march 2011 - · pdf filestories and “unsourced ... be sure to use your digital camera to...
TRANSCRIPT
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
1
GREAT to see you back here!
Ol’ Myrt here thought it was bad enough with just one family historian in the family.
I’ve still got two boxes of my Dad’s genealogy to unpack from closing up his house
back in Nov 2007. Now, that there is a “Mr. Myrt” hanging out here, we’ve really
organization challenges, since we’re BOTH genealogists. (At least he understands why
we need to stay over an extra night after a day of fruitful courthouse research, but I
digress.)
Hopefully you’ve got two SCANFEST sessions in under your belt, and are well on
your way to converting those old photos and supporting documents to digital files.
The last Sunday in March we’ll again participate in Miriam’s wonderful chat-while-
scanning option.
Just this morning, ScrappyGen recaps her adventures with the February Organization
Checklist, including this about her commitment to help others. “Having never
indexed before, I decided to volunteer over at JewishGen.org. Currently I am working
on transliterating names from Hebrew and Yiddish to English. I have found that I
absolutely love it and find it extremely relaxing, although it is going more slowly than
I had anticipated because for some entries I double and triple check myself with
different sources.”
What wonderful ideas you have been having, and what GREAT PROGRESS you are
making. I am really proud of you! For the slackers in the group, don’t give up. Even if
March 2011
Organization Checklist
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
2
you start with this month’s checklist, you’ll be MUCH more organized by Dec 31st. Ol’
Myrt here may have to break down and work a little harder at things as well.
WEEK ONE: 1-5 March 2011
Tackle surname binders G through L and verify
that EACH document you’ve collected for an ancestor is
listed at the very least in NOTES for him in your
genealogy management program.
As we grow in our experience as researchers, we
understand the value of first-hand evidence to support a
lineage, rather than hearsay evidence from old family
stories and “unsourced” online ancestral charts.
Ol’ Myrt here encourages you to start evaluating the quality of the evidence you are compiling about each ancestor. To do this, we’ll turn to Linda Woodward Geiger’s Guidelines for Evaluating Genealogical Resources from the Board for Certification of Genealogists OnBoard 14 (May 2008): 14-15, posted in the “skill building” section of the BCG website. Linda discusses her understanding of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ process for evaluating the information we collect on each individual.
Sources – original or derivative Information – primary or secondary Evidence – direct or indirect
Primary evidence is provided in
documents that have survived from the
ancestor’s time period. The closer to a
report from an actual eye witness, the
better.
Examples: Marriage return signed by the minister;
baptismal record signed by the parish priest;
and birth or death certificates signed by the
attending physician.
Secondary evidence is provided in
documents that are removed from the
original event, such as by time, or personal
circumstance.
Examples: Newspaper announcements of birth,
marriage and death.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
3
Read up on discussions attempting to define an “original” or primary document by
studying these blog entries:
Confusion with the Various Definitions of Original Source by Mark Tucker at ThinkGenealogy. This blog entry traces the evolution of the term original source as applied to the GPS GenealogicalProof Standard which has now replaced the Preponderance of Evidence theory of analysis in the world of genealogy.
Attending physicians aren’t usually stone cutters by DearMYRTLE. This is my response to Mark’s initial posting.
More on Sources: Original, Derivative, or Otherwise by Mark Tucker at ThinkGenealogy in a follow-up blog entry.
BRIGHT IDEA
Begin making note of weak lineage assumptions. As you are making sure each
digitized photo and scanned document is attached to the appropriate ancestor in your
genealogy management program, you’ll begin to see holes in your research.
Since we’re getting ORGANIZED, we’re not getting off task by starting additional
RESEARCH at this point, so just jot down your thoughts in notes for the ancestor in
question, to remind you of your concerns in the future. Your genealogy program
may have a “To Do List” option, so make notations like “Obtain probate packet of
William Warner Player to verify heirs.”
Here’s the screen shot of RootsMagic’s interface to generate the summary of “To Do”
items you’ve set.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
4
WEEK TWO: 6-12 March 2011
Connect with other genealogists.
Back in 1995 when Ol’ Myrt here first began this
organization checklist, I was encouraging folks to break
out of their comfort zones, and join the local genealogy
society. Boy, did I get a lot of flak about it. People didn’t
want to join a local society when their ancestors had
never lived in the area.
Joining your local genealogy society is sort of like
joining AA – where we learn we are powerless over paperwork, the internet, burned
courthouses and 15 ways to spell names like Smith.
So ask around at the public library and local Family History Center to learn about
genealogy society meeting times and dates. Attendance will open up opportunities to
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
5
meet interesting folks with varied talents and experiences who might be able to help
you learn better research techniques. At the very least, they will understand what it
means to be ancestrally challenged by those aggravating brick walls.
Ol’ Myrt here found friends who are very good with computers and are willing to
share their talents with others. During the past 25 years of membership in two local
societies, I cannot think of more than two meetings devoted to local (Florida,
Virginia or Utah) research.
