Collateral Damage can be a Good Thing–Tuesday’s Tip

I’ve spent a lot of my research time focused on direct ancestors. This is only natural because those are the ones that we want to know about and finding one leads to another. However, what do you do when you get stuck? You seem to have tried every possible route to find some missing information, like a birthdate, birthplace, or in my case, the home village back in Europe.

So here is the tip for this week, in case you don’t want to read the rest of the post, check the collateral lines of your direct ancestors. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, even cousins may lead you to some information about your direct ancestor that you just cannot find while staying true to your line. I have done that with my maternal grandfather, Joseph Lucas. Here is how it has helped me so far.

My Lucas line has proven to be a very tough nut to crack. My grandfather was killed in Germany just after the end of World War II, when my mother was just 9 years old. So, there are not many memories of him or of his family. His father, Raymond Lucas, died in 1921 as I have recently found and wrote about in this post, Death Certificate: Raymond Lucas. His mother, Katie Lucas, remarried after his death to a Frank Goodman but apparently he died or left at some point before my mother came along because she does not remember him. She had very faint memories of her grandmother; remembering that she spoke Polish a lot and lived in the same building when my mother was very small. She believes she died about the time that World War II began.

I can put my great grandparents, Raymond and Katie, in Massachusetts starting about 1906. The census records and birth indexes have helped me do this. Their first known child, Marvella, according to the census, was born in Massachusetts about 1906. Their second child, Joseph (my grandfather), and their third, Edward are also listed as being born in Massachusetts, about 1907 and 1909. I have tried to confirm the exact birth date of my grandfather for years, but it still eludes me. I have lots of information on him with a couple different dates, all in December of 1907, so at least I can be pretty confident of the month and year. However, I am digressing and the search for his birth is for a different post.

One of my research goals is to identify where Raymond and Katie were born and their home village in Europe. From the census and other documents I have been able to conclude that their nationality and language was polish and they were born in Russia. If you study a little about the changing Polish borders and areas in Europe, being Polish and Russian is a very real possibility. The census also tells me that they immigrated about 1901. However, the search for any immigration records, either arrival, departures, or naturalizations have been fruitless. It is almost like they just appeared out of thin year, which I am sure, many of you have encountered with your at least one of your ancestors.

I was at a dead end trying to find Raymond and Katie and additional information about my grandfather. So, I took some advice that I heard, and the same advice that I am giving today, check the collateral lines. I decided to see what I could find out about my grandfather’s brothers; Edward, Teddy, and Anthony. My mother said that Edward and Teddy never married, at least not that she was aware of. However, Anthony was known in the family, he was Uncle Tony. I remember talk of him as a small child. My mother remembers him and his family well. So, Anthony was my next search.

From the census records I knew that he was born in Detroit, Michigan so that is where I started. I searched the normal birth and death records first. I was successful and found his birth record and death record but neither provided any new information about his parents. Along with my own search, my mother was in touch with her cousin, Anthony’s daughter, and asked if she had anything about her father. I wasn’t expecting the information I received.

She had the baptism certificate for her father, but it wasn’t for Anthony Lucas, it was for Anthony Luksys! The parents were Roman Luksys and Catherine Paskruba. Everything but the surname Luksys matched the birth record of Anthony. I was a little surprised and excited, maybe this is the breakthrough I needed.

I have yet to make a certain breakthrough with this information but it has led me to more clues which I would not have without the name Luksys. I knew my grandfather and his brother were born in Massachusetts but not quite sure where. With the new information I can search for a new surname and I was able to find a record of Edward Luksis born to Raymond and Katie Pascrumba in Northbridge, Massachusetts on 14 August 1909. I have also found a record for my grandfather from the church records in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, part of Northbridge.

Although I have yet to find any arrival information for Raymond and Katie, the name Luksys is in the same area of Massachusetts at the same time. I have found naturalization and other records for a Samuel Luksys and although I cannot make a connection between the families there are too many similarities that I cannot ignore. Samuel lived in Upton, Massachusetts, right next door to Northbridge and he worked in Whitinsville, part of Northbridge. These are the same places where my grandfather and his brother were born. Samuel worked at the Whitins Machine Works and Raymond (great grandfather) is listed as a machinist in the birth record of his son, Edward.

