GENEALOGY Do-Over, Weeks 11 & 12: Breathing time!

Look how close we are to finishing this group of topics!  I've been finding the last few weeks significantly easier than the first few weeks:
Week 11 - Reviewing Social Media Options; Building a Research Network
Week 12 - Sharing Research; Reviewing Research Travel Options

Here's my brief summary of my SOCIAL MEDIA options, with my own information.  As for who I follow - too many to list.  It's my particular research and educational network - sometimes depending on the particular area and problem.  So I've somewhat skipped over RESEARCH NETWORK here:

• I have two BLOGS:  Twigs and Trees, my personal genealogy blog, and Terwilliger Souvenir Album, which is a page-by-page inventory of my great-grandfather's Album.
• I TWEET using TweetDeck:  @celialewis  - on many eclectic topics, #genealogy, #writing, and various science and STEM topics. Whatever catches my eye and fills my buckets. 
• I am on FACEBOOK as Celia Lewis - but it is focused on family, friends, cousins, other romance writers and writing colleagues, plus some few genealogists I follow. Not strictly genealogy, because I have several other passions (I know, you're cringing aren't you?!).  I also copy my two genealogy blog posts on my Facebook page, to intrigue my cousins and kids!  Looking for someone to pick up the passion, eventually.
• I'm on GOOGLE PLUS [G+]  as +CeliaLewis, and we'll see what changes may be taking place there later this year. This is a major source of morning wonders for me, as well as a quick check-through on people I love to follow - genealogy, nature, photographs [of birds, insects, various animals], sciences, geology, astronomy, and more.
• I have a Genealogy Board on PINTEREST  as CeliaWinky - along with other Boards of my special interests. 'Winky' by the way, is my Grandma Winky name.
• I follow about a dozen YOUTUBE genealogists or companies for genealogy education purposes. Of course, I also follow quite different people for jazz/folk/old-time blues music, spirituality support, and more.
• I follow half a dozen or so of genealogists' blogs and posts, including BLOG-TALK RADIO and other PODCASTS, particularly those with their unique educational flavour to their genealogy and history.  

You get the picture.  Social Media and I are pretty friendly, even though I'm not on "everything" social, nor am I an expert.  I do feel comfortable digging around on different social media sites, for what I'm learning or struggling with.

In RESEARCH SHARING - I am tagging all my photos correctly, finally.  There are a few which I am going to be marking as my own personal photographs, therefore they are copyright (with explanations).  I have already requested permission to share several photos of my son-in-law's great-grandparents and received permission along with some additional information and a friendly connection.  I've been doing this for some time now, so I am only being more detailed, more thorough, and going back through my older items.

I keep my own family tree on my computer [thoroughly backed up in 3 ways], in either of 3 or 4 different programs. I use Legacy as my primary program, but move the tree back and forth to the others for learning purposes as well as to access different reports, etc.  At least once a year, I teach genealogy for beginners so I try to understand the programs likely used by students.

I have my Ancestry online family tree set as private but searchable by others;  my family & cousins have access (but not edit rights). I have had a number of requests to view my tree, almost all of which I have approved. In a couple of cases, the requester had the wrong person for their family (which I could see very easily when I looked at their family tree online), so I gave him/her some hints on where to be looking instead.

I post on several Message Boards regularly, updating the post yearly or so, in hopes of finding cousins.

Re the online tree: events, places, names - if I am unsure of them, I usually mark as NOT PROVEN, or unsourced. That way, anyone seeing them will be aware of the caution and not simply copy. Truthfully, most people requesting to see my tree are looking for 1600s to late 1700s ancestors, and the research for that era can be challenging. I've received some wonderful old maps and sketches from 'relatives' of my direct ancestors, by asking very nicely if they could let me know how I could find that oh-so-wonderful land map of the late 1600, for example. I received direct links to not only the land map, but half a dozen more great documents directly related to the common ancestor we shared. I love sharing.

