Archive for General
What to do with your Collection
Many years ago, when I first started in Genealogy, I was only in my teens. I began gathering facts and figures, names and dates, pictures, documents and all the other oddities that go with the hobby. This was the days before computers and the software packages that make it easier to track things.
It was an assortment of boxes and binders, each given to a specific purpose, whether it be Census, Photography, Family Group Sheets or just general collected materials. In those days, it was mostly letters, where various researchers corresponded back and forth, giving each other the tidbits of the trade. I now consider myself and old timer, because I still have most of that collection. Even with the 24,000+ names I have database on my computer.
Who do you think you are?
The first season of this show has ended and being an avid Genealogist, I caught all the episodes except the one with Matthew Broderick. Sorry Matthew.
Anyway, I found myself laughing and also shouting No, No No, at the television set. Leave it to Ancestry.com to gloss over some of the fundamentals of Genealogy, in order to produce their hour long infomercial.
This last episode with Spike Lee, particularly made me sigh. While it is true that some African families did change their names away from that of their slave owning family, to make the grand assumption of the proper new family name, based on proximity is a bad way to teach Genealogy. Proximity should NEVER be used to make an assumption of connection.
Are you a Genealogist?
A Genealogist is a person who pursues knowledge about his ancestors. I tend to be a lot more precise than this. I don’t call just anyone pursuing information about their family a Genealogist. I see four different sets of people in this hobby.They lend themselves distinctly to their group whether by deliberate action or by chance, but they define themselves immediately.
The four groups are: Data Thieves, Hobbyists, Veterans, Professionals.
In this article I will define the characteristics of all four groups so that you may recognize which of the groups you fit into.
Pass the Turkey
How many of you fight over the Drumstick? We never solved that problem in our house and the kids and some of the adults grabbed for only two available and the resulting spectacle was a sight to behold. But in the days of Atomic Testing and the Cold War, nothing seemed that strange and no one ever used the logic of buying a box of drums and leaving the rest of the bird at the store.
Twenty five or more people all crowded around an Adult Table and a Kids Table, all doing their best to grab everything in sight. Passing dishes in two different directions, so the poor suckers in the middle always got stuck with a pile up of dishes and no place to put them.
Add Some Cheese
Pictures are a large part of Genealogy Research. One of the first things I inherited from my grandfather’s estate was a box of pictures. I spent years trying to find out who the people were and even with asking some of my older relatives, I got a lot of shoulder shrugs and I dunno’s. I was able to identify some of the pictures, but many lay sadly in a box, waiting for their names to be restored.
So, here are a few thought for you when dealing with your pictures, whether Genealogy based or not.
The Big Promise
One of the things you will be sure to encounter once you have been researching long enough is what I refer to as “The Big Promise.” You will find someone, somewhere who will have documents, pictures, newspaper clippings, journals, military records or something else that it would be really great for you to have for your research. While many people might hand you these things you will always encounter the person who looks you squarely in the eye and says, “You can have these things when I die.”
Don’t hold your breath!
In the Beginning..
Welcome to Genealogyland.
If you are new to the quest for your ancestors,you are sitting there with a desire to search out and find out information about those who have come before you. You are entering a world of dust and devils as you seek out knowledge and information, some of it decades gone by.
It is my fervent hope that you learn to do the research correctly and dive into the hobby with all of your energy and conviction. It is possible to become a genuine family historian with only some basic knowledge. Hopefully I can help you down this path and teach you some of the core principles of the hobby.