1. Christine Sharbrough, CGSM
www.genearchibrarian.wordpress.com

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

7. Documents & Heirlooms
 Who?
 What?
 Where?
 When?
 Digitize
 Express an interest

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

14. Five Books You Need in
Your Personal Library

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.

22. Sourcing:
Evidence! or Evidence Explained

23. Five Websites
 Ancestry.com
 AmericanAncestors.org (NEHGS)
 FamilySearch.org
 Wiki.FamilySearch.org
 Findagrave.com

24. Ancestry.com

25. Ancestry’s Card Catalog

27. American Ancestors

29. FamilySearch.org

32. Wiki.FamilySearch.org
Search for
resources by
place
Beginning,
intermediate
classes streaming
video
Research
Outlines

33. FindAGrave.com
Search for
individuals
Search for
famous/infamous
Search for sites
Sign up for “cool
tools!”

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.

40. Pedigree Chart

41. Military Checklist
http://www.familytreemagazinemagazine.com/info/recordworksheets

42. Records
Checklist

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?