As for RESEARCH TRAVEL - that is a big dream of mine.  However, the reality of my situation since retirement in 2008 is that being retired with no pension or assets and therefore with a miniscule budget for "extras" means I tend to spend money on monthly costs I can budget: monthly Ancestry, monthly Evernote, monthly FindMyPast, monthly LegacyWebinars, etc. You get the picture. Saving money per month for anything larger than say, $50 or so, is out of the question.  With no financial buffer, I get wiped out any month there's an unusual expense or a yearly expense, like the genealogy society memberships (4), or medications needed after my recent eye surgery, or the veterinarian cost/meds for my bird the other week. Life. It is what it is.

I do have a dream list of what I'd like to do for genealogy research travel, of course.  Why not dream?  Who knows?  One day "someone" may make me a gift of enough money to travel, maybe $400-$800 should more than do one or two, I think:
1.  5-8 days at Salt Lake City Library - maybe every year or two! September?  March?
2.  Southern California Jamboree - held in June each year
3.  RootsTech - February 2016
4.  A ramble over various places of my Northeastern USA 1600-1700 ancestors: PA, ME, NJ, NY, and CT. April or May would be good months, eh?
5.  A trip across the pond to Barrow In Furness Lancashire, then to the Black Midlands to Dudley/Netherton Worcestershire, with a stop in Islay for a wonderful single-malt scotch tour [big dream], and then to Northern Ireland to County Tyrone as well as Belfast.
6.  Well, if I'm going across the pond, obviously I should hit London once more (I was here for 13 days back in the 1990s), and visit the Society of Genealogists, and the British Library, as well as...

In the meantime, my Do-Over Legacy tree is coming along, slowly and carefully.  And I'm constantly reviewing how to make the original Master Source, then make the correct Citations - I'd done it completely wrong in my old tree.  Basic misunderstanding of how to do what!

I'm using my son-in-law's family tree as a perfect way to START RIGHT!  My documents for my his family tree are correctly labeled and filed, ditto for the photographs and maps. I'm actively using the Research Logs I've made, including the document log  - Excel is my friend indeed. Oh, and isn't it fun to colour-code the tabs? Very cool!

All in all, I'm very pleased I started this Do-Over process. My desk is tidier than ever, as a bonus. Through the year, I'm going to be working my way through my old tree and all my documents, maps, books, and other miscellaneous items for my genealogy. Tune in next year, to see what I've accomplished! A huge Thank You to Thomas MacEntee for suggesting this incredible journey.

You can contact me via calewis at telus dot net or via Comments below, and hopefully Google is letting me reply to comments. There was a problem when I updated, and I'm still trying to figure out which defaults got changed!! So if I don't reply to your Comment, know that I'm totally thrilled that you came to read my post and commented! You make my day.

GENEALOGY DO-OVER, Week 8 - How is it going?

Week 8 in the Genealogy Do-Over, and given the challenges I had with my eye surgery and post-surgery recovery time, I'm doing very well indeed!!

Week 8 focuses on two important research tools:
1.  Conducting Collateral Research, and
2.  Researching Offline Education Opportunities.

Tick!  Yes, I have researched collateral relatives family details as much as I have been able to find, for over 10 years.  Sometimes that has been the only way I found where a family originated from, or gained an understanding of the occupations of the family members.  Frequently looking through collateral relatives has helped me decide if a particular family group IS or IS NOT my ancestors - names, occupations, religions, neighbours - these details and more are so helpful. I keep details on my full family tree, and considered them "family" just as much as the direct ancestors.

In general I go up a few generations, and down several generations as well.  For my various Grover Buel(l) ancestors, I had to use collateral relatives' details in order to make sense of the line. And then I followed down the collateral relatives to see if any others kept up using the surname Grover as a forename.  The collateral relatives' research was  necessary also as I struggled to dig through the tangled lives of the several Archibald "Archer" Walters men, their parents and their children.   So this 'new' learning was actually old-hat for me, and all I'm doing is making certain that I have indeed done the research, and clarified the in-laws and out-laws!

