Week 3 Genealogy Do Over (July 2015)

July 17, 2015 #Wk3GenealogyDoOver

This is the end of week 2 and I don't feel like I've made much progress, so let's review:

• Cleaned off desk - my husband even noticed (now to keep it fairly clean)
• Wrote (at least started) interview of self
• Selected 'questions' for relatives and sent off to 'cousins' - Even received two back already!
• Switched focus of scanning - pulled out my scrapbook and started working from me back thru the family notebooks
• Discovered my baptism certificate - I hadn't had this info in my genealogy data before
• Investigated TNG software / configured site at www.heartlandgenealogy.com
• Want to be able to let cousin(s) have access to full research - this will meet that goal
• Still need to upload the media
• Need to check permissions - not sure they are set correctly
• Tried to create a wiki-tree - gedcom didn't go up
• Focused on using Roots Magic for genealogy software
• Began going thru documentation for myself and updating the source citations to EE standards
• Watched webinars / read blogs
• Read blog on effectiveness of a blog
• Started blogging 'stories' based on 52Ancestors Challenge
• Added image to header of wordpress blog
• Changed theme / added header to this site
• Trying to get everything accessible from one location
• Established File Management procedure in OneNote
• Moved RootsMagic database to dropbox
• Moved media files (jpegs) for Roots Magic to Dropbox
• Created goals (list of question for mom) in OneNote
• Learned to attach media to a source citation in RootsMagic
• Selected Thomas MacEntee's Research log template for my research log
• Configured this Google site to have the form for the research log so I could easily enter the data
• Took time out to do summer book order for NCHS library
• Continuing to scan

Guess I made more progress than I thought!

THANK YOU

This week I've been transcribing the audio from one of the interviews I did with my father who passed away almost ten years ago. As I was marveling at the family stories contained in one recording I realized that I owed a BIG THANK YOU to two people: Thomas MacEntee and Pat Richley-Erickson (Dear Myrtle).

Without them I would be doing sometimes genealogy and never going back thru what I already had. Genealogy Do-Over on Facebook. I 'officially' started the do-over in July claiming I was doing a go-over. However, I spent most of my time taking advantage of all of the prompts, resources and tools to re-connect with the genealogy world and bring my skills up to current standards. Unfortunately, I'm still not consistent about using a research log -- even though that was a skill I learned in the early days of my research and I have my original log to prove it.

That changed last spring when I discovered the

The Genealogy Do-Over provided a chance to rediscover skills and techniques that I had let slide for several years. For me, one of the best things that came out of participating in the Genealogy Do-Over was the encouragement to seek out learning opportunities. Since them I have watched numerous webinars and participated live when my schedule would allow. I even was able to watch some of the live feed from RootsTech earlier this year.

From that push to find learning opportunities, I started watching Mondays with Myrt and Whacky Wednesdays. Viewing those webinars encouraged me to participate in the year-long Finally Get Organized project sponsored by Dear Myrtle. As I've been organizing my notebooks, I've found letters and other documents I hadn't read in a long time and didn't remember having.

Dear Myrtle's assignment for this week was to spend each day telling the stories. For the first two days, I wrote blog posts pulling the content from my memory, from a letter from my mother and from my father's military record. However, on Thursday, I decided to see what was on the interviews with my dad (and mom). Thus, I've been spending my time transcribing one of the audio files. This file is full of stories -- some I'd heard over and over, some providing more detail to the old stories and some I'd never heard until the interview and since forgotten. Today, I hope to finish the transcription of the first file and begin the sharing process.

Thanks again to Thomas MacEntee and Pat Richely-Erikson for the push (kick in the butt) to get me to stay connected to the genealogy world, to re-visit my files and to share the pictures and stories with others!

Week Two Goals

It’s week two of Genealogy Do-Over (cycle 3) and time to get specific on some goals.

• Focus scanning project on family notebooks
• Check source citations for events appearing on a family group sheet to make sure they follow current standards (using Evidence Explained)
• Continue learning by reading blogs and participating in webinars
• Figure out tagging of files so that I don’t end up with multiple copies of the same file.

#Wk2GenealogyDoOver

Starting Over

For about the past ten years, my genealogy research has pretty much stalemated. This summer, I decided to pursue a project that I had started over Christmas vacation – the digitizing of my genealogy files. This long, slow project is also giving me screen time to explore. During that exploration time, I stumbled across the concept of a ‘genealogy do-over’. Intrigued but not really wanting to start over, I signed up for cycle 3 of ‘Genealogy Do-Over’ on Facebook.

