From One Piece of Paper or Review, Review, Review

I have been taking the time recently, to review some of my to-do files. One is an old register report sent to me in the 1990's, which I found again after we made the move form Michigan to Tennessee. It's amazing what a decent filing system will turn up!

When we moved, I had several boxes of unfiled paper to integrate into my filing system. One of the things I did at end of each surname was to add a folder for items that I have come across that:  a) Pertains to the family and needs to be added or expanded upon, or b) Has no readily apparent connection to the family but maybe with some work can be proved or disproved.

Once I got through integrating everything, I started slowly going through these folders when I had a free minute away from current projects or when the current project was boring me so much that I would pull a sheet of paper out of one these folders and just say, "Ok, I am going to prove or disprove this and get rid of one more piece of paper."

The beauty of this is that I don't have to work on this in any kind of order. Maybe I feel like working on the Bowman line, or the Chinn line or even the Zimmeth line.

So that brings me back to the last sheet I pulled out, which was actually 29 pages. I got to page 8 before it sidetracked re-directed me to the Tousey line. That was two days ago. I'm still on page 8 because I had to pull my copy of  "The Tousey Family of America" which led me to Genealogy Bank and Ancestry for obituaries and marriage announcements, Ancestry for census, and the USGenWeb. Then a quick check for records at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis (their burial index is online at: http://www.crownhill.org/) and Find-A-Grave for a search.

I've worked on these lines before, but it seems that periodically I find more. Or something that I overlooked before because I did not think it relevant, but now makes sense.

So when you are taking a breather or just trying to decide what to work on next, find your to-do folder and work on something you've put off, can't figure out, or is just waiting for you to enter it into your database. Maybe that proof you need will show up in a database or google search.