The world of genealogy –
Every “doing” has its own world – activities & vocabulary. For most Americans, sports is an obvious one. For most men, cars, and for most women, cooking &/or fashion.
Genealogy is a world that few learn from their parents. Possibly good, in that all the forms and procedures are a learned language, and so all more easily done with the same ‘accent’. Possibly bad, in that it is something slightly scary, and one more time grab for busy schedules.
Anyway, back to basic forms and procedures. I have been lecturing on various topics for over 10 years, (researching over 30) and include some form of the following in every lecture.
General comments about research:
- Move from the known to the unknown
- Test every hypothesis
- Look at all information available
- The further back, the fewer records
- Decide early (like today) (or better yet, yesterday) how you are going to keep your information
- Citing your sources is VERY VERY VERY important
General comments about the info:
- Record dates – 5 Sept 1897
- Record names – Margaret SIMPSON
- Record places –
- Living people have the right to their privacy – name/dates/locations
Through the next months of blogs, each comment gets its own attention! Stay tuned.
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ps. Jill Morelli ends each of her blogs with a list of what she has done since the last blog. I like that idea so much (personal tally list, "it's not all bon-bons") it's going to appear on at the end of my blogs. Thank you Jill.