2. Goals
Organize your research
Important tasks done first
Basic research books
Basic websites
Basic forms
3. Twenty-five Steps
Five things to do NOW
Five books
Five websites
Five forms
Five directions
4. Five things to do NOW
Interview living relatives (including yourself)
Centralize all your information
Set-up a consistent filing system
Digitize and backup it up (copy offsite)
Locate local historical/genealogical society/library
5. Interviews
Write your own stories down
Make an appointment
Make a list of questions to ask
Begin on time and end on time
Sensitive to the use of equipment
Ask open-ended questions
How did you meet your husband?
Object-based questions
Photographs, heirlooms
6. Photographs & Heirlooms
Take pictures of heirloom items, record info
Identify photographs
Who?
When?
What?
Why?
Digitize
Camera
Scanner
8. Centralize Your Information
Photographs, Documents, Notes
Sort by
Surname
Couple
Chronological Order
File papers
Binder with sheet protectors
Scan everythiwng into computer/cloud
Date_AboutWho_WhatItIs
1870_KirbyMartin_NZBirthCert
9. Filing System
Binder vs. Computer or both?
Binder advantages
Portable
Easy to see
Binder disadvantages
Can become heavy and cumbersome to carry
Can be lost or ruined
Computer advantages
Automated chronology
Find holes in research
Easy to change information
Scans can be imported and attached to info in program
Computer program disadvantages
Backups needed
No fun to enter research
Combination can work
10. Get a Baseline of Information
Enter everything into your GCP
(“Genealogy Computer Program”)
Updated Family Group sheet(s)
Updated Pedigree chart(s)
Updated Timeline
11. Digitize and Back It Up
Weather happens
Natural disasters happen
Divorces happen
Electronic files
Google Drive
The Next Generation Genealogy Sitebuilding
Flash drives
Picasaweb
12. A Word About Sourcing
Who it’s about
What it says
When the event happened
Where the event happened
MAKE SURE YOU CAN FIND IT AGAIN
Or that the next researcher can
Mastering Genealogical Proof, Thomas W. Jones
Who/What/When/WhereIS/WhereIN
13. Network & Learn
Association of Professional Genealogists
National Genealogical Society
Federation of Genealogical Societies
Board of Certification of Genealogists
Local/regional genealogical societies
15. Five Books
Ancestry’s Red Book
Map Guide to the 1790-1920 Census
Reading Early American Handwriting
Evidence! or Evidence Explained
The Hidden Half of the Family
16. Ancestry’s Red Book
• Map of Counties for each state
•When established/parent counties
•Beginning dates of:
•Land records
•Court records
•Probate records
•History of each state
•Vital records
•Census records: federal and state
•Special census schedules
•Agricultural
•Industry
•Mortality
•Slave schedules
•Union Veterans
•Background sources
•Cemetery, church, military records
•Periodicals, newspapers and
manuscripts
•Special focus groups
17. Ancestry’s Red Book
Census Records – New Hampshire:
Population Schedules:
1790-1930 available with index/soundex
Industry and Agricultural Schedules
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880
Mortality Schedules
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880
Union Veterans Schedules
1890
18. Additional Census Information
Par t of 1800 and 1820 census records no longer in
existence
Towns in Rockingham County in 1800 NOT included
are:
Atkinson, GREENLAND, Hampton, Hampton
Falls, Londonderry, Northampton, Pelham, Plaistow, Sal
em, Seabrook, Stratham, and Windham.
Important to READ the ENTIRE section
19. Map Guide to 1790-1920…
•County boundary changes
•For all states
•For all census years 1790 to
1920
•For territories including
Indian lands and other
land purchases
•Looking for ancestors
and cannot find them –
check to make sure you’re
in the right county.
20. Reading Early American
Handwriting
•Court Hand
•Boilerplate for legal documents
•Weird words
•L.S. = Locus Sigilli (place of the
seal)
•SS = Supra Scriptum (as written
above), looks like ff when written
•Not to be confused with ff as in
Masfachusetts where second “f” is
actually an “s”
•Sample Alphabets and Handwriting
•Sample transcriptions of legal
documents
21. The Hidden Half of the Family
•State Information including
•Important dates in history
•Marriage and Divorce (record
keeping, laws, where the records are)
•Property and Inheritance (women’s
legal status in each state)
•Suffrage (voting rights)
•Citizenship
•Census Information
•Other events affecting women’s legal
status
•Resources for women’s history.
•Read. The. Introduction.
36. Five Forms
Pedigree Chart
Family Group Sheet
Individual Timeline
Records Checklist
Military Checklist
NB: No predesigned record forms
37. Family Group Sheet
By couple
Includes children, parents, spouses
Birth, marriage, death
Religious sacraments
Burial information
See at a glance family information
38. Timeline
Date
Age
Event
Place
Source
Finding large holes in your research
Child bearing years
Additional spouses, etc.
43. Five Directions to Go
(Traditional Focus)
Work all family lines back to 1800
Publish a history of a surname from an immigrant
forward to today
“All of my Civil War ancestors”
“All of my Revolutionary War Ancestors”
My Anderson Family
44. ARTsignment Bonus - Focus
Grab a piece of paper and some markers, crayons, pens
Draw a tree
Draw a shape at the bottom for your name
Draw two shapes above that for your parents
Draw two shapes above your mother for her parents, do the same for your
father
Draw two shapes above each of your grandparents for their parents
Fill in the names that you know, find out the ones that you don’t
As you read the names, what image or images come to mind for you for each?
In art history, we would call these attributes. People who are known for their
symbols – Mary Magdelene for her jar of oil, St. Jerome for his lion, St. Peter for
his keys (to the kingdom of heaven), etc. Predominately Christian iconography
in the Renaissance where this is really prevalent, but symbolism in art is in all
art including yours.
Symbols give you talking points about your family history that are more than
just names and dates. They are creating memories and sharing a unique
history – the history of you.
45. Conclusion
No single “final goal” for working on your genealogy
What does it mean for YOU?
Questions?