Oh Dear:  The second point about researching offline education opportunities - this is significantly more difficult for me.  Retired on no pension, living with my youngest son who is unable to work competitively, means I have such a squeaky budget that my so-called disposable income is tiny.  I have to figure out where to spend it, and sometimes I decide to spend it on a haircut, or on tickets to Bard on the Beach in the summertime in Vancouver.  These are choices, of course, and I could choose to pinch even tighter to see if I could pull enough dollars together for a conference out of province.  Don't hold your breath!  I love conferences, but this is unlikely.

I have my BC Genealogy Society I belong to, attending meetings as well as some of the special events we put on.  The LDS Tri-Stake one-day Conference held here in the Lower Mainland (Surrey, BC) in October is one I attend almost every year.

But I have my list of want-to-attend conferences, with these two at the top of the list:  RootsTech, Jamboree (SCGS).  And wouldn't it be a treat to go to England for their huge Who Do You Think You Are conference?  Then again, there's the pull of visiting Northern Ireland... I would love to travel to my great-grandparents' village of Augher in County Tyrone, to see if I could find "something" about the Armstrong and Gillespie families there.

One day...  In the meantime, doing my second year of #52Ancestors posts on my blog, Twigs and Trees, gives me a weekly opportunity to research one ancestor at a time and save documents, maps, books, photos, "properly" - labelled correctly in a standardized way, as well as use my new habit of adding to my Research Log(s), To Do lists, Document Sources to cite.  I can't believe how easy it is becoming to do this in a methodical organized fashion.  Every time.

Amazing.  Thanks to all the helpful genealogy people on the Genealogy Do-Over Facebook group for their great templates, suggestions, helpful hints and examples. You're a great community.

And a huge THANK YOU to Thomas MacEntee for proposing such a crazy idea of actually "doing over" our genealogy tree and research work. Definitely crazy - definitely worth doing, and not as difficult as I thought it would be!

GENEALOGY DO-OVER - Update

My Do-Over:

I'm feeling a mass of mixed feelings:  pride, consternation, relief, hope, frustration, and more!!

• My new tree is slowly growing, person by person by person, details by details.
• I have practical detailed research logs modified to my liking (love Excel)(Thank You, Thomas).
• I'm using several new tools such as Evernote to help this process. 
• My Research Toolbox is slowly being added to as I go along in researching, using every opportunity to see if something might be helpful.
• My newly named and organized files make better sense to me and are easier to use. 
• All documents I find are properly listed-cited-saved-named in my new naming system recommended by several genealogists:  SURNAME, First Name(s) - Date - ITEM, Place - Other imp't details if needed. (Thank you Miriam & Diana, others). 
• All maps, photographs and more are also listed and named in a similar fashion. 
• All documents are properly put into my Sources template with appropriate person details (Thank you Thomas once more).

Wow.  I love it!  It's all making so much more sense to me now, as I move along. No more repeat searching for a detail in the same database, or searching higgledy-piggledy, or getting distracted by all those new bright shiny things. In comparison with the past decade of genealogy work, I feel calmer when I research now, more purposeful!! Wonderful.

But...

Two weeks ago I had intra-ocular surgery to remove an epiretinal membrane growing rapidly in my right eye, which is the 'only' eye with good vision. My left does peripheral vision - I suspect there's very little real estate in the brain for signals from that eye!  Currently, I have dozens of floaters which make reading challenging, but I know they will slowly be dealt with as my eye clears them out. We live in wonderful times where I don't have to go blind slowly! And living in BC, my only expenses were $58 for two eye drop preparations. Our taxes at work. Thank heavens.

Because of the eye issues, I wasn't able to do much computer work this past 10 days - and then my hard drive and one RAM unit died... fixed now with help from my friend, wearing one of his hats as a computer tech guy, and it's back to normal but better! (Thank you Dallas).

I'm quite happy with my results to date, and think I have a handle on what used to cause me to get so frustrated and disappointed with my work.  I also realize I'm essentially a disorganized visual-oriented person, so any system has to be very simple, very clear, in only 1 or 2 steps.  So far so good.

I'm sliding behind in the Do-Over weeks, but I truly don't give a darn, because I'd already decided this Do-Over will take as long as it will take.  I'm not in a competition with others, nor trying to race through the work to be done and dashing through a learning process. It will likely take all year or so.

