My Favorite Genealogy-Themed Book Series

By Leslie Drewitz, from the In Depth Genealogist

Sometimes, it’s great just to kick back and relax… take a break from genealogy and read a good book.  I’ve liked mysteries and thrillers since I was a kid – I always thought I’d be either a detective or a cop.  Now I can’t see doing anything but what I love – Genealogy!

So I’ve combined my great love of mysteries and thrillers with my great love of genealogy.  My favorite genealogy mystery thriller series is written by one woman – Rett MacPherson!  If you’ve never read her books, you’re in for a treat!  The series is about a woman named Torie (Victory) O’Shay and she’s – surprise! – a genealogist who lives and works in a small town in Missouri.  Her job is my dream job.  She works as he curator of the Gahmer House, which is a museum and the repository for the towns historical society.  Torie had all kinds of adventures, all involving MURDER and GENEALOGY – YAY!  Ms. MacPherson is right on her game when it comes to genealogy and has so many good ideas; as a matter of fact, I’ve used one or two of her ideas for our historical society here in town.

I have listed all of her books and the publication dates below.  Please, do yourself a favor and pick up her books at your local library and if they don’t carry the series, you can always request that they interlibrary loan them from another library – which you can do at the reference desk.

Rett MacPherson 
TORIE O’SHEA Mysteries:
Main Character: Victory O’Shea, Genealogist,  Missouri

1. Family Skeletons 1997
2. A Veiled Antiquity 1998
3. A Comedy of Heirs 1999   
4. A Misty Mourning 2000/01
5. Killing Cousins 2002
6. Blood Relations 2003
7. In Sheep’s Clothing 2004
8. Thicker Than Water 2005
9. Dead Man Running 2006
10. Died in The Wool 2007
11. The Blood Ballad 2008

After the eleventh book, she stopped writing the series.  She kind of vanished off the face of the earth.  There are many sites on the Internet that mention her, but I have yet to find any that explain why her books about this character came to such an abrupt end.  There is no clue to it ending in her last book, “The Blood Ballad” and I was heartbroken when, after waiting for a year, there were no more books about Torie, her cool family or the (sigh) Gahmer House.  It was like losing an old friend…

On her website, www.RettMacPherson.com, it looks like it’s been hi-jacked.  There is no personal content from her what-so-ever.  She does have a Facebook page, but it is maddening in that it says nothing about why she quit writing and didn’t continue the series…  Of course, because I don’t have a Facebook account (gasp!), I can’t fully read the comments – but if you do, and you can, perhaps you can enlighten me…  Or maybe she’ll see this blog and answer herself!

This series was a credit to genealogy and it’s always been my wish that she resume writing this excellent series.  Check out this series and you may think so too!

As always, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve read this series or know what happened to Rett or have a question about it…

Using Social Media for Your Research

Social Media and Genealogy: It’s Not Just About Chats With Friends Anymore

Okay, I know what you are thinking, “jeesh another post about social media, whoopee!”  Well, before you pass this by, ask yourself: do I really know what “Social Media” is?  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Have an answer?  Good.  Social media is hard to define, or even describe to most people, as it is ever changing and almost fluid in the way it evolves over time.  The most important thing to remember is that this concept refers to a community based, online communication forum that relies heavily on sharing of content and collaboration. To me, that sounds a lot like what genealogists due online and off line. Wouldn’t you agree?

If you asked 10 people what they thought social media was, and to define it, I bet not one of them would give you the same answer. Of course it all depends on who you asked. In my opinion there is not a common answer because we each use the platforms that best fit our needs, thoughts, ideas, and patterns. Some love twitter while others detest it.  Some are pinterest obsessed while others avoid it.  That is the great thing about this ever evolving world of collaboration and sharing: you can make it what you want it to be.  It is like putty that you can shape and mold to fit into your way of doing things. What works for you might not work for someone else, but there is something out there for everyone.

Where do you think you fall on the social media usage scale?  Take a look at the  infographic from Media Bistro.  It shows the 12 user personalities on social media, and you can read the full article here.  Do you think you see where you fall?  Maybe you have several personalities depending on what you like to use.  You might be a lurker, an ultra, or even an informer.  I hope you will be willing to try something new and possibly shift personalities by the end of this post.

 

While I did not know a majority of these companies, there were nearly 20 that I use on a weekly basis, with over half of those helping my genealogy pursuits. Did you have at least 10?  Hopefully you knew quite a few of the names.  Below are some of the more prominent outlets that I think you should at least consider looking into to further your genealogy pursuits.

I have talked about Twitter in another post, Research in 140 Characters or Less: Twitter for Genealogists,  so I won’t cover that again here and I didn’t include Facebook or go in depth into Google+.  In addition, I am not discussing blogging here, which would be a multipart post in of itself.  There are so many platforms I could talk about so consider this your amuse-bouche and there will be more entrées to come later.

