Back in the day, the first activity of a newbie genealogist was writing the details of their nuclear family into a lineage chart and a family group sheet. Then the lineage chart parents sprouted branches for the grandparents, and two more family group sheets appeared. By this time the newbie had met the US census, and grabbed info from films, which taught geography and which also required learning how to use indexes, and probably soundex.
Next steps included getting paper (official documents) to certify the information from family birthday books and "Aunt Sally" rememberings. Birth & death certificates, marriage licenses, and pictures of gravestones joined the growing paper collection. If lucky, many family documents were in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet in the back bedroom. If not, getting these documents meant travel to the issuing county or letters with checks. Luck in genealogy friends and casual mentors encouraged full and careful readings of these documents, and embedded hints directed future explorations. To this mix, the newbie would add in a local genealogy group, a few lectures, a weekend conference or two, reading and time. In a bit, training wheels were left off.
The amazing thing, however, is that "back in the day" is not 1860 or even 1950. Back in the day was 30 years ago. My first steps in genealogy were as written above. I wrote letters. I traveled to courthouses. I spent hours with the entire US census on microfilm at the Great Lakes NARA (73rd & Pulaski, Chicago). I copied census pages longhand, (xeroxed census pages were rarely legible) and xeroxed book pages when in libraries (or more often wrote transcriptions). Gathered information was studied closely at home, and notes kept track of future searchings.
Today... "way different" is putting it mildly. Open up a program, enter your parent's and grandparent's names and out pops a family tree of multiple generations. When you claim them and title this assemblage with your name, the computer program starts sending hints, and an invitation is extended to add these new names to your tree. AI and other people supply you with ancestors; it's like pushing the STAPLES easy button. Do I use these big data bases, absolutely, with many thanks for all the records gathered, and never more than during this strange year. I use these data bases to supply some of the documents that "in the before" were available only at the ancestor's hometown courthouse, or transcribed or abstracted in reference books available only in large collections.
Anyway, back to the way back machine. Technology may move into computers that take dictation, rather than fingers on keys, but reasoning still directs what is recorded. The human brain still offers the best network for doing solid genealogy, and reviewing the underpinnings from time to time reminds.
General comments about research:
- Move
from the known to the unknown
- Test
every hypothesis
- Look carefully at all information available
- The
further back, the fewer records
- Decide
early (like today) how you are going to keep your information
- Full recording of where you got the info ("citing your sources") is VERY VERY VERY important
General comments about forms for the info:
- Record
dates – 5 Sept 1897
- Record
names – Margaret Simpson
- Record
places –
- Living
people have the right to their privacy – name/dates/locations
- Dead people have no rights
Stay tuned for continuing coverage on these guidelines. No specific order or schedule.
If all this is thoroughly known and you feel you could write the next blogs, you still might want to check in every so often. Other topics will enter the stream.(Similar comments were written in 2019, and found last week while "wandering about" my computer looking for documents saved a bit too hastily. (see above about deciding how to keep information.) Not surprising if you have heard some version of this before, and you may hear some version of this in the future from another, but sometimes a reminder and a fresh voice is a good thing.)
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since last posting. I am writing for my portfolio, yet, still, continuing, (choose your own word). Yes, I have taken extensions. Currently filling in the squares on the KDP lineage/generations. This is a family I have been living with and collecting tidbits about for almost 30 years, so ... many choices about what to include and what to save for the book. Continuing my education with conferences, webinars and various discussion groups, enjoying and learning from all. Honing my craft & working --- speaking to local gen groups, and writing.
TA...