One of the rationales behind a ‘do-over’ is that many genealogies contain data that was imported from other researchers without documentation to support the lineage. I have to admit that unfortunately, I did import another researchers tree in my early years. I learned from that mistake and have been careful about importing data since. This argument along with the valid point that some data may be in a genealogy file that doesn’t have sufficient documentation have caused me to seriously consider an actual do-over. However, the following aspects of my research are causing me to strongly consider a go-over vs. a do-over

• Same name research: My first encounter with this issue was trying to find my great-grandfather’s grandfather. I knew his name was James Crawford and that his son, Nelson, lived in Warren County Indiana. Since there was a James Crawford family in Warren County of the right age to be Nelson’s family, I tried my darnedest to put Nelson in this family. In the process, I researched not only this James Crawford but three others who were in the same area of Kentucky at the same time before I was able to separate out my James Crawford. My genealogy file contains information on all of these men and their families.
• Cluster Genealogy: In trying to separate out the James Crawford’s and to potentially identify their migration path and ancestors prior to Kentucky, I have researched a cluster of people that migrated from Kentucky to the same area of Ohio.
• Collateral Descendants: To help find elusive ancestors, I have tracked information on siblings and their descendants. I don’t have all lines to the present day but I have a lot into the 1900s.

For these reasons, I am going to stick with a go-over starting with myself.

Comparing Genealogy WebSite Generation

Another Master Genealogist user recently asked for URLs of genealogy websites generated with Roots Magic or Legacy software. Curious about the differences, I decided to do my own comparison. For this project, I created a gedcom with a limited number of people from my Master Genealogy data. I then imported that gedcom into a new file in both RootsMagic 7 and Legacy 8. In RootsMagic, I used the default configurations and generated a web site using RootsMagic 6 style website. In Legacy, I used the default configurations to generate an individual style website. 

Please note that images do not transfer via Gedcom from Master Genealogist to RootsMagic or Legacy. I also did not take the time to reconnect the images to the individuals. Thus, the lack of images in the test site is my fault and not the fault of the software.

Both RootsMagic and Legacy put the events into a list.

RootsMagic

Legacy

Second Site generates a narrative report for the individual.

Legacy only shows the documentation for the major life events: birth, marriage, death, burial by using superscripts that are linked to the endnotes. However, the other events do not have any link to the documentation.

RootsMagic places a source icon with each event.

Clicking on that icon opens a list of endnotes for that even.

Second Site generates endnotes for each individual

New 'Pinning' Ideas and Tools

Tonight I participated in the webinar, Pinning Your Family Tree, by Thomas MacEntee. This was MUCH MORE than I expected!

The first part of the webinar was on how to use Pinterest -- particularly for sharing of family pictures and heirlooms. One suggestion was to scan the fabric memorabilia that has been passed down. I would have never thought of that, but it would be a way to document those heirlooms. Besides using a scanner to get a picture of the heirloom, a cell-phone or tablet could be used with scanner apps such as Shoebox. By using a phone or tablet, it would be possible to obtain an image of a quilt or other large heirloom.

The second part focused on a lot of other tools similar Pinterest - many of which were new to me.

Google Collections allows one to add scanned images to create a visual storyboard for a family member. Based on the presentation, it might not be possible to make them public.

Google My Maps -- This tool allows you to add pins at various locations and then save the map. This would be very useful to plot a migration path for a particular family.

What Was There -- This website hosts historical photos of buildings and landmarks and links them to addresses. Thus, it is possible to see how an area changed over time. The value of this site will grow as people post the historical pictures.

Historypin - This site is similar to 'What Was There' but the pictures don't have to be of a building or landmark. When I searched for Seneca, KS I found two pictures. One was posted by the Kansas State Historical Society and the other was posted by the Dr. Pepper Museum.

UEncounter.Me - This site is a social map pinning site. The presenter suggested that this was a way to connect with other researchers for a particular locality.

Confusion - Selecting Tool

Thinking thru the process — I like Drusilla Pair’s visual (as posted on the Genealogy Do-Over Facebook page) of the research process but I’m not getting very far with figuring out the nuts and bolts of my process. Since I’m trying to digitize my source files, this do-over process is an excellent opportunity to establish a procedure for moving away from paper research.

My current genealogy software (Master Genealogist) allows for the attachment of images and files to an individual. Images are viewable but the PDF files are not. The software that I may transition to also allows me to ‘attach’ images and pdf files. Both also have the ability to do research logs and task lists. I already have a lot of source templates configured in Master Genealogist.

After reading many of the posts and blogs, it appears that most participants are not going to use their genealogy software to track the research process. Instead they are going to use other resources such as Evernote, OneNote, Evidentia or Google Drive.

Over a year ago, I participated in a webinar using Google Drive to track research. One of the advantages of this tool is the ability to have an online form for each source that automatically populates the spreadsheet. Because questions are built into the form to force one to evaluate the source (primary/secondary, quality of image, etc.) it would be a very valuable tool. However, I’m not sold on Google Drive as the primary tool for the research process.

I have used Evernote in my professional life (a little) and it has a strong following in the genealogy community. I’ve found quite a few templates on Cyndi’s List ( http://www.cyndislist.com/evernote/templates/).

Within the past month, I watched a video on OneNote and became intrigued about using it as my research process tool. OneNote appeals to me visually and so far appears to better organize the information.

Each tool has its advantages/disadvantages. Unfortunately, I need to decide which one to use and then learn how to set it up. Otherwise, I will end up with something in each tool — and a disorganized mess.

Confusion Reigning – ‪#‎Wk1GenealogyDoOver