ASSIGNMENT:
1) Tracking Research
2) Conducting Research
1) Tracking Research
Thomas MacEntee generously uploaded a template of the excel spreadsheet he developed to use for his own genealogy research. I had looked at it as I lurked during the Cycle 1 of the Do-Over. Many of the other participants have also uploaded spread and word documents that they personally use, or links to other downloadable files.
I have to admit that I still cannot get my head out using Thomas' or any of the others. From what I can see of the files made available one would need to cut down a forest of real trees to produce the paper required to build one's family tree. Isn't the emphasis now a days to go paperless? [Strangely enough I'm typing this on Earth Day.]
I use Rootsmagic (RM) and there is a built in To-Do List and Research Log. I'm sure most other genealogy database programmes have similar. I am trying to get into the routine of making use of RM's To-Do List and Research Log as I encounter something that needs further investigation or validation.
I guess I approach my research in a different manner that others. Yes, I do the whole point of the Do-Over is to retrain one's self to do future research in a better, more efficient manner. But from postings I've seen from other participants, I have been doing things in a way that they are now trying to train themselves to do. ie Prove facts from official sources, not accept someone's tree uploaded on the internet.
I guess I've been fortunate that most of my twigs were located in Ontario and the BMD records from Archives of Ontario available through Ancestry cover a large portion of their lifespan. Why print out a Research Log for a trip to the Archives of Ontario when I can find the same information from the comfort of my own home?
The cost of my annual subscription pays off day after day as I can do my research, find the image of an official document and then enter it immediately into my database. Why do I need to make an entry into a Research Log to tell me to search Ancestry, search Ancestry, find the record, update my Research Log and then enter it into my database?
Yes, the badly mangled transcriptions of names can make the searching difficult and not readily found. But before giving up and adding it to my To-Do List or Research Log, I try as many other methods of searching. I will also check FamilySearch to see how they transcribed the name. In many cases, they do not have an image of the actual record, only a transcription. But with additional information gleamed from that record, I've often been able to go back to Ancestry and find the record.
For the of individuals difficult to find in censuses, I've done the FamilySearch search or if it is a year transcribed on AutomatedGenealogy, I'll check for neighbours and return to Ancestry, search for the neighbour and lo and behold I find my ancestor on the page and am usually mystified as to how the transcriber came up with the mangled name. For consistency purposes, I prefer to use Ancestry as the citation source.
I am training myself to make use of the To-do List and Research Log at the point that I have given up trying to find the individual in some variation or mangled name. And someday I will venture out to physical repositories to do additional research for the few individuals and facts that need to be found and/or verified.
I realize that the Do-Over exercises have not yet reached the point of actually entering information into one's database. But I don't work that way. I feel I can better evaluate the information, or lack thereof, by looking at my database. In the timeline created for the individual, I can tell at a glance if I have copies of the BMD and censuses for that person. And then search for the missing information. Of course during that search, I will also discover "official" information for the others that appear on the document. Some may view that as a BSO, but I'd be searching that individual eventually, so when I'm checking that individual I will already have the information entered in the database. I just need to ensure that I return to the main person I've been focusing on once I'm finished that the document on the screen.
The BSOs do also crop up when I do a google search as part of my research for the individual of my focus. I could enter details of an in-laws obituary on the To-Do List, but it only takes a short time to evaluate that record to get details as to maiden names and children and possibly their spouses and children. With the maiden names known, a new google search to be done. Again, with immediately entering the details pertinent to my tree into my database, I am able to round out an individual's record before moving on to another branch.
Granted, with this method, I can spend days expanding a twig into a branch before moving on to the twig's sibling and repeating the process. Benefits in just this past week, I have discovered that two siblings in my tree married a man and his niece. I had wondered about the common surname but it wasn't until I was doing the birth, marriage and census searches of the in-laws that I discovered that the woman was the niece of the man and had lived with him and his parents for several years after her father had died at a young age. Their farm? Next door to my ancestor branch that they married into.
So...for the purpose of the Do-Over, the Research Log I choose to use is my genealogy database programme. As time goes on, I will need to prepare logs for trips to repositories, but as long as I continue to readily find massive amounts of legitimate documentation online, I'll refrain from generating paper.
2) Conducting Research
I plan to continue the method I have been gradually developing over time. With participating in the Do Over, I've made a conscious decision try to keep my focus on one individual at a time before moving on to a sibling and then back up the tree to the next branch.
With having started over with a new database, merging my numerous databases into one as I had had with FamilyTreeMaker until it got corrupted. But I'm not dragging and dropping the old branches into the new. I hadn't been happy with my citations (ones transferred from FTM appeared in RM as 'free-hold' with little information. To properly redo the citations, I thought it best to redo everything.
Now that Ancestry has all Canadian census available, indexed and images, I can check all census pertinent to the ancestor I'm working on. The same with BMD.
Establishing routine for each individual I focus on:
1) on Ancestry: BMD, census, Canada Voters' List and any other database on Ancestry pertinent to that specific individual. Census records may lead to unknown siblings which would need BMDs, etc to be checked. Marriage records may lead to a previously unknown spouse which would need checking.
purpose: document and verify facts already on hand ; fill-in missing facts with verified documentation
2) As previously stated, if individual should be covered by a database on Ancesty and cannot be found, check FamilySearch, AutomatedGenealogy, LAC, etc to see if other transcribers did a better job at decipher handwriting on the documents.
purpose: continue to document/verify facts, returning to Ancestry for consistency in citations. If Ancestry doesn't duplicate the record, use the alternative source
3) Check relevant newspaper archives, if available, for obituaries (bookmarked in Firefox)
purpose: information regarding birth, death, burial, offspring, spouses, parents
4) Check relevant cemetery sites (booked in Firefox)
purpose: information regarding birth, death, burial, possible offspring, hints for geographic area to search for obituary
5) Google relevant search terms (combination of names of individual, spouse, children, location, etc)
purpose: unearth all sorts of information on individual in question
6) Check Public Member Trees on Ancestry (or posted on sites discovered with Google search)
purpose: to use as hints of where or what to search for to be verified (ie middle name, BMD, spouse, in-laws, children)
7) Repeat process for any new individuals unearthed, or maiden names found
Once every relevant fact/event has been unearthed and verified to be the best of sources available, colour code individual as indication that all relevant internet searches have been done. Move on to the next sibling and repeat above processes. Once all siblings have been covered, recheck parents information is "complete" before colour coding and moving on to next sibling of the ancestor.
Summary
Since starting this routine a few weeks ago, these process seems to be working for me. I have unearthed a lot of information I did not already have for that individual in my old database. More and more documents are becoming available on the internet and is much easier to search from home. I know eventually I will need to travel and visit repositories for other information that will never be available online. But for now, the internet will keep me busy enough finding the basic information.
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