If you’re a genealogist or historian, I imagine your environment might be something like this—bookshelves overflowing, stacks of books on every surface, forgotten magazines tucked into cabinets, and even digital books lost in the depths of Kindle or Google Books. You love your books and other knowledge assets, but they’re taking over. Dust is piling up, your space is shrinking, and worst of all—you’re rebuying books you already own because you’ve lost track of what’s in your collection. But there is a solution.
Organization
Boulder Demolition for Genohistorians: Uncovering Ancestral Trails
If you have been doing ancestral research for some time, and taking it seriously, you know the glorious victory of tumbling a brick wall or two. You broke through to a piece of historical or genealogical knowledge that had eluded you. But some of us will eventually find our research path impeded by something bigger and much harder than a brick wall. What do you do when your path is blocked by a landslide of granite boulders ten times your height? The information you need is not just elusive. It’s gone.
A 90-60 Census Workbook Case Study: Mystery of the Hanna Men
Why were young men named Hanna starting to show up in multiple households of the sons of James Crook, the hub person of my current genohistory project? Getting an answer meant facing the PIP censuses, but with the 90-60, bring them on.
Your Guide and Defense: Genohistory with Research Plans
I spent eight years in doctoral study in history without knowing how to create a research plan. Oh, I planned, and I researched, but it was a nebulous process, without structure. When I went back to genealogy after the Ph.D. and discovered the wonderful tool called a “research plan” that genealogists were using to do really smart research, I wondered how much better my doctoral work might have been with that one tool.
Paperless Genealogy: A Commitment
Today, as I watch the Notre Dame Cathedral in flames, I know I cannot put this post off any longer. Our research is a fragile thing, if dependent upon paper files. It’s unsafe if dependent upon a single copy in any form. Not even two copies will save it in a disaster, if both are kept together. You’ve heard it all before. You need to commit to paperless genealogy. But today, please hear it and act.