Even though I have not achieved the breakthrough I am looking for, the moral of this story is that if I had not gone to my collateral lines, I would not have the additional clues to follow which I am confident will lead me to that breakthrough.

Do you have any collateral line success stories? Share those on your own blog or in the comments section here.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Photo Courtesy of: Leigh Marriner.

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday’s Tip–Is My Source Lying to Me?

I am going to give two tips for this post and then offer a ‘what if?’ case study from one of my records.

1. Don’t always trust your sources at first glance especially secondary sources. Try and have at least two or more separate sources which tell you the same information. Of course, there are exceptions to this but I believe they are few and far between.

2. Get in touch with older or distant family members who knew the ancestor you are researching. Of course, this is not always possible depending on how far back you are researching. For instance, the record I’ll talk about below if for my great grandmother who passed before I was born. Her daughter, my grandmother, passed before I started researching so I can’t talk with her either. My mother knew her grandmother but didn’t know enough about her to answer questions that I had. However, when I started researching I still had great aunts, my grandmother’s sisters that I could contact. They have been a great help with stories and information that I just can’t get anywhere else.

So, if you don’t read anything else in this post, you have the two tips that I believe are priceless when researching your family history. For the rest of this post, I’m going to describe how those two tips combine to help piece together my great grandmother’s arrival in the United States and what could have happened if I did not follow these tips.

For the rest of this post I am going to be using the ship manifest which shows my great grandmothers arrival in the United States. You can read my initial post about that manifest here: Ship's Manifest. More specifically, I’ll be talking about the information given in the final destination questions on the manifest, shown in the picture below.

 

Looking at the final destination questions of the manifest it tells me that Anna was going to join her cousin Jakol Dorjak in Trenton, NJ. If I knew nothing else about Anna and where she was at different times after she arrived in the United States and I did not follow the tips I gave above, I would probably start a search for her in Trenton, NJ. She arrived in August of 1909, so I would start with the 1910 Census in Trenton. I would not only search for her but also the cousin, Jakol Dorjak. Before I start searching, I want to know this Dorjak name. I look through the family book of Anna’s home village and I cannot find a Dorjak so I suspect the spelling is a little off. I find a similar name, Doriath. I search through the names and I can find a Jacob Doriath who is Anna’s cousin. I also find Franz Doriath who I suspect is the Franz Darjack traveling with Anna. The information on age and family matches what is said about him on the manifest. He has a brother, Josef, who he says he is going to join and their father is Josef, the closing living relative in country of origin. So, I’m pretty sure the Dorjak/Darjak names on the manifest are actually Doriath. I cannot find any Doriath or variant of it living in Trenton, NJ in the 1910 census so I expand the search to surrounding areas and other sources like city directories, etc… I’ll keep searching and expanding my search to maybe even trying to find the other Doriath lines hoping to find where Anna settled. As you can see this search could go on and on but I am not going to find Anna in New Jersey or the surrounding areas. Of course, I did not do all this searching for Anna because I followed my own advice above and checked different sources and I asked family members.

At the time I found the manifest I already knew that Anna was married and living in Detroit in 1914, I had a copy of my grandmother’s baptism record which showed this. Between 1909 and 1914 I had no idea where Anna was, where she met her husband or where she had her first two children. I had not found them in any census yet.

So, with the manifest and my grandmother’s baptism records it looked like Anna immigrated to Trenton, NJ in 1909. Then, in December of 1914 she gave birth to my grandmother. Everything in between was a mystery. This is pretty much all I knew about Anna at the time. If I had not followed my advice above and tried to contact family for information, I would have spent many countless hours searching as I described above. I did start to search in the Trenton area but at the same time I also contacted family, my great aunts to be exact, to see if there were any family stories about my great grandmother’s immigration. I was told that Anna immigrated with another family where she was going to tutor their children in English for room and board. They weren’t sure where she was lived for this but they also said that they believed Anna and John (their parents) met at Anna’s brother’s house, Adam Hinterhauser. But again, they didn’t know where this was. However, I had a knew clue to follow and a connection that I could make. I had found an Adam Hinterhauser in a ship’s manifest but didn’t know who this was and if there was any connection to Anna. Now I could make the connection that this could be Anna’s brother. In the manifest Adam said that his final destination was Youngstown, Ohio. To not drag this on too much longer, this is the final connection that put the pieces together. I found Anna and John in Youngstown, Ohio in the 1910 census, they were married. In fact, they were married in January of that year as I found out by writing to the Archdiocese of Youngstown and asking if they had a record of a marriage between Anna Hinterhauser and John Pakledinaz. They were very helpful, found the record of their marriage on 15 January 1910, and even sent me a copy of the marriage certificate.

