I've now been blogging for 3 weeks or 21 days about Family History Research and guess what? I've only touched the tip of the iceberg on what is available. More material is being added DAILY in the form of personal webpages, blogs, and actual digitized resources to search. You could get lost surfing in the Internet for your ancestors and never be missed (unless your spouse or family noticed your absence.)
What's to be done to prevent wasting your valuable time searching without any results? HAVE A PLAN-don't look for every surname on your family tree, pick just one branch to research. Then be SPECIFIC-what info are you missing? A death date for great grandpa? Well, then don't look for his birth record but focus on obituaries, death certificates and cemeteries just in the area where he possibly died. Always check HOME SOURCES first before turning to the INTERNET. Then try a GOOGLE SEARCH before checking out some of the websites I've suggested previously: www.familysearch.org, www.ancestry.com, www.cyndislist.org, www.usgenweb.com, www.rootsweb.com among others. (Click on links for more info.)
Keep good notes in some kind of a RESEARCH LOG so you know where you've looked and jot down any ideas as you're working on where to check next...a TO DO list. Remember census records can be great clues if you're searching in America as to where your ancestors lived. This is like a mystery to solve. One thing leads to another until you discover the facts needed. Sometimes you'll find you need to write letters to Courthouses or make a visit in person or hire a researcher to find info for you. Maybe you'll get lucky and find an Internet cousin or two. Good luck!
We had some friends drop by last night...had a large pot of your m meatball soup in the crok port so they stayed for an inpromtu dinner with us. Between bites we began to talk about the geneology class they just signed up for. First day and they were already exasperated at the amount of ....uhhh.... brain burp, ....
ReplyDeleterepetition involved in family history research. He says that a vast amount of geneology has been done on his side of the family, for many, many generations back. His frustration comes from having to go through all of that stuff to find anyone or anything new. Does he? Is it really necessary to wade through work that's been done over and over? Just wondering...
I told him all about you and your articles. Im going to try and figure out how to copy your articles for him. With your permission, of course. I think you've got such great information in your posts!
mmeatball soup in the crok port??? Wha??? Let me clarify for you. We had meatball soup in the crock pot. he meatball soup I wanted to feed to my good frienhd, Lin. You didn't miss much. It was just okay.
ReplyDeleteWell Caryn and any other wondering...I will have a post on this Tuesday addressing that issue.
ReplyDeleteYou have offered some amazing information...you have done a lot of work just educating your readers :)
ReplyDeleteI would add the gloomy thought, "be legible" in case you need help or need to leave it for others to do.
ReplyDeleteThank you for answering my question about writing a book..I think that a book by you would be the best...
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