Organizing and Writing your Family History – Start Small

One of the continuing issues in our genealogy club meetings is how to organize research material. Once material is organized, then it becomes easier to write up a family history, something many people are afraid to do.

We are having our annual round table discussion this evening, so I will use my three minutes to show the different ways I have used to keep my research organized, which becomes a natural springboard to writing. I will also volunteer to work one-on-one with anyone needing help writing their family history.

This blog came to mind this morning after I received Penny Stratton’s NEHGS blog, “Writing Family History: Start Small.” From an article she read, one quote by John Bond caught her eye, and I think it is worth repeating here: “You are doing a service by leaving a legacy, no matter how small or large.”

Every genealogy conference we attend there is a session on the importance of writing your family history. Genealogy research is never complete, but it is important for segments of your research to be made available for other researchers. Therein is the value of monographs.

Write up what you have. Tell the story of your ancestors. The process will become easier the more you do it. And writing provides another benefit. Through that process you will immediately know the holes in your research.

Genealogy Research Organization – Simple, Consistent, and Maintainable

Genealogists before Julie Miller's presentation

I debated whether I wanted to attend this particular session at the National Genealogical Society Conference held last week in Richmond, VA.  The topic, “Organizing Your Research,” was presented by Julie Miller (JPMResearch.com).

Inherently I am a very organized person, but I'm always seeking new and better ways to arrange my research.  Julie’s presentation was a good reminder for me to revisit my files and carefully read the documents with fresh eyes and with a more experienced mind.

Julie began her presentation suggesting three goals: Keep your research files Simple, Consistent, and Maintainable.

Develop a Style Guide.  Set out a block of time when you make decisions on how you are going to deal with any number of issues. Will you spell out state names or use their abbreviation? When a maiden name is not known will you put – Mary [unknown] or use some other term?  Type up citation examples so you can easily copy/paste into your document and just change the particulars for each citation.  This is especially useful for the census.  A Style Guide will provide you with consistency that will save you many hours of editing in the future. The recommended reference books for style and citations are Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills, and the Chicago Manual of Style. 

Research organization.  Julie showed examples of the Binder Method and the File Draw Method.  If you wish to keep your research in a 3-Ring Binder, go for the extra wide. You will need dividers, sheet protectors, spine labels and a helpful label maker.  For the File Draw Method, you will need hanging folders, archival file folders, archival pencils and pens.  As information on a particular family line grows, additional file folders can be set up for individuals you are researching.  The same would go for the Binder Method.  No need to run that census off for all the folks mentioned.  Insert in primary ancestor and put a cross-reference note in the others.

General Genealogy Research Files.  My husband and I both had files containing general genealogy information on using the census, ethnic research, writing, researching in Connecticut, etc.  We combined our files and now have two pendaflex files containing labeled file folders arranged alpha by topic.  Don’t have a “miscellaneous” file.

Digitize and Backup.  Digitize as much material as you can. Photograph heirlooms.  Label everything.  Then make sure you back up regularly.  Back up to an external hard drive, flash drive, or use the cloud. You can also email your documents to yourself for retrieval should your computer fail.

Keeping Track of Your Books.  Julie suggested using Library Thing for keeping track of the books in your personal library to prevent you from purchasing the same book again.

Although this session was the last one attended, it was the first one we both put into practice as soon as we arrived home Saturday afternoon.  We have our general research files set up, I removed files not genealogy related from the top drawer of my filing cabinet and replaced them with my family files for easy accessibility.  I will be photographing, documenting my heirlooms. I will also go through all my notebooks and cut out family research pages and place them in the appropriate family files.  Then I will concentrate on updating my Style Sheet.  Thank you, Julie Miller. 

Rainy Days Equals Genealogy Organization

I love rainy days!  I love to be inside warmed by a cozy fire and accomplishing all sorts of projects – and, of course, many of those are genealogy related!

One of my genealogy goals for 2011 is to produce a monograph of the Hardenbrook family line. I have a lot of research written up, but it now needs fact checking, photos, and the next step, a deeper level of research, i.e. land and probate records.  I continue to search for the reason as to why they traveled north to Seneca County, NY.  Was it availability of bounty lands, the rumor of available fertile farmland, or some other reason?

It became evident I needed to better organize the research materials I had put into a three-ring research binder. I took everything out and sorted by individual names, and then filed them back into the binder now separated by labeled tab file dividers.  The first page of my binder is the list of local history/genealogy information sheet for Seneca County kindly sent to me by the librarian at the Edith Ford Library in Ovid, New York.  Next are pages of cemetery listings where I found Hardenbrooks and associated families buried.  At the very back of the binder is a tab labeled, “Related Articles,” which contains items that may or may not be relevant. One woman interested in my Hardenbrook research sent me her article on the Dey Family of Bergen County, NJ and Seneca County, NY. At this point I don’t think there is a link, but one never knows.  I do appreciate her suggestions and interest.

This reorganization project provided me the opportunity to revisit much of the research I had done over the past few years, and can now view from a different perspective. It also allows me to fact check easier – when I see a statement, date or citation, I go immediately to the person’s section in my research binder and double check.

Aesthetics is important to me: the Hardenbrook genealogy resides in a sage green three ring binder featuring a color photo of my Grandmother Laura Wortman Hardenbook featured on the cover with her “famous” saying – “I will never give up the Hardenbrook name.”  The Hardenbrook research binder is white with a clip art tree on the cover sheet and spine labeled “Hardenbrook Family Research Documents.”  When I make a research trip for this family all I will need is the two binders.

I realize now that I should go through this process with each family line – how many rainy days will we have?