With all this information, I believe that Anna’s final destination was probably Youngstown, Ohio where her brother already lived and she was going to be tutoring children in English. Things changed fast after she got to Youngstown. She met her future husband and they married just 5 months after she arrived in the United States.

Can I completely disregard the information about Trenton, NJ and her cousin? No, I can’t! I have two theories about this information.

1. The information recorded about her final destination was incorrect due to recorder error or maybe misunderstandings.

2. Anna, on her way to Youngstown, was going to stop and visit with her cousin for a while before moving on to her final destination with her brother. Jacob Doriath is Anna’s cousin and there is a Jakob Doriath arriving in NY in 1908 hailing from the same village as Anna, the ages match so this could be her cousin although is final destination is listed as NY. When asked what her final destination was she could have misunderstood and told them her next destination, which was to visit her cousin.

I would tend to believe that my second is more probable since her cousin is named in the document. This is just a theory and more investigation and research may lead to more proof that is concrete but I honestly doubt I will ever know the exact travels of Anna between New York and Youngstown, Ohio.

I made many mistakes in the early days of my family history hunt. However, in those early days I also read a lot of advice on how to conduct your research and the two tips I presented here are some of what I learned back then. I am glad I listened to that advice or I would have spent many useless hours searching for Anna in all the wrong places.

What was some of the best advice you remember from your early days of your genealogy journey?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Question Guy photo courtesy of: Scout

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Editorial Calendar-How I Use It-Tuesday’s Tip

Do you use an editorial calendar to help you manage the content of your blog? I did not use one for the longest time after I first started blogging. I actually did not know what an editorial calendar was and I'm not sure where I got the idea to start using one for the first time. But now I cannot imagine trying to plan and organize my blog posts without using one.

You can look up the correct definition of an editorial calendar and you'll probably find several. However, for my basic needs I define it as a calendar to help manage what content I intend to post to my blog and when I want to publish that content.

There are several different forms or types of an editorial calendar. A popular type that I have seen and read about, especially for genealogy bloggers, is an excel spreadsheet. There are others that are plugins for your blogging platform, there are even companies that produce editorial calendar type software that you can pay for. I have tried the excel spreadsheet and also tried using my to-do list, toodledo.com. However, none of those really worked that well for me. The spreadsheet was just another document I had to open and maintain. The to-do list approach kind of worked and I still use it a little to manage posts but it didn't give me the overall picture I needed to see what I was going to post. So, I turned to google calendar.

I already use google, as do a lot of people. I have a few different accounts; one for the family, a personal account, and one for genealogy. Each account comes with a calendar and you can set them up to share/edit from your other accounts. The picture above shows my google editorial calendar. It does what I want and need an editorial calendar to do and I didn't have to spend a dime or make another document.

The calendar gives me a visual snapshot of my intended content for my blog. I can see where there are holes so when I am scheduling content I don't post too much in one day and leave other days completely blank. I’m spreading things out and trying to keep the blog fresh with new content and not dormant for too long.

The calendar lists all the posts that I've completed and intend to complete. When you add an event into the calendar, you have color coding options and you can also assign it a specific time (obviously because it is a calendar). I use both of these to help tell manage posts.

• Red = I have not started writing that post yet.
• Yellow = I have started writing but not complete.
• Green with a time = Post is complete and scheduled to post on that day and at that time.

The red and yellow stand out more because they have no specific time assigned to them, that event is an all-day event. I like that because it makes them much more visible; staring me in the face saying "finish me".

I said that I have different accounts on google so I just use the calendar that comes with my genealogy account as my editorial calendar. I use my other google account calendars as regular calendars. For instance, the family account is where we put all our appointments and commitments. What is good with using your google calendars and sharing them is you can view more than one calendar at a time. The picture below is an excerpt from our family calendar with my genealogy calendar activated - both calendars are visible. I like this because I can see what posts I need to work on alongside any family commitments we may have which makes planning the time to work on posts a little easier. This calendar is not that full right now but wait a month or so when scouts and sports start up for our kids - I'll be very thankful I have this setup.

