Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Do you have unread resources on your hard drive?

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Earlier today, I was entering my PayPal transactions into my financial software and I saw that I had purchased a document from Sassy Jane Genealogy last month that I had not read and don’t even remember purchasing. So I looked in my Mac’s Finder to see what I’d downloaded from that website and saw that it was a pdf called Ten Skills Every Genealogist Needs. That sounds fantastic! I can’t wait to read it.

I knew there were doubtless other forgotten documents on my hard drive, so I created a notebook in Evernote called Downloaded items to read/watch NOW and put it in my genealogy stack. Then I went on a hunt for other unread or underutilized resources hanging around on my computer. I bought them with the best of intentions and then moved on to the next shiny object.

I found digital copies of Family Tree Magazine. At least one webinar I haven’t watched. A research guide to Kentucky research. Another Sassy Jane Genealogy guide. And I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface!

In these next couple of low-key weeks, I’m going to try to actually read or watch these valuable resources. And I vow to do a better job of keeping track of what I buy/download. Evernote should be my friend with this.

How about you? Do you have any learning resources you’ve downloaded but forgotten about? Happy hunting!

 

Research your military ancestors this Veteran’s Day

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Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day and Find My Past is making it easier to dig deeper into your ancestors’ military service. The website is offering free access to their military databases through November 12.

This offer seems particularly helpful if you have ancestors from Great Britain. Find My Past’s military databases include British Army Service Records, Prisoners of War, 1715-1945; British Royal Navy and Royal Marines Service and Pension Records; Napoleonic War Records; British Army Casualty Lists, 1939-1945; WWI Ships Lost at Sea, 1914-1919. The databases aren’t limited to the UK, though. I did a quick search when I was writing this post on an ancestor who lived in the United States and was able to quickly find his 1903 Army enlistment record.

To get started, search for an ancestor at the Military Access Page. When you click on a search result, it will ask you to sign up for a free account. During this free promotion period, you’ll be able to access (and download or print) the documents you find.

If you’re not sure what wars your ancestors might have fought in, check out this Family Search Wiki page on Ages of Serviceman in Wars. Also check out this blog post I wrote about creating a spreadsheet to help you identify your military ancestors easily.

 

Keeping track of my progress

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Keeping track of genealogy researchThis year, I’ve been focusing on one family line, the Adams line. I’ve been trying to gather as much information as possible not just on my direct-line ancestors (my focus in past years) but also on the siblings of my direct-line ancestors. It’s fun and fulfilling. But it’s also a bit overwhelming because there are so many people I can’t remember all of them.

I keep track of everything in my family-tree software, Reunion. But I also like having an at-a-glance summary of where I stand in my research on each person. Three years ago, I created a progress chart, which had a series of tabs on a spreadsheet in which I marked the documents I had found on each of my direct-line ancestors. That worked pretty well and gave me an at-a-glance summary I craved.

I find myself wanting a similar chart for all my research subjects, including the collateral lines, and I’m struggling with getting my arms around that. Part of my problem, I think, is that I want to be able to see everything at the same time, which is challenging when your family tree’s branches stretch wide.

Here’s what I’ve settled on. I’m creating a single spreadsheet for all the data I’m looking for for each family group (B/M/D, censuses, newspaper, military, wills, land, etc.). In my previous progress chart, I’d had all my direct-line ancestors listed on each sheet, with a separate sheet for each type of data. In this new chart, I have all my data types across the top, with a row for each member of the family group. I have a separate sheet (a tab) for each family group. I decided to start with my parents in the first sheet and work back in time by generation.

I’ve spent a little time with it and I think it’s going to be really helpful. As I started filling it out, I paid attention to how it made me feel and I had two conflicting feelings:

  • Overwhelm because there are so many people to enter into it and so many data types to research
  • Excitement as I realized how many opportunities for research there are

I think the key to making this useful and not overwhelming is putting one family group on each sheet. That narrows the focus and allows me to see what I have and what I can still research. It also helps me avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Having each family group on a separate sheet makes it easier to fill out the chart initially as well. I ordinarily enjoy filling out forms and updating progress charts. But this one was so large it felt like it might turn into a big exercise in tedium. So if I take it one family group at a time, it feels like fun, not drudgery.

I’ll keep you posted. Once I have it in shape where I think it might be useful to others, I’ll blog again and offer to send it to anyone who might want to use it.

If you have a similar chart and/or have any suggestions for mine, please share in the comments. I’m all ears!

Using the card catalog to find elusive documents on Family Search

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Using the card catalog at Family SearchI use both Ancestry and Family Search regularly for online research. I tend to start with Ancestry because I find it easier to find indexed documents there. But when I’m looking for a document that’s more elusive, the catalog at Family Search often comes through for me.

I will sometimes do a Records search on Family Search but most often I start with a card catalog search. And I frequently come up with some great results.

I’ll give you a real-life example. I was doing research yesterday at the Saint Louis County Library and found an index to a Will Book. I wanted to see if I could find the actual document it referenced (an 1843 will for my 5th great grandfather, Jacob S. Baker, 1766-1845). Here’s what I did:

  1. I went to www.familysearch.org and logged in, then clicked Search, then Catalog.
  2. Under Place, I filled in the location from biggest to smallest (i.e. United States, Kentucky, Muhlenberg) then clicked Search.
  3. In the search results, I clicked on the type of document I wanted, in this case Court Records.
  4. In those search results, I clicked on a collection called Court Orders, 1799-1912.
  5. When I scrolled down under Film Notes, I was delighted to see that of the 12 rolls of microfilm, two had been digitized. And the year I was interested in was on one of those two rolls. (It seems like that never happens!)
  6. I clicked on the little camera icon, which opened the images of the film reel. And just as though I were using a microfilm reader, I was able to find the document I was looking for, based on the information in the index. Hooray!

If I had simply done a Records search on Jacob S. Baker I would not have found this image. (This is another argument for getting away from my computer and going to a library or other repository.)

Here’s another way the a Catalog search can be helpful. Sometimes at Family Search, you can do a Records search and find an entry that doesn’t have an image. But that image may indeed be available, with a Catalog search.

For example, I was looking for the death certificate for the second wife of my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams. Her name was Della or Idella Adams and she died in Olympia, Washington, in 1943. On Family Search, through a Records search, I found an entry for her death certificate in the collection Washington Death Certificates, 1907-1960. But there was the dreaded “No image available” message.

But I didn’t give up. Instead, I copied the GS Film Number (2024117) and started a new search, this time of the Catalog. I pasted the film number in the box that says Search For Film/Fiche Number. (When I entered location as well, it didn’t produce results, so I deleted the location and left just the film number.)

That gave me a link to the whole collection of Washington state death certificates. I clicked on film number 2024117, even though its description didn’t seem to fit the county I was looking for. Then I went to the index record I’d found in the Record search and looked for the image number, 2348. I simply entered that number at the top of the screen for microfilm roll number 2024117 and it took me right to an image of Della’s death certificate.

I love searching the catalog at Family Search. I know a catalog search is an option at Ancestry, too, but I find it less enjoyable and productive.

Next time you can’t find an image of a document you have some information for, I heartily suggest using the catalog!