Topics have included tracing immigrant ancestors, report on research trips overseas,
spotlights on what's new at our local FHC, migration patterns, New England, printing
a family history book, and preserving photos. I attend every meeting and note that
during the introductions of new members there is always someone in our society who
has experience researching in the area the newbie finds challenging.
Consider joining Twitter. If you followed last month’s checklist, you elected
to subscribe to some RSS feeds of genealogy blogs. All sorts of gadgets and online
tools have emerged since the “olden days” of 1995. I would never have guessed then I
would recommend becoming a “tweet”. Twitter.com provides a quick method for
keeping up with geneabloggers who tend to know what’s going on in the world of
online genealogy.
Unlike Google Reader, where the entire blog is posted, Twitter offers short, clickable
blurbs for each blog title that may be viewed on your cell, or at Twitter. Ol’ Myrt here
likes to do a quick review of blog titles, saving the important full reads for urgent blog
entries, or the 2-hour reading time she spends learning about what’s new each day in
the world of online genealogy.
To streamline your use of Twitter, once you’ve set up an account, and then download
the free TweetDeck.com software, so you can have “sorted” views of the tweets you
receive.
This is a mini-view of my current settings that include columns left to right:
All friends, Mentions, Direct Messages, Search #WDYTYA and Search #Genealogy.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
6
So what’s with that # mark? On Twitter, that is called a “hash tag”. Use it when making
a post about genealogy. With the #genealogy (hash tag included) the message will be
ready by anyone (not just your Twitter friends) who has a search for #genealogy. This
is one way I’ve connected with lot of other genealogists using Twitter.
Find out about genealogy webinars. Perhaps the easiest way to keep track of
upcoming genealogy webinars is to subscribe to the blog at the brand-spanking new
GeneaWebinars.com website. Here you’ll find a calendar of scheduled webinars. It is
easy to add the GeneaWebinars Google Calendar to your list of other Google
Calendars, by clicking the “+ Google Calendar” in the lower right portion of the
calendar at GeneaWebinars.com.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
7
WEEK THREE: 13-19 March 2011
Start planning your summer vacation now, so you
won’t miss ancestral spots along the route! Who would
have thought in 1995 that the world economic climate
would have had such a downturn? Travel isn’t out of the
questions for most of genealogists, but advance planning
and careful fiscal management is essential.
In addition to turning in your Delta Sky Miles,
consider using comparison shopping travel websites as:
www.Priceline.com
www.Travelocity.com
www.Expedia.com
www.MapQuest.com
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
8
http://maps.Google.com Be sure to click to change to the street view or
satellite view whenever possible.
Would a train trip west more closely approximate the migration of your ancestors?
Amtrak still offers sleeping and dining cars. Those days haven’t completely gone to
the wayside in the US. In Europe, train travel is preferred. During last Friday’s
Geneabloggers BlogTalk Radio live show, host Thomas MacEntee mentioned it is $18
to travel via rail from Chicago to Springfield, Illinois, the site of the 2011 NGS
Conference. That’s a steal, especially when you consider it will be a lot cheaper to fly
to Chicago than into Springfield. (Gosh, the shuttle from Dulles Airport to our place
in Alexandria Virginia runs about $75 plus tip, but I digress!)
Regardless of the way you chose to travel, print a map of the ancestral events (birth,
marriage, death, burial) in the region you’ll be visiting, using software that works with
your genealogy database:
Family Atlas
Map My Family Tree
Figure 2 Family Atlas screen shot
Figure 1 - Conrad Weiser Homestead, Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania from Google
Maps. Conrad was Ol’ Myrt’s ancestor who served as a colonel during the
French and Indian War. You’ll also find from reading the Pennsylvania
Archives (scanned and searchable for free at www.Footnote.com) that Conrad
served as an interpreter between the Provincial government and the Native
Americans.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
9
BRIGHT IDEA
Since you don’t have to worry about the high cost of film developing (a la 1995),
be sure to use your digital camera to take all the pictures you need of tombstones, the
ancient oak outside the courthouse, and documents too large to be photocopied at
the courthouse. Heavens, even the cheapest cell phones on the market take pictures
with remarkably good results.
Even if the focus of your upcoming trip is not genealogy, you will learn much about
the lay of the land.
For instance, in Ol’ Myrt’s 1995
trip to Germany, I noticed a
striking similarity between
Johannes Conrad WEISER’s
ancestral place of origin on the
Neckar River valley, east of the
Rheine River, and the
Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania
where his son Conrad WEISER
eventually settled. The impact
of that familiarity still brings
tears to my eyes as I think about it now, these many years later. Thanks to cousin
John C. Jernigan for this photo of the Conrad Weiser Homestead in Womelsdorf.
WEEK FOUR: 20-26 March 2011
Begin to learn all you can about effective use of
your local LDS Family History Center (FHC). Neither
you nor your ancestor has to be Mormon to use these
marvelous reference centers. These 4,500+ branches of
Salt Lake City’s Family History Library (FHL) are typically
located in LDS Chapels throughout the world. To locate
one near you visit www.FamilySearch.org. However some
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
10
larger public libraries in the US also have FamilySearch lending-library privileges when
it comes to ordering microfilm and microfiche. Most microfilm and microfiche of the
FHL’s collection of original court, church and archives from over 120 countries
throughout the world are available via a small rental fee at your local FHC.