If you only have one google account or you don't want to use two separate accounts, you can still have separate calendars which work just like mine. Google allows you to make additional calendars within your account. Here is a step by step if you don't know how to do that:

1. Open your google calendar
2. On the upper right corner, there is a cog wheel with an down facing arrow, click that.
3. A menu will open, click on settings, you will now be in your google general calendar settings
4. On the upper left, there are tabs, click on the calendars tab.
5. The first section shows 'My Calendars', this is where any calendars that you currently can view and edit will show up. Go under that and click on 'create new calendar'. This brings up the new calendar setup.
6. Name the calendar, type in a description if you want, make sure the calendar time zone is correct and then go to the top or bottom and hit 'create calendar' again
7. You are sent back to your normal calendar view and on the left side of the screen, under the heading 'My Calendars' your new calendar should appear. You're done.

Now you can see and edit all your calendars at one time. If you want to hide one of the calendars, say you just want to see your blogging calendar, then go to the "My Calendars' on the left side and click on the calendars you want to hide. Click on it again to view it.

As I said, I did not use a editorial calendar at first but now it is a must-have for me. There are several different options to explore when creating one for you, google calendar is just the option that works best for me.

Do you use a different type of editorial calendar? Do you have any suggestions for how I use mine? If so, please leave a comment and let everyone know.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

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© 2014 copyright, Christopher Shaw

Data Backup Day–Don’t Lose all that Hard Work!

Tomorrow is data backup day for a lot of family historians and I am no different. If you are not backing up your data tomorrow then I hope you have another day set aside at least once a month to do a backup. I thought I would post this the day before to show how I backup my data which may help someone with their backup routine and maybe others can give me some tips on my process.

Before I say anything else, the most important thing about backup is that you are using a backup scheme that works best for you and your situation and one that you will stick to. But, at the very minimum and what I’ve always been told is that it is a good idea to backup your data to at least one other type of media that is physically separated from what you are backing up. For instance, if your are backing up the hard drive on your desktop computer, the media you are backing up to should not be within your desktop tower. It should be to an external hard drive or a flash drive or maybe DVDs. Like I said, that is the minimum, I like to exceed this for extra piece of mind and it doesn’t really take all that much effort.

My backup plan is centered around multiple copies in different locations. Here is what I do:

1. I own a 1 TB Western Digital My Book Live drive that is connected to my home network via our router. I use the software that came with the drive and I have it setup to backup all the files on the two hard drives in my desktop, this includes all of my genealogy data. This software is a continuous backup so I don’t have to remember to push a backup button. However, I do check it at least once a week to make sure it is working properly.

2. In order to have all my genealogy data with me wherever I go, I use Dropbox. I have it installed on my desktop and on my Surface Pro 2, which is my laptop. So, it also serves as another backup of my data. Not only do I have it on my desktop and my Surface Pro 2 but it is also located in the cloud. By the way, I share genealogy data with my sister who is in a completely different state and she has Dropbox on her computer also, so there is another mode of backup.

3. I own two 1 TB WD my passport external drives. One of these drives is for all my genealogy data and the other is for all the other important files that I need to backup. These are my third layer of backup and I keep both hard drives locked up in my desk at work. I bring them home on the 1st of each month, do my backups and take them back to work.

The first two parts of my plan are almost automatic, I don’t really have to think about them too much and my data is being backed up. I had to set them up initially and I do check them quite often to ensure things are working the way I want them to work, but for the most part they work in the background. The third step is the one that really takes any time and effort. I have to physically connect these to my desktop via USB and then copy all the files I want to backup onto the drives. Depending on the mood of my computer, the process can take as little as 30 minutes but it has also taken up to about an 2 hours. However, the extra piece of mind that this step gives me is worth any amount of time it takes.

So, that is how I backup my data each and every month. It is the system that works best for me and gives me piece of mind. There are a lot of different ways to backup your data, Thomas MacEntee, of Geneabloggers has a whole page setup with backup resources here: Resources For Backing Up Your Data.

Do you have any suggestions on making my system better?  How do you backup your data? Write a post on your own blog about your backup plan or share it in the comments here.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

© 2014 copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Rookie Mistake–Source Documentation

I am working on my genealogical documentation, as stated in my previous posts: A New Start and also Slow and Easy. I have run into yet another snag in my previous research and documentation, that if done correctly the first time, would have saved much time now.