Thanks for all the great ideas and suggestions on the Facebook page, plus I learn a lot by reading about others' problems or challenges.  Learning comes from many sources, eh?

Let's see how I do by another 5 weeks or so.  It's a great journey I'm on.  Feel free to add your comments or suggestions below - I love to know people have been by.  

A Good Start: my Genealogy Do-Over, 2 weeks in...

I decided to jump into Thomas MacEntee's Geneablogger "GENEALOGY DO-OVER" hoping to learn - or re-learn - how to organize efficiently, research more efficiently, and start using Research Logs & To-Do lists.  I think I was hiding behind the door when organizational skills were being handed out, and this challenge has dogged me all through my life.  But I'm improving, and of course, these dead people aren't going anywhere so I'm hopeful.  I do virtually everything online, so I have very little in paper; instead, my disorganization shows up on my computer! Messy, messy, messy, with duplications.

Pre-Do-Over:  I once again watched a Legacy webinar about using EVERNOTE, with Lisa Louise Cooke.  I'm now using Evernote consistently, and rather than trying to make Notebooks (folders, in other words), I am tagging with several tags as necessary for me e.g., one document about a great-greatgrandfather's document: GENEALOGY SURNAMES, England, Ireland, GILLESPIE, Research  As you can probably see, I need every tag I can think of in order to find items without making my Evernote filing system as bad as my original digital files.

I made a new folder "2015 Genealogy Do-Over", inserting the following three folders, to start with:

2015 GENEALOGY SURNAMES-Documents 
Already there are 7 Surname folders tucked inside to date, and I'm adding as I go...
2015 GENEALOGY PHOTOGRAPHS
2015 Do-Over Resource sheets   These specific resources have come from Thomas as well as additional individuals on the Facebook page or, from previous webinars and other sources. I'm a bit of a packrat about resources!

I will likely need to add separate folders for Maps, Books, and perhaps other topics. I definitely do not want everything filed by surname, as I simply don't think that way - I need to know I'm looking for e.g., a Map, and go directly to one folder, not dig through various surname folders!

I downloaded FolderMarker, (free) which can colour folders, put icons on folders (including numbers), and do much more.  I am beginning to use a colouring system to help me navigate effectively. So far, so good.

I also made an entirely new family tree in Legacy software, titled "New File Do-Over".  Then I was ready to go!

First, I moved my (old) Genealogy folder (which includes everything) over to my GoogleDrive where I had a good amount of space. It's now called "HOLD - FOR DO-OVER - GENEALOGY". And it's marked with a red triangle warning me to not go into it except for rare, very specific documents.

Secondly, I took time to decide on a simplified but detailed document naming system for each document. Several professional genealogists and others on the Do-Over Facebook page highly recommended doing the following [but with no punctuation]:
SURNAME, Name - Date (I'm using YYYY MON DA) - Item, Place (City,Co,Shire/Prov/State, Country [if needed])
e.g., KING, George - 1626 Dec 7 - Burial, London, Middlesex, England
e.g., VASSALL, Anna - 1593 Jan 10 - Baptism, Stepney, Middlesex, England

Whew. That was a big decision! I've begun to use this modified system - although most people said there should be no punctuation, I need to see sections set off. We're all unique, and this is needed for me.

Thirdly, I pulled out Thomas' Research Log (an Excel version) which I had downloaded over a year ago and never used.  I'd looked at it and thought about it, but never tried using it.  What was I thinking! I took a problem I was having in proving a particular relationship between a woman and her father in the 1700s, filled in the details, the questions, the clues I thought I might have from specific documents found to date...

This practice research helped me see I would need to modify the log in a few ways - mainly back to my (a) vision issues, and (b) my organizational issues.  Everything needs to be totally visible all at once and clearly seen.  Luckily with two screens, (one of them a nice large one I received when I retired), I can work on one screen, while keeping a tree software program open on the other screen, to check back and forth.

I now have several Research Plans from the Logs I have written out. Nice. This will definitely be helpful. I already feel relieved and relaxed about using the Log. Thanks for the template, Thomas!

