Fun in genealogy

First, I am going to wait to write about Garth and Edna's last child as she is still alive and well, hopefully, for many more years.

I am going to take a break from family dates, names and places. On to another topic - well, the same, but different!

The Art of Genealogy - those of us who are involved in genealogy know it is addicting. What is it about genealogy that IS addicting? I am sure there are as many answers as there are genealogists. ME - I love the "hunt." I am pretty good at searching for people from the past, finding all I can, online at first and then branching out. I have great success with phone calls and letter inquiries to the New England area and Michigan, both are places where most of my ancestors lived. English, Scottish and a little German is about it for ethnicity. I do have a great-grandfather who was adopted and is probably from Ireland.

I start with the usual places when beginning a fresh search: Ancestry.com for censuses and birth/death/marriage records, findagrave.com, USGenWeb, familysearch.org, local historical societies, etc. It is amazing what is now available online, and it grows daily. One needs to keep checking back to any website periodically to see what is new. I love the "detective" work, when one clue leads to another. At least that is the way it is supposed to work. I enjoy that kind of detail work. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I find a key piece of new evidence that helps to link one generation to another, or find another document needed to secure an ancestor in a particular location, time, and with his or her extended family. There is always the moment when one finds something new and previously undiscovered - a "genealogy happy dance" is always acceptable at this point. I will share some of those stories here in the future.

I was taught, by my genealogy mentor and dear friend, Diane Dozier Scannell, of San Antonio, Texas, that the basics are VERY important. Start with yourself and work backwards, one generation at a time, adding the appropriate documentation and sourcing as you go. My failure in this process is the - to me - dreaded sourcing. MY failure, not Diane's, that is for sure. I am getting better, writing it down and documenting it as I go. I am not always successful, as I want to do the actual research! I like paper too. I have friends who scan everything and keep it on the computer. I want it in my hands. Another suggestion from Diane is to make copies of all original documents. Put the originals in a safe place and only carry the copies out of the house with you on research trips. I try, really I do. I use FamilyTreeMaker 2011 as my database. I am comfortable with it and it works for me. It makes good, usable charts. I do not connect to the internet through it. I just don't.

Another fast rule that we have all heard is: not everything on the internet is true. Especially trees and websites by individuals. There are lots of mistakes and you have to be wary. Do they look like they have done a great deal of sourcing and documentation themselves? Or did they just copy from someone else's tree? Can you get in touch of them and ask questions? Do they know the answers to those questions? If you have information different from theirs, can you talk to them about it? We all know that some of the information is just copied from one person's tree to another. We also know that there are people who think if they can "see" it, it is true. Some genealogists are just name/place and date collectors. Some are "purists" and want to verify everything. Some want to put "meat on the bones." I consider myself to be a bit of all those. I want to have the full names, correct dates, etc. I want to have as much evidence to verify these things as I can. And, recently, thanks especially to a new friend here in Phoenix, Susan Krueger, I enjoy writing the stories of my ancestors for posterity. I think it is very important for us to know these people better, and to make sure that future generations know them also. And some of the stories are certainly worth telling and remembering. I have had two of my stories published.

Another thing I wish I had done early on in my research is to have two separate trees on my database. One with JUST documented and sourced people and one with everyone on it, whether verified or not. I have certainly added people that I have not verified myself. I try and note that on my database. These people will most likely be collateral lines and, only if really needed, will the information be confirmed and researched more thoroughly later.

More on this topic next time.  Janet