The current problem is within the marriage of John and Anna Pakledinaz (my great grandparents). It is not that I do not know when or where they were married, I am confident I know this information. They were married on 15 January 1910 in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio. The problem is with my documentation of this information. Here is a list of my sources/information:

1. Back in 2000, I wrote to the Youngstown Diocese to find out about St. Joseph Church and the marriage record of John and Anna. The Chancellor wrote back that same day saying the church does not exist anymore but she has the records in her office. She gave me the information I requested, here is exactly what she wrote: "There is a marriage record for Pakledinaz/Hinterhauser. Although the record is difficult to read, as it was written in cursive Latin and fountain pen, it looks like the name is Joannes(John) Hinterhausen and Annam (Ann or Anna) Pakledinaz. The witnesses were Adam Willie and P_____ (unreadable) Flagger. January 15, 1910: married by Rev. J. W. Klute. The parents' names are not listed.” NOTE: The last names are reversed for John and Anna?  
2. The day after that email traffic, the Chancellor typed and certified a Certificate of Marriage with the seal of the Chancellery and sent it to me. (I only have the certificate, I did not keep the envelop or anything else she may have sent with it). (Again the last names are reversed for John and Anna).
3. I also have another Marriage Certificate in my possession, although this is a copy. This is a certificate obtained May 7, 1951. This lists the same information but does not reverse the last names and does list the name of John and Anna's parents (Score). It also says on the lower left corner, "Vol 1 Page 133.

What I have is pretty good evidence to prove the marriage of John and Anna on 15 January 1910 in Youngstown. However, here are the questions I have when trying to put these sources into my database and my rookie mistakes when I got these sources.

For #2, I do not know if any other information came with the certificate since I did not keep the envelope. I also do not know which type of source was used to compile the information although it sounds like the church book as was mentioned in #1 above. I would much rather have a photo or copy of the original church book, then I can evaluate what was written for myself and see if the names were actually reversed in the book or was it a mistake of the Chancellor who gave me the information.

For #3, where did this information come from, where did it originate? Where did I get it from? This was obtained in 1951 and it is singed by a Reverend, so I'm guessing that it came from church records. But if this did come from the church records then why did it contain the parents names and #2 did not? I'm guessing that the vol 1 page 133 is showing the book it came from, but who has that book? If the Chancellor does then why does it not have the parents name again? Maybe this record is from the official court records for the marriage and the vol 1 page 133 refers to their documentation at the courts?

All these questions frustrate me because most could be answered if I would have kept better record of my sources. This is what I am learning:

1. It is not enough to document your source information, you must also know where that source came from. Ask the questions! I could have asked the chancellor’s office in the email chain about #1 and 2 but I did not.
2. When you receive a copy of a source from someone else, whether it be in the mail or in email or in person, keep everything that accompanied that source - the envelope , the original email and all accompanied emails. Then make a note of everything that came with it and from whom you received it so you do not question yourself later, as I am doing now.

One of the reasons that I started this project, which I call my restart, is to find instances just as I am describing. I've learned a lot over the last several years about research and documentation, stuff that I wish I knew back in 2000 when I made these mistakes. But, I was a rookie way back then and I'm sure I'm going to find a lot more just like this.

What kind of rookie mistakes have you found in your own research? Have you fixed them? Leave a comment and tell us about them so we can all learn from each others mistakes.

I hope that someone can learn from my mistake here and not repeat it. Thanks for reading and keep diggin' for that family.

Chris

Note: I have written of John and Anna a couple other times, you can read them in these posts: Surname Saturday - Paklendinaz - Pakledinac and Pakledinac- Irish? and also Ancestor Appreciation Day: My Immigrant Ancestors.

Pakledinac-IRISH? What to do with Disproven Info!

I did not think Pakledinac sounded like an Irish name? Nor does Hinterhauser sound Irish. But to my surprise, in the 1930 Census, John Pakledinaz and his wife Anna (Hinterhauser) were born in Ireland and actually spoke Irish. Hmmm??

Obviously this is a mistake. Unless the enumerator was drinking a little too much when they passed by the Pakledinaz household that day, I am chalking this information up as false probably due to a communication gap – John and Anna were not native English speakers and probably had hard accents.

