Why am I doing genealogy?

   And, what direction should my future efforts take?
   An excellent post, "Organizing Those Documents and Photos" by Lorine McGinnis Schultze at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog, and some wonderful comments, particularly one by The Grandmother Here, really got me to thinking.
   I started to add a comment, but realized two things.  I needed to mull over the ideas first, and what I wanted to say might not fit in that little comment box.
  
   I had just finished a three-month project organizing my research notes (see I've GOT to get organized -- DONE!).  Yes, my notes are now in order.  If I need to find one, I think my chances are pretty good at being successful. 
   I didn't voice it, but in the beginning I thought if I organized my notes some repository, some place, some day would perhaps not want them, but take them.  Three months later, after looking at every single page -- from 45-year-old hand-scrawled notes to recent printouts of online digital records -- I don't think that any more.
   Other than the few one-of-a-kind "family archive" records, a good genealogist should be able to take my sources to a computer or a good library and reproduce them.
   Think about the transcripts of census records taken from scratched-up microfilm before the days of online digital records. Would you trust those? Wouldn't you go to the source and look at the original, a better original than I looked at 30 years ago?  


   Naw!  When I'm done with them, these file drawers are full of dumpster fodder.   And when I'm done with them will be when I quit doing genealogy (read that senile or dead).
   So I'm back to what Lorine is pondering, finding a way "To ensure that my research into my ancestry is passed on."  I am not going to throw away 45 years (and counting) of work. 
    So what's the answer?
   Lorine's current plan is binders for her ancestral lines only. She has children and grandchildren to pass them to.
   I have two wonderful children who have, to date, only shown mild interest in their ancestry.  That's probably my fault in not working to develop that interest.  I only have two step grandchildren, wonderful young people, but they have their own ancestry and it's not mine.


   There are always options.
   The first I've been doing for several years -- a web page -- http://www.jimgill.net.  But personal web pages are not permanent.  When I go, it will go.
   Online tree services.  But how permanent are they?
   I really like the look and feel of WeRelate, but I wonder if it will survive.  I only have time to do this once.
   I've recently been granted access to new.familysearch.org but haven't had the time to do more than read Randy Seaver's posts on Genea-Musings and experiment.  Data-wise, I suspect it's about as permanent as any could be, but there are problems.  For me those problems include no pictures, limited sources and wading through the morass of unsourced documents.  In all fairness, my first post connected me with a cousin I didn't know I had. 


   So what's the answer?
  For me, I think it will be paper -- not that I won't upload my whole RootsMagic database some day.  RM has created a very nice interface to new.familysearch making it, I suspect, about as easy as it can get.
   I'm not sure how I'm going to do it yet, but I will be investigating what I can do with RootsMagic and my recently upgraded version of  Serif PagePlus X5.  Between the two of them I should be able to produce pages of genealogy and pages of pictures that can be printed in multiple copies for family and interested libraries.
   I will keep you posted on my progress.


   As a final note, I was delighted to read the comment by The Grandmother Here who wrote, "The joy is in the journey.  Searching and finding is what I enjoy."
   Yes!!!  So do I!
   Maybe that's why I have so many green folders in my file drawers -- sources I've found but never entered into my RootsMagic.
   Without doubt, I'd rather be searching any day.
   Although . . . I've got to get that information into RootsMagic.  I can't go online with it or to paper if I don't. 

I've GOT to get organized -- DONE!

   Yes! Hallelujah!
   And, it only took three months.
   Five file drawers full of research notes are now in proper order. Notes are in color-coded folders. All notes for which sources could be even remotely identified are entered in my List of Sources Searched (LSS) database.
   I didn't plan on this step, but any obituaries or documents such as birth records, death records etc. have been scanned and the original records put into sheet protectors and sorted by family into three-ring binders. Prints of the documents are in the notes folders.

   Some final statistics: 108 ancestral names and 8,045 sources in my LSS.
   This project has been a humbling experience. My file drawers are a sea of green folders. Those are the ones with the notes that have not been entered into my RootsMagic. I enjoy research and I think I'm pretty good at finding information. But . . . that doesn't make me a good genealogist.
   That's one of the next projects -- entering that mass of data into my RootsMagic, turning the green folders into blue folders (sources entered). That may take years!
   I'll also review my families in RM. Some of the sources are from previous generations of database programs tracing back to PAF. They need to be corrected to EE style.
   I also need to send for official birth, marriage and death records to replace my abstracts and transcriptions.

   The other next project is pictures. We have hundreds, maybe thousands of albums, prints and slides from our families. They need to be culled, organized, scanned etc. A new CanoScan 8800F scanner sits on my desk and archival supplies are in-house from Gaylord to make a good start. I have to give a tip of the hat to Gaylord. I've had two orders with them recently and their service was exceptional -- delivery in 2-3 days.
   I think I'll focus on pictures for a while.
   Although . . . there is that roll of microfilm on order of Montgomery County, Ohio, tax records.
   What can I say, I'm addicted.

I've GOT to get organized -- Update

   It has been a little over two months since I started this project. My guess is I'm a little shy of half way. I have five deep file drawers of research notes and I'm into the third drawer.
   I've changed my mind about how to deal with newspaper clippings, primarily obituaries. I'm scanning them and making a printout, but I'm not attaching them to the printout and keeping them with the research notes. Instead they are going into clear plastic sleeves and filed in three-ring binders with other records pertaining to that family.
   One of the interesting items I found that I didn't know I had was a deed from 1868 for a cemetery lot in Calvary Cemetery in Chicago purchased by my 3rd great grandmother Margaret Harbison. She was a widow and her husband, John Harbison, and other family members, are buried there.

