Feeling a little bogged down with your genealogy research? Need a fun project for the summer that just might have the added bonus of helping break down a brick wall? Try creating a timeline for your family. I had finished writing the report for my first generation of my accreditation project, but I lacked any mention of church records. Those are important for researching in the south, but my family moved around so much in...
Are you a visual learner? When you’re sorting out your family history research do you often resort to drawing little diagrams on paper to help you make sense of what have and don’t have? When faced with a difficult research problem, I have often done the drawing thing, only to have to erase, redraw, and waste a lot of time in the process. I recently decided to try mind mapping a research project just to...
Have you ever been sucked into the whirlpool of internet record searches and an hour or two surfaced wondering where you’ve been and what you’ve accomplished? It is so easy to get distracted by all the goodies that are available online: census records, birth certificates, cemetery records, and so much more. How can you put some order into your research? Try formulating an objective and watch your efforts come into focus. I recently started my...
Are you the lucky recipient of your family’s genealogy? Do you have a box, a barrel, or, in my instance, a suitcase full of letters, documents, photos, family group sheets, etc? You are probably feeling overwhelmed with either joy or despair. Go ahead and be ecstatic that you inherited priceless stuff. Don’t despair because I’m going to show you how to take care of your papers, one step at a time. When I started...
The excitement and hoopla of RootsTech 2016 ended last Saturday and I came home with a bag, two new books to peruse, class notes, and lots of pieces of paper. So what’s next?How do I organize everything I collected so I can find it when I need it? How am I going to use what I learned to make a difference in my family history efforts? After attending the Brigham Young University Family History Conference in...
Janine from Organize Your Family History shared her 30×30 challenge the other day and I was inspired to do it too. I’m excited to join her in researching 30 minutes every day for the next 30 days! What better way to prepare for the RootsTech conference that I get to attend for the first time this year, February 3-6, in Salt Lake City. As I’m researching I’ll choose the classes that most apply to what I need...