I know it is false because many other sources have John from Croatia (the now term) where his native tongue was Croatian and Anna from Austria-Hungary where her native tongue was German.

So, what to do with this information?

I could basically ignore it and just act like it isn’t there; that may be the easiest thing. But, what of future researchers who get my information? If I do not mention this and basically do nothing with the information then couldn’t that discredit anything else I have. It would be like I missed it – then that would bring the question of what else have I missed.

Document and move on!

The correct thing to do, as far as I am concerned, is to document the information within your database and list your analysis as to why this is false. I use Legacy Family Tree so I use the advice I got from Geoff Rasmussen on the Legacy Family Tree website. I will add events for both John and Anna for Nationality and Language Spoken but I will edit those events and put Disproven Nationality and Disproven Language Spoken (see screenshot below).  I will then add my analysis or

reasons for why this information is false.This also goes on to show how to record conflicting and alternate information.

Whichever database or software you are using to record your family research may have a different way of recording disproven information but the important thing is that the information is recorded in your research.

How do you record disproven or alternate information?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Tech Tuesday - The Netbook

This post is a result from the blogging prompts offered over at geneabloggers. Tech Tuesday is for new technology or web offerings that we have found that may help other family historians. Although my post is not about a new technology, it is fairly new to me and I felt I needed to pass on my thoughts on a netbook computer.

I have a Toshiba netbook and I love it. I was a little leery of the netbooks at first because they are so small with tiny little screens and keyboards. I didn’t think my fat fingers would be able to type on this thing. I was also a little hesitant because they just don’t have the power of a regular laptop and I am a guy so I need more POWER!! I carried around a Sony Vaio laptop for a long time and it was just too heavy and I always had to be on the look out for an outlet because the battery just didn’t last long enough for some serious research trips.

I really looked at how I use my laptop and figured out that 90% of the time it is for schoolwork or my family history when I am out doing research or just not near my desktop monster machine (remember, me man – need power).  So I did my research on these netbook things and discovered they are generally just made for surfing the web and basic word processing type stuff – just what I needed. And then I looked at the battery life they get and I was sold! Anywhere from 6-9 hours of battery life depending on the brand you get. Say goodbye to lugging around that power cord everywhere I go.

So, I went out and paid about $350 for a netbook and I have not regretted it since. It took a little getting used to the smaller keyboard with the keys a little closer together but that is nothing. I love the compactness and the battery life.

I can literally put this in any bag I own and take it with me and it is so light, I hardly notice it. For battery life, I have gone all day long without plugging this thing in. Now, that isn’t typing away all day long non-stop, it is typing away some, surfing the net some, close the lid when not using it. I am very impressed with the battery life.

The main reason for buying this was for school work. My classes are 100% online so this is perfect. furthermore, once I started using it I thought why don’t I just install my Legacy Family Tree software and see how this thing does. It works like a charm and since my data is stored on Dropbox, I can update my data on this thing and then it is all synced up with my monster desktop when I get back home.

Final reason for loving my netbook. I bought it before I started this blog and am so glad that I have it. I can pull this out whenever I have a few moments and update a post in draft or start an idea I may have. All my posts are kept on Dropbox also so they are all sync’d up with my desktop also.

Now, with anything, there is always downsides. The only downsides I have found with this netbook is getting used to the smaller screen and keyboard. I got used to them very quickly and now they do not bother me at all. The portability makes up for anything else for what I want it for and the price is perfect – cheaper than an iPad.

So, these are my thoughts on the netbook and I would definitely recommend one to someone who needs or wants a little more portability to their research tools.

I am interested in the opinion of anyone else using a netbook; what are your likes and dislikes, would you recommend to another family historian? Leave your opinions in a comment.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Photo from: Thales Barreto

Technorati Tags: Netbook,School,College,Technology,Note-taking,Genealogy,family history

Microsoft OneNote–syncing to iPhone

I love using Microsoft OneNote and I piggybacked off of a post by Elyse Doerflinger to give my two cents on the program. My feelings have not changed but one thing that I wish it would do is sync with my iPhone so I can view my notes anywhere.