   I must admit, a lot of my sources are not well documented. Some are from when I was just starting and others are from when I should have known better.
   So, just in case there are a few new genealogists out there who haven't heard this sermon from Genealogy 101, let me repeat it. If you follow these rules, you will thank yourself and save yourself an immense amount of time later.

   When taking notes:
   Never, ever, ever put information about more than one ancestral family on the same sheet. Ultimately, you will have to sort your information by families. Having more than one ancestral family on a sheet will require, at minimum, a photo copy.
   Never, ever, ever put information from more than one source on the same sheet. You may need to sort your notes by places or record types and breaking this rule will lead to more time-consuming photo copies.
   Never, ever, ever write on the back of a sheet. When you analyze your data and you lay those notes out on your desk, part of the information will be hidden and perhaps overlooked. More photo copies.

   And last, but not least:
   Always, always, always record where the information came from -- IN DETAIL.
 
   Oh, I wish I had followed these rules years ago. My current organizational effort would be so much easier. 

I've GOT to get organized -- Update

   Progress has been very slow. I've been revisiting the Brockway folders, entering all the notes into the List of Sources Searched.
   The last two folders contained ancient correspondence. Some of you might remember hand-written letters, carbon copies of typewritten letters, hand-printed pedigree charts and family group sheets.  (How did we survive not getting a response for three weeks or three months?)
    Just to prove that this disorganization I'm fighting is nothing new, I quote from a letter I wrote on April 6, 1986 -- just a few days over 25 years ago. I quote:

"I'm about to go berserk here. Some of my notes on this problem are missing from where they should be in my files. (I think I had them out when I wrote to you 2 March and apparently I didn't put them away.) One of these days I'm going to give up all my other responsibilities and get my genealogy in order.  I promise!"

   It's taken 25 years, but a promise is a promise.

Sorting Saturday - I've GOT to get organized - week 3

   This will probably be my last post on this topic . . . at least for a while.
   Work is progressing and I've taken to heart the suggestions about not throwing unsourced notes away but keeping them as clues. Since I'm making the effort to have all notes entered in my LSS (List of Sources Searched), that frees up the manila folders to house the clues.
   I suspect I'll have a lot of "clues" once I get into the notes I inherited from my mother. My mother spent a lot of time talking to her cousins and gathering pictures from them, but she was not as careful at recording the source of the information as I tried to be. (I try to scan a few of the pictures in her "ancestor albums" every day.)

   The Carrigan folders have had my attention the last couple of days. I have more notes on this family (my maternal grandmother's) than almost any other.
   In the process, I ran into newspaper clippings -- mostly obituaries. Some were loose in the file folders. Some were taped or stapled to letter-sized paper.
   I realized the first order of business would be to gently remove them from whatever they were attached to, scan them and make a printout of the scan to go in the notes folder. But then what?

   Throw the originals away? No, I didn't even consider that.
   What I finally decided to do, but I'm hoping to get suggestions from you on this, is to put them in a sheet protector, cut the protector down to letter size (cutting off the edge punched to go in a binder) and then stapling the protector holding the clipping to the printout. I don't think the clipping will fall out and the original will follow the printout from green folder to blue folder when the data is entered into my RootsMagic.
   If I had family binders as DearMyrtle recommends, I'd put them in there. But I don't.
   Suggestions?
  
  

Sorting Saturday - I've GOT to get organized - week 2

  Since my first post last week, I've made a good start. As far as getting my research notes in the right folders, I'm into the C's.
  That's the good news.
  But I ran into a serious bit of bad news when I hit the Brockway family folders. I have a lot of those, mostly from the days before computers, before my List of Sources Searched (LSS) database.

  Most of my Brockway notes were numbered. Unfortunately, those numbers and research note references did not appear in the LSS.
  I couldn't believe it. How did that happen?
  Undoubtedly, these notes were from the days before computers. Logically, they were entered on my paper LSS. Where those sheets are, I have no idea. I've moved twice since these notes were created and the last move was a real house cleaner.

  The only recourse was to scratch out the numbers and leave them as uncatalogued. Since then I've found other folders with similar numbered notes not in the LSS.
  Yesterday when I was doing my volunteer bit at the Kentucky Historical Society library, I asked the director if they had a written policy on what they will accept in the way of vertical files. They do. You can get a copy by emailing the library's reference desk
  Rule No. 1 got my attention right away

"All information must contain cited sources (citation can be on the document, or in a bibliography, or enough information provided to locate the cited source."

  The rule goes on, but you get the idea. And so did I.
  I think I've been pretty good in the last 20 years in recording enough information about where I got the research note to create a solid bibliographical reference. I don't put anything into my RoosMagic without a good source citation. But the 25 years before that time, . . . well . . . hmmmm . . . maybe not so.
  If a research note was a book or a microfilm, I probably have enough information to recreate the citation through WorldCat or the FamilySearch library catalog. Notes taken in courthouses will be more difficult. Notes left to me by my mother will be very difficult.
  I resolve: If I can't be absolutely certain about the citation information, the notes go in the trash! They are of no value to me or to anyone else!

  I've decided: Now is the time to do that work. No sense shuffling the research notes once into properly colored folders and then coming back, maybe months from now or never, and shuffling them again into the LSS and different colored folders.
  This makes the job much more time consuming but more valuable over the long term.
  Wish me luck!