Fourthly, I have added myself to the new tree, adding all details of education, birth, marriage+divorce, children, surgeries, and little stories as I thought of them. Already I think I need to have a Folder, "My Story", for my children and grandchildren.  Where else will they learn about playing jacks, Red Rover, Kick the Can, or my favourite 1-2-3 a'larrio ball game I could play by myself or, about my favourite little kids' book, Miss Sniff, which had velvety texture on all the cats/kittens?  Or the odd jobs I had over the years?  Hmmm. This is looking like another separate project to work on - perhaps next year!!  But, first I need to continue the work on getting my tree (and my children's father's tree) in shape, plus have my documents etc. in good enough shape that they will make sense to others who follow me.  

I'm doing more than the above four items this week, continuing with learning more, carefully working with what I'm learning, and making this Do-Over work for me in my own particular way.  Every person doing genealogy has different experiences, skills, and talents, so I've seen how everyone is doing their own do-over, uniquely.  So far, I'm enjoying it immensely. Slow but steady - that's me!

52 WEEKS, 52 THEMES : No.1, FRESH START (mine)

In 2014, Amy Johnson Crow set out a year-long challenge: Write something about "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks". Whew & Yeah!!  I did it.  It was a tremendous challenge, and I accomplished it, week by week by week.  And along the way I found some mistakes or mixups between same-name relatives, limited searches in the past, general sloppiness, incomplete details, and more.

Here we are again.  2015, and a new challenge for 52 Weeks:  a new THEME to write on, each week. No. 1 Theme is "Fresh Start" - and I'm choosing to start with my own Fresh Start, with two parts to this post. 

First:  In terms of genealogy, oh my do I need a Fresh Start!  I need to tidy my digital clutter, eliminate all the duplicates, name things in a consistent fashion, fill in names/places/dates in an absolutely consistent way as well.  There's more, but the bottom line is - my family tree (which includes my children's father's tree as well) could do with a lot of cleaning up and polishing.  I suspect it will be a year-long task for me.

I've joined up with over 1,150 other genealogy nuts, committed to do a personal variation of "Genealogy Do-Over" under Thomas MacEntee's direction. I've even talked a friend into joining it, plus found two other people I know who will be participating in some fashion as well.  A community.  A smorgasbord of many ways to "do-over" one's genealogy. Love it! 

I'm trying to go slowly - it barely got started on Friday!  But I'm only too aware of the failings of my digital clutter, as listed above.  I have copied my GENEALOGY folder to my Google Drive, since there was room.  Almost out of sight.  I'm not the most organized person - my adult kids are snorting right now if they're reading the post! - but I've improved a lot over the past few years. 

Slowly I'm going to read Thomas' points, think about them, see if and how I might incorporate those ideas into my genealogy.  Slowly.  Then I'll think some more, and very slowly, begin to make everything a little more organized, more accessible, more understandable for others, for the long term.  Because you know and I know, I won't be around forever, and I hope my kids & their kids will enjoy poking through the histories of our family lines - and making sense of what they find.  

And here's the Second part to this post.  Genealogy all by itself gave me another fresh start in life when I began over a decade ago, some years before I retired.  I'd experienced severe emotional abuse from my mother for most of my early life, into my mid-teens, which reverberated throughout my life for years. Nasty demeaning soul-tearing experiences... and mothers aren't supposed to be mean like that, are they?!  Luckily, a few decades ago, the BC Medical Plan paid for twice-weekly psychiatrist visits for years - which helped immensely.  It was so reassuring to find someone competent whom I trusted.

So the original reason I wanted to get into my family history was truly to understand that I came from a much larger 'family' than just my 'difficult' mother and father.  I wanted to know there was a bigger family history which influenced our ancestors and their ancestors and their... 

At this point in time, I can tell you that I am feeling hugely settled inside, more emotionally balanced. And I can see the many lines, the many ancestors who contributed to the making of "me".  It has been a very heartening experience, to learn about the challenges, histories, and lives of so many of my ancestors. Fascinating and instructive.  

Fresh Starts.  They come in many forms. Next week, the theme is "Kings"... hmmm.  I'm off to look at my ancestors now.