Time for a Break.

It is time for a break so I won’t be posting to the blog for the month of October, unless there is something absolutely groundbreaking or so important it cannot wait. (Can you believe it is already October!?)

A couple months ago I posted how I am going to split up my genealogy time between the different lines I am researching, you can read that post here; Research Prioritization and Focus.

So, this is the beginning of a new quarter so I am making the switch from my maternal lines; Pakledinaz and Lucas, to my wife’s lines; Rogers, Capen, Nisgoda. My wife’s lines have, by far, been the most neglected in our research so I need to take some time to gather what information I have and ensure it is all updated in our database, Legacy Family Tree and everything is documented and cited correctly. As I’m doing this, I need to determine my next steps, develop my research plans, and then execute on those plans. Somehow I am thinking that it may take the whole quarter just to do this stuff.

Along with that, I have some loose ends on the Pakledinaz and Lucas lines to tie up before I can officially break from that line. I have a couple research logs that I have been following and I want to make sure they are tidied up and everything is documented correctly so when I pick up with this line in several months, I have a clean transfer and I don’t end up duplicating research. Plus, I still have some information that I’ve found or received and have not entered into the database yet. I don’t want to leave it lying around and then in a couple months it is forgotten or buried within papers of another line – mistakes I’ve made in the past and do not want to repeat.

Those are the excuses I have for taking a break from the blog for the month of October and I am sticking with them. I will be back on the first of November. Don’t forget that it is the first of the month so back up that data.

Have you taken a break from your blog to tidy up your research? How did that work out for you?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Footnotes and Source Citations

I recently read a post on one of the history blogs that I follow which talks about the importance of footnotes in historical work. The author is very passionate about using footnotes and having footnotes in the works that he chooses to read. You can read that post here; For Love of the Footnote at the Journal of the American Revolution.

I completely agree with the author. I have also put down books where footnotes or endnotes were not included. Reading this got me thinking that maybe my blog posts should contain more footnotes and source identification. That goes against what I felt in the past.

When I started blogging I thought about using footnotes mainly for source citations but opted against it to try and keep posts shorter and maybe a little less technical or academic. I wanted to keep my posts and the blog clean and uncluttered, at least as much as possible. I thought that if someone wants to know where I got my information, they can just ask. I would be happy to provide the information.

However, I think I may be changing my mind, at least a little. There are two sides to this, at least when it comes to my blogging goals and expectations.

1. I want to keep posts fairly short as not to overwhelm readers or potential readers with gobs of information. Let's face it, if you look at a blog post and it keeps going on-and-on, don't you skip over it and move on to the next one. I know I do. One of my main purposes for the blog is to present findings to family and maybe attract some family that I don't know about yet. Keeping the posts short and to-the-point of what I found is probably what most family want, the meaty stuff.
2. As a researcher, I want to make sure that what I put out there is credible. I want readers to know where I got my information so they can go look for themselves. If they can do that, maybe they'll see something that I didn't or interpret the information differently. I also want to show all the evidence that I use to make my conclusions, which, I hope, adds more credibility to my content.

I think I'm going to try a few things different in future posts so I can include both my conclusions (the meaty stuff) and also how I reached those conclusions (the proof or technical, academic stuff).

I am going to do two different posts for each record or piece of evidence. The first will be the meaty and to-the-point post which focuses just on what the record is and what it tells me about my family. This, I believe, will be more appealing to family who just want to know about our history.

I'll make a second post which will cover my analysis of the information and how I came to the conclusions I made. This will be a format more in-line with the Genealogy Proof Standard. This will include the footnotes and citations of all the information I used to reach my conclusion. This is the more academic approach and allows readers to dive deeper into what I researched, if they choose.

I am going to be playing with format for these two posts over the next several weeks or even months. I need to see what works best so there will probably be a lot of tweaking. My hope is that I can come to a happy medium between providing the basic down-and-dirty information that some want and also the academic technical analysis that proper research requires.

What do you think of my idea or how do you think we should approach source citations in our blogs?

Thanks for reading and please keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

Draft Registration Cards–John Pakledinaz

Over the past week I have been looking a little more at some information I have for my Great Grandfather, John Pakledinaz. The records of interest are his draft registration cards from World War I and World War II.

The document above is his WWI registration card. This is what it tells us:

1. It gives me his address on Sept 12, 1918. I can add this to my google maps where I track their movements.

2. Confirms his date of birth.

3. It says that he was a citizen of Hungary, which is consistent with my my other information. It also says that he was an alien, non-declarant. This is good information as it narrows down dates for me to look for any declaration paperwork he may have submitted – I know it was not before this date.

4. It gives his occupation and who he worked for and where he worked. The Penobscot building was not very far from where he lived.

5. The card gives a brief description, a tall, slender build male with brown eyes and dark brown hair. It also says that he didn’t have any obvious physical condition that would disqualify him for service.

The documents above and to the left are his WWII registration cards. They tell us the following:

1. It gives his address on April 27, 1942.

2. Another confirmation of his birth date. Also gives his place of birth as Yugoslavia which is consistent with other information –Yugoslavia came into existence after WWI. So, when he was born, it wasn’t called Yugoslavia but was at the time of this registration card.

3. Says that he was unemployed.  Interesting and I would like to find out more.

4. It also gives a description of him; 5ft 10.5in tall, hazel eyes, black hair, and a ruddy complexion. (Which meant he had a healthy, reddish color) It also tells us that he didn’t have any obvious physical characteristics that would aid in his identification.

The last piece of information that these two cards give me intensifies a little mystery I have for John. What was his middle name or initial, if he even had one.

If you will notice in his WWI registration card, he gives no middle initial but in his WWII card, he says it was M. and he even signs his name with the M. initial.

I also have his Death certificate where his middle initial was given as J.

The birth record I have for him makes no mention of a middle name. (a future post will talk about his birth/baptism record).

Only further research may reveal his true middle initial or name, if he truly had one. I’ll be going through all my information again looking for any evidence of a middle initial or name being used.  But for now, in my database, I am listing him without the middle initial or name.

Did I miss anything or if you have something to add, please leave a comment with your information.

If you would like to read more about John, I have written about him many times; Census Sunday, Ships Manifest, Rookie Mistake, Pakledinaz - Irish??, Surname Saturday, and Ancestor Appreciation Day.

Thanks for stopping by and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Documenting the Present?

Are you documenting your kid’s life as you go? I thought about this the other day during my boy’s cub scout meeting. I was a cub scout when I was about their age, but all I really remember is going to the meetings and wearing the little blue uniform. I don’t remember what rewards, badges, or accomplishments I earned during that time. I kind of wish I remembered that or had something that told me.  I don’t want my kids, 30 or 40 years from now wondering the same thing. But how should I go about doing this?

We are already keeping some of the patches, belt loops, and certificates in a box, but what if this box gets damaged or lost? I think we need a backup plan. A scrapbook would work, but those are time consuming and have the same possibility of getting lost or damaged as the box. Then it hit me! My genealogy software would work great for that. It has an event process to enter awards, honors, memberships, etc… and I’ve used these for my ancestors but have not been very good at using them for documenting the present.

The boys cub scout and our daughters girl scout advancements and awards fit nicely within this program. I can add pictures of the events and electronic versions of their certificates. This is the perfect backup plan and something I should have been doing all along.

I think we get so caught up in finding out about our ancestors that we forget to think that our descendants are going to want to know about our life. I need to get better in documenting the present accomplishments of our family to help out our future generations who may want to know what we were up to. Remember, the past of the future is the present.

What present moments are you making sure you document? Have there been some that you’ve missed?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris