In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss ideas for organizing genealogy papers, documents, electronic files, and more. We'll talk about how to choose a personal family tree software program and how to create backups of your research so they don't get lost or destroyed. Diana is going to talk about her story of receiving a suitcase full of unorganized genealogy papers from her father and how she dealt with that. We'll talk about favorite tools and what which tools we actually use, then ideas for additional methods that others use. Links The Suitcase: Getting Organized One Paper at...
Have you used church records in your genealogy yet? If not, you might be interested to know how helpful a church record can be in researching your family. Because birth and death certificates were not required by most states in the U.S. until after 1900, church records can be a substitute for vital records. They can also help establish an ancestor's status in the community, reveal associates, and point to previous or subsequent residences. In this two-part series, we’ll examine the value of church records, what kind of records were created, and how to find them for your ancestor. Because...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss a research project that Diana completed to determine if George W. Dillard was the father of our ancestor, Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Here's the objective of the project: The objective of this research project was to determine if George W. Dillard born 1781 in Virginia and died 1854 in Lee County, Alabama was the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Cynthia was born about 1815 in Georgia. She married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama and died 2 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas. As we discuss this project, Diana...
In today's episode of the podcast we are talking all about why you should write your results at the end of a research project. There are so many reasons, but probably the most important is that the act of writing about something helps you make connections and solve problems. And of course, it also helps you to leave the project knowing that you can pick it back up in a year and know exactly where you were when you left off. We will talk about choosing the correct voice. This depends on your reader. Then we will talk about the...
Have you heard of the term "nuncupative will" and wondered what one would look like? If you have never come across this term, here's your chance to learn something new. Our research often throws us curves in the form of new types of documents. If we're going to become excellent genealogists, we need to become familiar with a variety of terms and records. I'd read and taught about nuncupative wills but never discovered one in my research until recently. The Nuncupative Will of William Miler Doing some basic probate research on the Miller family of Lincoln County, Kentucky, I came...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss research logs. You know, that dreaded spreadsheet that you should keep when you're doing research. We will discuss a few different types of research logs, including Research Ties, spreadsheets, tables, paper logs, and the research notebook. We will also talk about how we normally use our research log in our workflow. Diana is going to talk about how she never feels like she's really doing research until she has her research log open and is recording her search results. We discuss the headings used in research logs and how to fill...
Today's podcast episode is about source citations. We'll discuss when you need to make citations, how to do it, and the questions to ask that will guide you as you create them: who, what, when, where within, and where in the world. If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of making source citations you're not alone. Nicole tells about her experience really learning how to do it. Diana will tell us about layered source citations, and we'll also talk about the difference between reference notes and source list entries. To sign up for the Research Like a Pro eCourse, click...
We are loving Education Week at Brigham Young University this week. We've been attending classes, enjoying lunches with friends, and most of all, we are enjoying sharing and teaching about family history. Thank you to everyone who has been attending our classes. It has been great to meet you and hear your comments. We look forward to the next two days! For those of you who are attending our week-long series of classes entitled "The Genealogy Research Process," here are the articles we have written in the past that go along with each lecture: The Genealogy Research Process Diana Elder,...
Do you have 15 minutes to spare for making a little map magic? Would you like to explore the location where your ancestor lived? With county boundaries changing throughout the 18th and 19th centuries you need to do a little investigating to figure out the lay of the land. Would you like to also see a topographical view of the area? With two free databases, you can now do all of this from your home computer in a matter of minutes. I worked on a project this week researching three generations who lived in the Virginia/Kentucky area from 1745 -...
Today's podcast episode is all about why you need to start creating research plans for every project, and how to do it. There are fives steps: Create a document with objective at top, compile a summary of known facts, write a hypothesis, make a list of sources to search, then finalize a prioritized strategy. We will talk about the need to be flexible as we follow our research plans, since plans change once you find (or don't find) something! To sign up for the Research Like a Pro eCourse, click here. Registration ends Aug 31. Also, we encourage you to...