I will be the first to admit that I am not all that keen on Google+ and I really have not taken the time to mine it for its full worth. However, the feature I do like the most is the hangouts and video calls.  What a wonderful way to get a group of people together to collaborate, learn, or just talk.  

I have participated in several hangouts for classes, panel discussions, and planning meetings.  So far it has been a wonderful experience.  That is the one thing I miss a lot with our popular forms of online communication; the personal touch of hearing a voice or seeing an expression.  Far too often you can insert your own intonation into a letter and be misled.  I encourage anyone who has not tried to be involved in a group hangout to try one in the future.  It is a great tool that I think has a lot of potential.

Many genealogy centered organizations have started YouTube channels.  This is a wonderful way for you to learn new things and participate in the community.  There are lectures, panel sessions, meetings, and Google+ hangouts to name a few that are recorded and placed over there.  The IDG, for example, has a YouTube channel where you can watch the archived After the Show sessions from Who Do You Think You Are?  Plus, for those who cannot travel for various reasons this is a great way to get more education opportunities in.

One of my favorite tools is bitly.  If you are unfamiliar with bitly you are in for a treat.  This is a free site that allows you to save, categorize, and archive web links.  It also shrinks down large website addresses so that you can share them easier.  I use this in a number of ways.  First, I can shrink links I want to share without worrying about taking up a lot of room in a message.  Next, I use it as a bookmark , or bitmark, so I can come back to that link later.  Finally, I can see what public links my friends on twitter and Facebook have bitmarked in case there is something interesting out there I want to learn more about.

Pinterest, in a way, is a like bitly.  Instead of link archive it is more like a picture archive, with the links attached.  This little site has taken off like hotcakes, and I put off joining the masses for a very long time.  Now that I have used it for a few months, I am hooked. Pintrest allows you to share things with the world in a new and interesting way.  By setting up boards for various topics you can pin websites and images to them capturing in a visual way items you want to share.  What you can share is endless: pictures, maps, articles, blogs, videos, and on and on.  Plus, with the website Pinstamatic you can make even more websites pinable for the world to see.

Pictures are always worth a thousand words, and with camera phones you may have realized that many people have become shutterbugs.  While the genealogist’s selfie probably contains an old document or tombstone, we all understand that an image can be the ultimate in research finds.  However, how do you share the pictures you take with others? Many genealogists use flikr or picasa to share images online with friends, family, and fellow researchers.  Each has pros and cons but here are a couple things to think about.  Picasa can be linked directly into you Google+ account, so if you are active on that it would make sense for you to read more about it.  Flikr, on the other hand, allows users to have creative commons licensees for their images.  If you are worried about copyright, you should check them out.

Well, now that you have had an overview of hopefully a few new-to-you sites, let me give you a few examples how I pull these all together.  Hopefully if you have been struggling with what you can do with these sites this will help.

Example 1: I come across a really interesting article and I want to share it because I know there will be others out there who think this is wonderful too.  First I go to bitly and shrink down the web address.  From there I can directly share it to my twitter account.  My twitter account is linked to my Facebook Page for my genealogy site so the link is then automatically shared there too.  Also, I have a twitter feed on my genealogy blog.  The link will show in the window on my blog along with my 4 previous tweets. While I am on the articles website I can also pin it to one of my boards on Pintrest.  In less than 5 minutes I have shared information to 5 different sites reaching a variety of people.

Example 2: After attending a webinar I did some research (who doesn’t!) and I want to share my findings with my friends, family, and followers.  My research is gathered and I sit down to my computer to write a blog post.  I use bitly to shorten any links I provide that are not hyperlinked in.  Images from my photo sharing accounts are added in as well as images that I can use under the creative commons license from flikr or wikimedia.  When my post is ready I hit “publish” and it is uploaded to my blog, twitter, Facebook, and Google+ within minutes all with one click.

Example 3: My family and I are out on an adventure like we tend to do.  While out we come across a neat item or piece of family history.  With my trusty phone I take a picture and upload it to twitter.  Tag the image and share with the world what I just found.  The image is also sent over to my Facebook page and can be seen of my blog.  When I get home I can download it to my computer and save elsewhere.

Needless to say I could keep going.  Social Media is not something to be afraid of.  While I still love my old school pen and moleskin notebooks I do embrace technology and what I can get out of it.  There are people I now have in my research and friends circle that would not be there if I didn’t try various forms of social media.  Who are you missing?

Shannon Bennett 

Putting your history on the record

Many genealogy enthusiasts put the results of their research into family histories, usually for distribution among family members. These are valuable resources as they provide information on current families which future researchers will cherish. It would be expected that the authors of these works would be keen to ensure that their work will be found by others interested in the same family. That presumption, however, is often not supported by the evidence.   