Ol’ Myrt here is constantly amazed there are still researchers who expect to contact a
courthouse or archive personally. Those researchers simply don’t realize that
microform of many important records are part of the collection at the Family History
Library.
Review the Family History Library Catalog to determine the records on film or
in digital format, and reserve your direct communication to courthouses and archives
that haven’t yet digitized the record group your research requires.
Go to www.FamilySearch.org , and click “Library Catalog”. This catalog is under
construction, so functionality may change over time. Note that you may search by
Place-names
Last names
Titles
Author information
Subjects
Call numbers
Film numbers
Keywords (beta)
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
11
Isn’t it marvelous? You can prepare for your trip to your local Family History Center
in advance. Print out the descriptions of the microfilm or microfiche collections you
wish to order. In the example below, I’ve only begun to type “Womelsdorf” and the
catalog is providing possibilities below my typed text.
FHC volunteers assist with microform orders, and the use of the equipment in the
center. They are not there to do your research for you. It is incumbent upon each of
us to be responsible for our own family history research. Wish as much as you like,
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
12
but FHC workers aren’t there to hand us our documented lineages on a silver platter.
Remember that not all volunteers at a FHC are as experienced in research as perhaps
you might be, but it doesn’t matter if what you seek is to rent microfilm of an
ancestor’s distant courthouse records of probate. Some FHCs are most fortunate to
have well-trained, experienced genealogists as staffers. At smaller centers, you are
lucky if the janitor unlocks the door for you.
WEEK FIVE: 27-31 March 2011
Sunday, 27 February 2011 Attend Scanfest.
In addition to scanning for 3 hours, participants meet
together in a chat room at Miriam’s blog at any time
between 11 AM and 2 PM, Pacific US time. You’ll find her
at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors at
http://ancestories1.blogspot.com.
Last month, Ol’ Myrt here missed Scanfest, as we were
driving north through ice and snow to get from the St.
George Family History Expo to our home in the greater
Salt Lake City area.
Before beginning, clean your scanner with a soft,
lint-free cloth. Do not use Windex – a dab of
water on your cloth will suffice.
Scan photos in .png format, so you can edit them
without losing quality.
Usually I scan at 300 dpi (dots per inch) but for really important photos, I’ll
use 600 or 1200 dpi.
Remember those Dropbox surname folders I had you make last month? Well,
be sure when you scan your photos, to place them in the appropriate folders.
Also attach the photo to the appropriate ancestor in your genealogy
management program.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
13
Join our Second Life genealogy chats. Since we have an extra half week this
month, I’d like you to really go out on a limb and join Second Life to participate in
online genealogy voice chats. This is an extension of the concept of joining your local
genealogy society. The Second Life Chapter of the Association of Professional
Genealogists meets monthly in Second Life and there are 3-4 other genealogy chats
each week.
Here’s a picture of a few of us sitting around the fire pit at “Just Genealogy”, a
destination in Second Life.
Basically, the steps for getting into Second Life are easy-to-follow screen prompts that
run something like this:
Go to www.SecondLife.com and sign up for a free account.
Choose an avatar. (This is a character, male or female, with modifiable hair and
clothing.)
Choose a unique name. (Ol’ Myrt’s avatar is named Clarise Beaumont.)
Follow the brief tutorial to learn how to move your avatar around, to sit, to
walk, and to fly.
DearMYRTLE’s FINALLY Get Organized! ~ March 2011 Checklist
© 1995-2011 [email protected] Pat Richley-Erickson. All Rights Reserved.
14
Search for these folks to add as “friends”.
o Clarise Beaumont (me!)
o Genie Weezles (Tami Glatz, our APG Chapter President)
Search for these genealogy places to visit, and then click to be transported
there.
o Just Genealogy
o Family History Centre (note the British spelling!)
Search for the “Just Genealogy Group” and then request to join, so that you
will receive notices about upcoming meetings.
Here are several blog entries that point to recent genealogical research work being
shared among participants: READER'S FEEDBACK: Google Patent Search READER'S FEEDBACK: GenesReunited maps in city areas Central Florida Memory Comes to Second Life Get a Second Life, Genealogists Second Life: A new type of genealogy society Giving Maps a Second Life with Digital Technologies linked at David Rumsey Map
Collection.
SUMMARY – March 2011 This month, FINALLY GET ORGANIZED participants are
encouraged to keep going with attaching those digitized
photos and scanned source documents in the genealogy
software program chosen after exploring software
alternatives last month. Planning that upcoming vacation
trip is a great way to break out of the winter doldrums.
And Ol’ Myrt here is asking you to venture out and
connect with other genealogists using a variety of
methods ~ local genealogy societies, Twitter, webinars,
and Second Life. You know you’ve been meaning to do this, so no more dragging
your feet! What have you got to lose? On the plus side, you are sure to find someone out there who can help you make progress getting around that genealogical brick wall.