Yes, there is a OneNote app for the iPhone and technically you are supposed to be able to share your notebooks on Microsoft SkyDrive and then have them on the iPhone. Well, it doesn’t work that great. I got a couple notebooks to sync and could view them on the iPhone, so at first, I was pretty excited (I know, it doesn’t take much). However, another notebook will not sync at all. And, when doing the sync process it really slows down my computer and internet. It is to the point that I cannot do anything else on the internet when OneNote is syncing – everything comes up with a big error saying the website is not responding.

Enough of my ranting because this one glitch is not going to make me convert to Evernote or some other note taking software. I can still sync my notebooks between computers using Dropbox. I just don’t have it on my iPhone, which is with me everywhere.

Maybe I should write a post sometime about all the reasons I like OneNote and why I won’t switch, like Elyse did.

Until I write that, is anyone using a note-taker that they truly love and would like to try and convert me? If so, leave some comments.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

Photo by: Speedye

Technorati Tags: Note-taking,software,OneNote,Microsoft

August Objective Update!

August is now half over – where did the month go so fast? I need to provide an update on where we are with the objectives that we set out to complete this month.

First things first – this is the first month that we are trying this new approach to getting things done. Combining these objectives with everything else that needs to get done during the month can seem very overwhelming at times. However, I think we are doing pretty good. We have even used some of the tips/tricks that I talked about in my Genealogy Time Management – Focus post (I would hope that I’m using my own tips/tricks). The main thing that keeps us on track is that I block out time on my calendar to get certain things done. I have time blocked out for homework assignments, family time, and research. I have even added blog posts to my calendar this week because I was neglecting the posts. Enough of the blabbing and on to the update.

1. We will find and write to the local churches to see about a birth record for William Capen. Yeah! We can mark this complete because my wife completed this. We did not find a birth record (boo!) but we did find a record of his baptism in the church register. We will have to add getting a copy of this to our to-do objectives.
2. Relook at the past searches I did for Joseph Lucas’ birth record – see where I need to look next. Not doing so good here – haven’t started but the time is on my calendar for this coming week.
3. Plan the visit to William Capen’s grave and the WWI battlefields which are nearby (this satisfies my military history needs also). Not so good here either but now on my calendar for next week when I am off work for the week (yeah!)
4. Danzig – do some initial probes as to what records are available for this area and the time period we need to look at. Ditto as the previous two objectives

I am going to say that the wife did great because she got something done already. I have to get off my butt and do some of this stuff that I love to do so much. But, that is one of the reasons for this mid-month look at our objectives; keep us on track. I think this ‘look’ has done its job because the lacking objectives are now on my calendar. I just have to stick to the plan as much as possible.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Photo by Matt Carman

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy,Time Management

It Has Got to Get Better!!

I read a post by Cheryl over at 1ancestry2littletime blog last night about how she started her blog on the spur of the moment and really didn’t know what she was doing or where to get help. Well, I think she is doing just fine (better than me) and she offers some great advice for newbie bloggers.

I feel her pain and am in the same boat. I started this blog with some thought as to content and purpose but I did not have posts planned out yet. I just figured I love to write and how hard can it be to write at least one post every week. Oh, how I was wrong. I forgot to think about how time consuming putting meaningful posts together would be.

I also did not think about all the other demands on my time. Like the wife, the kids, work (wish I could quit this), college (2 classes at a time) and the household duties. Things like paying the bills (wish I could quit that, too), mowing the lawn, fixing everything. What about the other hobbies I have that I don’t have time for. Like photography and travel. We are living in Germany and one of my passions is history and there is so many historical sites to see all over the place. Oh, and fall sports start in two weeks and all the kids are participating and all in a different activity; Nathan in soccer, Tyler in flag football, and Katie in cheerleading. Oh, I so hope they are all on different days and times, too. That will help my time management woes so very much. I didn’t even mention the family history research also. Oh yeah, I do need to sleep also, right?

So, all of these demands on my time that I didn’t think about when I decided to start this blog. But, I really love writing and family history so blogging is a way to put the two together and also get some much needed writing practice. Plus, I get a great feeling when I can finally hit that publish button after working on a post. However, truth be told, blogging is strictly self-imposed time.

All the other demands on my time have a higher power that I must answer to if they don’t get done; my wife, boss, or professor. And most of those things-to-do have specific deadlines to meet. With the blog, I am only answering to myself so when something needs to slip because I’ve run out of time, it is the first to go.

I’ve written a couple other posts on time management (Genealogy Time Management and Focus) but just can’t seem to pull it all together. Every thing else other than the blogging time is working pretty well. I need to figure this out because I will not fail at this blog.

