Cousin Inspired!

So what if I am sitting here feeling jealous while cousin Carol and cousin Karen prep for their current and future research trips. If you haven't read either of their blogs, cousin Carol spent a lot of time recently in the research mecca of Salt Lake City and cousin Karen is just back from a vacation/research trip and prepping for another. Family reasons and hubbies ongoing physical therapy are keeping us close to home so far, and I haven't even thought of to-do lists ... much.

Carol knew at the start of her and the man's trip last fall that ultimately they would make it to Salt Lake City and yet she was unconcerned about the state of her to-do list. I would have been in a panic. I knew she would bail herself out because she uses the place list in Rootsmagic to work up to-do list items. And believe me, this is a great way to go when you are scrambling for a list of items you know you need and want.

For me, though, that doesn't always work. When I add a new person to my database, I look for documentation, other than census. Why? Because census is usually how I found them, and I've already located them. Now my job is to document them with vital records. I always feel fortunate when I can locate someone in an online database, such as Seeking Michigan, Ancestry, Family Search, Missouri Death Records Database, just to name a few. If I can't find anything online, then the first place I search is the Allen County Public Library genealogy database, because I know there is a chance I'll get there relatively soon. It is situated roughly two thirds of the way to Michigan, and when the weather is nice, I can usually convince DH to stop there for a night or two.

Once at the ACPL, I start with pulling the items on my to-do list. Sometimes those are films, or periodicals or books. I so LOVE their open stacks. When I first started researching there, you had to fill out a request for the book with the call number, title and the table number where you were researching. You could only submit so many at a time and if there was a book in the stacks that wasn't in the catalog, you didn't get it, because you didn't request it. And heaven help you if someone else wanted that book, because they might need it for all the time you were there. When the library moved to their temporary home during reconstruction, they opened the stacks. I was in heaven, because now I could browse a section. That was particularly handy if a book had been shelved wrong. Those ten years I spent working in a library sure comes in handy at times!

I try to go through my list first, getting the items I really think I need and then work on those extras I pulled. Usually I run out of steam long before I get to the end of my list.

I find I can't sit at microfilm readers like I used to. During trips to Lexington, Kentucky, I grab two lists - my Lexington Cemetery list and my Lexington Public Library newspaper abstract lists. I usually get one day or maybe only a few hours at each. I will admit I am no where near being done with either list, although thanks to some wonderful people who post on Find-a-Grave, the cemetery list is getting shorter. The library list? I probably add one item for every five found. I generally pull 20-30 obits, wedding announcements and other articles each time I go. Then I add 4-6 items after transcribing and linking the scanned images.

I know cousin Karen is a to-do list maven too. Karen has a great way of doing her cemetery to-do lists. Both had blog posts on to-do lists on June 16th. Check out their blogs and see if our methods might work for you, too.


Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

The Dilemma

This is the time of year I really start to feel pulled in different directions, Christmas. But doesn't everybody have that feeling this time of year. There is so much to do:  shop, plan meals, decorate, bake. Honestly, I don't know which to tackle first. So I didn't. Instead, I tackled my genealogy to do list. What started me down that totally unrelated road? Well, I came across a to list item that I put on my list of things to do before we moved from Michigan to our temporary home in a condo here in Tennessee. Well, we moved out of that condo in 2008. I have all my files (I hope) where I can get at them, and I had about ten items that required me to look at research I did in the 1990s. Wow. So I started the task of cleaning up my to do list. Then I discovered I had inadvertently added some of my obituaries from Lexington, Kentucky newspapers to my Allen County Public Library list. I have no idea how that happened, but those were easily transferred. There were several items that I had found over the years, but never removed from the list. All in all, I cleaned out 69 items.

I really wish I could get that enthusiastic about putting up the tree. But since the boxes are all in my living room, I guess I better get started.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Tackling My To-Do List

In the course of genealogical events, it is sometimes necessary to think outside the box. To find other resources to use and to knock of those To-Do List items. Such was the case the other day. I had several books on my list that I wanted to take a look at.

The first one I got from Ancestry and was the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. The person it was in reference to was Edward Rumsey Wing. He was the youngest head of a foreign mission, appointed when he was just 24. Apparently it was a bit too much for Edward or E. Rumsey Wing as he was also known, because he drank himself to death. Nice story, eh? Got that tidbit from the State Department archives. Unfortunately, he is not in volume 5 of that book, so it got removed from my list. In stumbling around the web, however, I find that he was considered the worst diplomat of all time, first trying to annex Ecuador to the United States and then trying to assassinate the British Ambassador. Guess it was a good thing for the United States that he drank himself to death.

Then I had a couple people in Lee, Massachusetts that I wanted to check out and the book needed was Vital Records of Lee Massachusetts to 1850. That was accomplished by downloading the PDF of the book. I think that cross off four more items.

I had hoped to find the rest of the books on the web, but no luck. So those items will remain on the list a little longer. It just is so easy to forget to Google your relative's name. And it is so much easier to do if you leave a little reminder for yourself!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Last Minute Flurry

When prepping for a trip, I try to be oh-so-organized. I spend a lot of time dotting that "i" and crossing that "t" in preparation for a trip and there is a really good reason for that. In our travels, we've left key items behind.

To-Do list, microfilm

First time we left anything behind was on our wedding night. I locked myself out of the house I was sharing with a friend and we forgot to check out of our hotel. We remembered these things at the same time, DH returning to the hotel to check us out and me calling my roommate at work to borrow her keys.

The second key time was when traveling with our not such good traveler kids. We were on our way to a motel near Kings Island, Ohio when our youngest, aged 4 said, "I hope you didn't forget our clothes." We had. Fortunately, it being summer all they needed were sun suits, underwear and toothbrushes. Their bathing suits and flip flops were packed and they were wearing their shoes! I had locked their suitcases in their closet because they were unpacking clothes and repacking toys.

Another time, not long after I purchased a portable printer for trips, DH and I were headed on a research trip and I left the printer behind. Not a horrible thing, but it had my printed to do list in the same bag. I promptly emailed it to myself and printed at the research location. In that instance not everything was set out in the same place.

The real kicker was when we were headed to Buffalo for a cousin's wedding, and got almost to the Michigan-Ohio Border (actually mile marker 9) and turned around to retrieve our dress clothes for the wedding. While I might have been able to find dress and shoes, and him a sport coat, pants, shirt, tie & shoes, time would not have allowed that. We had placed our garment bag in the laundry room closet with intentions to pick it up on the way out.  Oops.

So now I spend some time making those lists, making sure everything is packed and that all is set out in the same spot the night before. The To-Do list is the longest process. First I go over it and see if there is anything else I need. Then I try to make it as consistent as possible. This year, I've decided in my single day at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, that I would concentrate on Vermont vital records. I had a few on my list, but wanting to make the most of my time there, I added the film reel number to the list so that I wasn't jumping back and forth. These films occupy items 27 to 72 on my list. The list I had whittled down to 7 pages is now 10 pages long. I can't wait to get there.

[Okay, I cheat. This blog was written BEFORE our trip to Fort Wayne and other northern destinations. We didn't leave anything behind.]

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes