1) Conducting Collateral Research
2) Reviewing Offline Education Options
Conducting Collateral Research
Thomas MacEntee defines 'Collateral Research' as the collateral lines connected to one's direct line ancestors. In other words, relatives of someone who married into the family, distant cousins along your direct line as well as individuals connected to your family through second or third marriages.
As a step-mother, I have already included my step-children into my database. I also grew up viewing the step-children of one of my uncles as much as a first cousin as their half-sister who was the blood descendant of my uncle. My father's ancestors frequently raised the off-spring of a deceased sibling or child, so there was often confusion as to the true relationship of children in a household.
I know some people doing genealogy research just enter direct lines into their database. When they enter the spouse of someone, they refuse to enter the parents of that individual as there is no blood connection. I welcome recording the names of the in-law's parents as it helps identify that individual. In the case of my tree, both my mother and father's lines, siblings of an in-law also married into the family. If I didn't record the parents' names I would not be able to confirm the blood relationship between in-laws.
Granted, quite often when I am entering data from a census record, I do not record each child in the household; I will simply enter "2 additional children" and in the note field record the names and ages of the individuals. I have had to go back and alter the record if I find one of the siblings has served as a witness to the marriage or married into the family as well.
Having a record of the siblings has helped confirm whether an obituary is the individual in my database or not. (Again, I make the evaluation 'on the fly' rather than spending time entering the information into a Research Log or Evidentia to eventually make the decision.) I find this particularly useful in determining a maiden name or parents' names.
An obituary for an in-law may list surviving or deceased siblings, but not the parents. Searching records for the siblings often provide the name of the parents.
A marriage or death record may not list the maiden name of the in-law's mother. But similar records for a sibling may have recorded the maiden name. Or locating the marriage record of the parents (determining that it is indeed the marriage record for said parents), will provide the maiden name. Knowing the maiden name often explains a first or middle name of a child.
When I'm doing my research, I've always worked on the family unit, not just my direct ancestor. I view my genealogy as 'The Descendants of ______' not 'The Ancestors of Linda Patricia Allen'. I guess that view comes from both my parents being from the same small community surrounded by their large extended families. I have grown up not only knowing both sets of grandparents, but aunts, uncles and cousins as well as my parents' aunts, uncles and cousins and the children of those cousins.
It's all family.
Reviewing Offline Education Options
Once again, the assignment is for something that I have been doing as second nature. Although I often don't make the time to watch webinars, I am aware that there are videos available on YouTube as well as the websites for the genealogy software. I don't, or can't, commit to be available when a webinar is aired but I have watched the videos when they are uploaded somewhere on the internet.
Similar situation for conferences. The timing of conferences frequently have not been compatible to my schedule, as well as the expense. When the Ontario Genealogy Society's annual conference was in my home town, Kington Ontario, I did make the time in my schedule - especially after I saw that Lisa Louise Cooke would be doing several presentations.
Over the years, I have attended sessions with a genealogy theme when at library conferences. While living in Kingston, I was never aware of the local branch of the OGS having workshops, courses, or seminars. During the two years I was in Regina, I attended a conference organized by the local Family History Centre as well as a series of workshops organized by the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society in conjuction with the Regina Public Library who had a fantastic genealogy room and a librarian focusing on Prairie History. As many of the settlers in the Canadian Prairies were from Ontario, or had passed through that province before heading west, both the public library and SGS library had a significant amount of Ontario-centric records. The series of workshops focused on basic research and organization as well as searching homesteader records and other records pertinent to the prairies. It gave me an understanding of the Rural Municipality and Meridan system used in the prairies rather than the county system I was accustomed to in Ontario.
I frequently receive emails from FamilyTree University and other organizations advertising their webinars and courses. Although some have sounded interesting, I have refrained from spending the money and making the commitment to time. I did do a short, at your own pace, course a few years ago. It was offered free as a way to encourage people to sign up for longer, more indepth, courses. I did find the course to be a positive experience, but it was all I could do to make the time committment to doing the course. Although I joking say that I am a Genealogy Addict, I do want, and need, to spend time on other things. And I would prefer to spend my 'genealogy time' searching and entering data into my database.
Another source of offline education is podcasts. As long as I've had an iPod I have subscribed to genealogy related podcasts and listen to them as time permits.
Summary
I continue to be amazed each week that the assignments cover things that I have already been doing instinctively and without thought. As I've stated in previous posts, I attribute that to the training I had in my high school history classes. At the time, the teacher told us that we might find it time consuming and question the need, but we would appreciate it once we got to university and had to do essays and theses. Little did I know at the time that it would also serve me well for my
I may not be doing the evaluation of records to GPS standards of a professional genealogist, but I am confident that what I've been doing continues to serve me well for my genealogy needs.
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