I am curious how all you other more successful bloggers fit the post writing into your busy schedules. Please leave me suggestions in comments.

Thanks for reading - keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

I would like to thank Cheryl of 1ancestry2littletime for the inspiration for this post.

Photos by me.

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy,Writing

Note Taking

I just read a post over at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog about using Microsoft OneNote and have to put a plug in for it. Along with her I have been using OneNote for classwork and am now playing with OneNote to see how best to use it for my genealogy notes. One thing that I do like about OneNote is that there are plugins for Firefox (my preferred browser) that allow me to right-click any webpage and send it right into OneNote. Makes saving information so easy. I can’t wait to read more of what Elyse says about OneNote.

Thanks for stoppin by and keep diggin for that family,

Chris

Photo by: MEDEA Malmö

Genealogy Time Management–Focus

I said that I would be trying out the concepts of the article by Patricia Law Hatcher that I mentioned in my post Genealogy Time Management. However, before I can really get into her concepts I decided that for this to work for me then I must define some of her key concepts for the plan. The first will be focus.

We have all experienced the lack of focus in our research. In today’s age of computer and internet research it is too easy to get distracted and then all of a sudden you are looking at records of ancestors that in no way connect to what you originally set out to find.

What I propose to do in order to get focused is first establish some goals and objectives for my research. My goals will be something that I want to conquer within the next six months to a year. Monthly, I will establish some objectives to complete that will bring me closer to those goals. Establishing these objectives will pinpoint specific things I must know or find in order to meet that goal. They will give me just one thing to concentrate on during a research session.

Now that I will have goals for the year and objectives for the upcoming month I can actually get down to doing some research. But finding the time for this is much easier said than done as I’m sure most family historians will attest to. However, as Ms. Hatcher suggests in her article, I will schedule this time each week and if something comes up that interferes then I will reschedule my research time immediately.

We have kids so our house isn’t the most optimum place to have the peace and quiet needed to actually get some good research done. So me and the wife are going to have to work together in order to schedule our time. I can take the kids out to the park on Sunday afternoon while she stays home and dives into her research. She can do the same thing for me. Or maybe we both get the kids ready for bed and tucked in and then take an hour or two at night to conduct some research. It can work if we just work together and make a commitment to it.

The final thing I want to discuss is my plan for dealing with the inevitable distracting record or article that will grasp my attention. I do not want to ignore a possible find so I need to do something with it right when I see it. So, I will always keep a separate pad of paper or my todo list handy during research. When I come across that possible record that is not what I am looking for I can make a quick note of what it is, what it may tell me, and where to find it again. That should take all but 2 minutes to complete and is now a todo for a future session. If I capture the possible find information in this way then it should clear my mind so I can press ahead with my original search.

To recap, here is a summary of the concepts I must master to get focused:

1. Establish my goals and objectives
2. Concentrate on one objective for each research session
3. Schedule the session on my calendar
4. Deal with distractions immediately by adding to my todo list

If I can do what I just talked about then I can maintain the focus I need in order to make great use of the limited time I have to devote to my family history research each week.

I am curious how others with limited time each week maintains their focus so please leave a comment with your ideas.

Thanks for listening and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Technorati Tags: Genealogy,Family History,Time management

Google Earth for Genealogy

A couple weeks ago I was reading through blogs and came across Deb Ruth’s Adventures in Genealogy blog and she was telling us about the Google Earth for Genealogists webinar she attended. So I followed the link and downloaded it. Today, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing.

The webinar is put on by Lisa Louise Cooke who also runs the Genealogy Gems podcasts. I have used Google Earth before but not really that much and I didn’t play with all the features. I just thought it was another of those online mapping sites. Was I ever wrong.

Lisa Louise Cooke does a great job showing how we can use Google earth to help in our family history quest. She goes through how to use it for identifying the location a picture was taken at, which was my favorite part. And then she goes into using and making map overlays, presentations of your ancestors lives, etc…

I am currently in a place with a very slow internet connection and only my little netbook so I can’t really try out all the cool tricks she showed on Google Earth, but you can bet I’ll be trying them out  when I am back home in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to Adventures in Genealogy and Lisa Louise Cooke for showing this to me.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin for that family.

Chris

Photo by: tonynetone