Chickens Come Home To Roost.

Let's be brutally honest.  I suspect I am not the only one with at least some disordered documents - loosely sorted stacks (paper) and/or roughly labeled files (electronic). I also suspect that I am also not the only one using the time without FHL and Archives (and research trips!!) to explore all the nooks and crannies of house and computer, in the hope of exhuming semi-lost items and mostly forgotten wonderfuls.  

A part of me is thinking of Carter peering into Tut's tomb.. "I see wonders." 

Some time ago, I saw the touring exhibit on the most recent finds at Pompei.  Among the artifacts was a delicate gold necklace with shaped dangles, continuous and graduated.  Behind me I heard the murmur, how did they do that?  

It just takes time.  

My computer includes county histories, hundreds of newspaper clips, documents and snips about every aspect of life.   Now has come the reckoning.  Now is the time to order and arrange.

Can do. 

It just takes time. 
        

The goal is to make things findable, so I tweek the alphabet.  When I label a file or a document and use the family name in the titling, I double the first initial, ala RROSS or DDASING.  While it is unlikely that DASING would come up in a search as part of a word, ROSS gets many hits as partial words.  

I label by the BIG branch - so RROSS also includes the women/men who marry into that line, the names Wilkey, Shirley, Barbee, Compton.  CCOMPTON will probably graduate into its own line when I open up that line sideways. Rebecca was born in Virginia, married in Tennessee, and died in Illinois. She promises a great story; her family line ties into a land grant from Lord Fairfax.  How cool is that!!

Back to the piles  -- afterall, lockdown will be over in only 5 months. 

TA... 

++++++++++++

on other shores: Earlier this month, I submitted my paperwork for DAR membership.  My grandmother was a member; she joined during the 1920's.   Paperwork for her does not cover current requirements; lucky that I'm a genealogist and can find the missing information.  I am kept in the loop on local chapter doings, and have joined in writing cards for overseas soldiers, and sponsoring cemetery wreaths for vets.

Also, am now officially an elected member of the Illinois State Genealogical Society board, and a member of the education committee.  Laura, past president and current chair of this committee has a large vision for activities for this committee.  It promises to be an exciting time.  Stay tuned for news. If you are in Illinois and not a member, consider joining.  In fact, if you are not in Illinois, follow and consider joining - with everything via zoom during Covid, you can live virtually anywhere.  What a bonus.

and finally-- and a Happy to you, wherever and whatever you celebrate --