A great way to get the most out of the list of your DNA matches is to separate the people into groups that cluster around one of your ancestral lines. If you can divide your match list into groups, you can focus on finding the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) that you share with that cluster of people. Once that common ancestor or ancestral couple is identified, you can focus your research on one familial line, and identify the DNA that you inherited from the common ancestor(s). The groups of related people are sometimes called “Clusters” or “Genetic Networks.” Goals...
I taught Organize Your Research with Google Drive at RootsTech this year and I enjoyed preparing for it immensely. I already loved Google Drive and used it with my usual genealogy workflow; but my preparation helped me find even more ways to use it to become a more productive and organized researcher. In this post, I'm sharing an overview of what I covered in the class, as well as links to my syllabus and presentation slides. I love sharing and I hope you will benefit from viewing the course materials. Organize Your Research with Google Drive Expanded Syllabus PDF -...
Diana and I gave the keynote at the Tucson Family History Fair Saturday. It was entitled Getting Organized One Paper at a Time. Afterward, we taught seven additional classes between the two of us. It was a delightful conference! What we loved most was the enthusiasm and interest of the attendees. They were very engaged with ideas, questions, and comments. There were over 300 people in attendance this year, the biggest crowd the fair has had yet! Handouts We want to share the handouts we created for the conference as well as the slides from our keynote address. To get...
Have you made New Year's resolutions in the past and come February 1st, they are discarded and forgotten? Maybe you know there's a better way to research your family but you're stuck in the same routine. Is your pile of paper getting deeper and deeper? Don't worry - I've been there and I'm going to give you some ideas on how you can start now to make some changes that will make a difference in your genealogy life. Set Reasonable Goals The key word here is reasonable. I regularly teach about organizing research and I hear stories of people with...
Where are you storing your valuable genealogical data? Is it safely under your control and backed up or is it on a third party website like Ancestry or FamilySearch? Have you considered using genealogical software to store your database but are unsure what would be best for you? Today I'll be sharing my top three reasons to keep your own genealogical information safe in a personal software database and give you some ideas for choosing one from the many options available. Reason #1 Store Information for Living Family Members The collaborative online tree on FamilySearch lets you add living family members,...
How do you keep track of the various projects or to-do lists in your genealogy? Do you fill sticky notes with ideas about what to do next or get overwhelmed with all of the thoughts running through your head? Google Keep is my new favorite productivity tool and it might be just what you need to organize your genealogy life. Think of it as a place to keep all of your sticky notes - electronically. You can access Keep on the web at keep.google.com, install and use the Keep Chrome browser extension, and/or download the Keep mobile app on your...
Have you ever wished you could cross reference your genealogical findings? Find all the census records in a certain county for a family? Look at all of the mentions of a surname in a city? With Evernote, you can do all of this and more. In a previous post I wrote about using Evernote to create a genealogical research center. Today I'll share my method of using Evernote to organize my research findings. Genealogy Notebooks The first thing you'll need to do is decide what notebooks to create. I wrote about the basic organization of Evernote previously, so if you...
Do you need a better way to locate the research helps you've accumulated through the years? Are you drowning in paper? Do you have stacks of handouts from genealogy conferences and classes? What are you doing with that blog post or online article you know you'll need in the future? Solve your organizational problems by creating your own genealogy reference center using the popular tool Evernote. I started using Evernote three years ago, transferring research articles, maps, charts, templates, and various other helps. I now have an impressive electronic reference center with the articles that I need to assist my...
Would you like to try a research tool that has the ability to clarify your findings and make connections? Creating a table might be just the key to wrapping your brain around a difficult research problem. I use tables in every research project. Evidence analysis, census enumerations, and other records take shape when put into a table. Organizing the data by individual, date, and place can make all of the difference in understanding the information. I've been researching George W. Dillard, born 1781 in Virginia and died 1854 in Alabama. He is the prime suspect for the father of my...
In our Research Like a Pro study group, one of the first assignments is to analyze existing evidence. This is actually my favorite assignment. It is so fun to comb through what I've already gathered about a research question and look for clues to help me see where to go next in my research. I've been studying Genealogy Standards, a book published by The Board for Certification of Genealogists to better understand the different parts of analysis: Source (Original record, derivative record, or authored narrative) Information (Primary, secondary, or undetermined) Evidence (direct, indirect, or negative) In my most recent project, I compiled...
