to tears in the opening session. His message of filling in the stories between the birth and death dates had a big impact on me.
  • A priority talk for me was the one by Deena Coutant about how to prepare for a repository trip. Luckily for me it was in the second session and it provided a great groundwork for my thoughts throughout the conference on how best to use the month I have before my trip the Allen County Public Library (the second largest genealogy library in the nation). And I know the preparation for that trip is going to be a critical component of making that trip a successful use of my time and money. And now I have some tools for that preparation!
  • I heard talks on using both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com. I have to admit that I use Ancestry more than Family Search, mostly because I find the latter’s user interface non-intuitive. But thanks to the talk by Deena Coutant (I heard her twice!) I feel I know my way around that site a bit better and I’m going to try to use it more. The talk by Ancestry’s Juliana Szucs on getting the most from Ancestry was eye-opening to me. I learned that searching within individual types of records and collection can reveal results not available with a top-level search. In other words, it’s worthwhile to dig deeper on Ancestry.
  • Cece Moore gave the opening keynote on the second day, about telling stories with DNA with anecdotes from the PBS program, “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates,” on which she serves as the genetic genealogy consultant and researcher. The talk was really fun and inspired me to try again to understand my DNA results and reach out to potential relatives who might be helpful with my genealogy research. It’s pretty easy for my mind to click off when it comes to DNA and I had put my quest for understanding on the back burner. Listening to CeCe helped me understand how helpful the clues you get from DNA test results can be. That is an area in which I will try to dig deeper.
  • And, lastly, I really enjoyed and benefited from Lisa Louise Cooke’s talk on new features of Google and how they can help genealogists. I have to admit that I consider myself an excellent Googler. But I don’t typically use the search operators Lisa explained (and, truth be told, I rarely use Google as a search tool for my genealogy research). I was thrilled to learn how to find results in Google Books and clip them with the built-in clipper, which creates a unique, sharable URL for the clipping. Wow! I also was inspired to give Google Earth another try. I’m going to try to incorporate Google more into my research toolkit.

As you can tell, the Midwestern Roots conference was really inspiring and energizing for me. I loved that a single theme emerged for me so strongly.  I am so excited to go back to Indiana for my trip to the Allen County Public Library in a month and so grateful to have learned some tools to prepare for it. I’ll blog more about that plan soon!

Photo by Eselsmann via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Family History Daily: a great resource

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fhdI receive an email from Family History Daily on a regular basis. I don’t know if it’s actually daily, but it’s frequent. I’m here to tell you, they include some great gems. Yesterday, for example, I learned about the free DNA database DNA.land.

I love that they ferret out great free and low-cost genealogy resources. And they now offer a genealogy course, one that is available at half price to lower-income genealogists.

If you haven’t checked out Family History Daily yet, I encourage you to do so. I always make sure to glance at their emails because I frequently learn about something I’d not been aware of before.