In my role as publisher of genealogy sources through Flyleaf Press, we are constantly seeking new items to add to our guides.   We are currently updating our publication Sources for Irish Family History which is a listing of monographs, books and articles on specific Irish families.  Most of the references in this guide are written by authors who are writing about their own family. However, we very often stumble upon sources with titles which give no clue of their content. In some cases it would appear that the author has almost purposefully set out to ensure that it will never be found by researchers seeking information on their family.  

Examples of useless title formats (from a ‘finding’ viewpoint) are From Killarney to Great Falls or From the cabin to the mansion or A long way from Tipperary.  Such titles are surprisingly common and almost guarantee that the work will remain obscure. While we will try to establish what families are detailed in such works, very often it is not possible to do so.  Our inclination is therefore to leave these works out of our lists.

Therefore, I offer some suggestions below as to what to do to ensure that your private family history will be found by others interested in your family:

A)  Give your work a title which accurately describes the content. We all operate using searches these days, so make sure that your title contains appropriate search terms.  Clearly these are the name of the family of interest,  the places they lived, and the other associated families.  

B)  If you want the title to be “snappy,” put the detail into a descriptive sub-title, such as From Killarney to Great Falls:  the story of the Moriarty family from Kerry, Ireland who emigrated to Iowa in 1834 and their associations with the Scanlan and O’Sullivan families. (I made thistle up, by the way). The idea is to include as many search terms as possible, but particularly the name of the family or families and their place of origin.  Listing the associated family names in a sub-title will increase the relevance.

If it is a book, give it an ISBN number.  International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) are issued by different authorities in each country and will ensure that your book is ‘visible’ to the book trade and will be listed on the databases used by libraries to find published material.  For full information see:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number 

C)  Submit it for publication in a local history or genealogy journal. While your family history may not warrant publication as an academic work, it could be of great interest to people from the area of origin of the family.  There are active local history societies in many parts of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe and they may be interested to publish your work, at least in summary form. You can see a list of Irish local history journals at http://tbreen.home.xs4all.nl/journals.html.   Even if your work is only published as a “Note” in one of these journals, you can include a reference to the full work and its library location within this note.

D)  Submit copies to major libraries. Major libraries such as the Library of Congress or the National Library of each European country will accept relevant material, provided it meets certain standards. Libraries have policies about what is acceptable and may not accept everything submitted. If your work is accepted and is put on their catalogue, it will be “visible” to future researchers. There are also major libraries which specialize in genealogy material, for instance the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Clayton Library Centre in Houston; Family History Library in Salt Lake City;  and others.

E)  Submit it to the local library in the area of origin of the family, as well as your local library.  Local libraries in Ireland have active and popular Local History sections and will be delighted to receive relevant material on local families.  I would expect that this would be the case in any part of the world.  They are also likely to accept material in typescript  or other formats, unlike National and other major libraries. Many limited circulation books and journals are now being digitized and made available for free download by Google Books and other digitisation programmes. You have an opportunity to make information on your family freely available to everyone. Don’t thwart this opportunity by making your work hard to find.  

F)  Finally, if you have published a family history of Irish interest,  please let us know and we may include it in the new edition of Sources for Irish Family History. However, we will only include it if is accessible for readers in some format.

Digital records

Here's another article from this month's edition of the Online Genealogist:

Digital or bust. Is that the question?

To digitize your family research or not to digitize your files. Is that a question? No doubt many of you have already answered this statement in your mind. “Why yes I’ve already digitized my genealogy files.” You’ve scanned your pics and documents, your censuses are all nicely attached to the appropriate ancestor on your online family tree and your desk top is clear. Not one pile of papers to be found. I applaud you! I wish I were more like you! Being able to find my last research log (that is when I use one) would be great! Files arranged so they can be easily accessed helps make research more organized and productive.

Hard copy family historians

Then there’s the seasoned genealogists and family historians with bulging, well labeled binders filled with glossy sheet protectors housing documents, copies, photos and old family letters. Theirs is a family history easily shared with anyone who would take a look. It’s visual, tactile and beautiful. I’m drawn to these binders loaded with information and mementoes. It’s obvious they were created with a love for this work.

Finally there’s me! I’m a hodge-podge of both worlds. I’m suspended between leaping to an entirely digital format yet still fiercely hanging on to my binders. I dream of an extensive list of surname folders on my laptop stuffed with .pdf documents, photos, etc. easily accessible and always at my fingertips. I’ve attempted a start to this digital system but the attempt has been somewhat feeble. For the most part I’m still stuck in my haphazard system of binders, large and small filled with copies I’ve made at courthouses and libraries I’ve visited through the years.

What do I do?

I know I need to make a change. Living in this intermediate world is not going well. In many cases I have some documents in a binder and others digitized for the very same surname or individual. I’m gathering information from several places before I even begin a research plan. This hybrid way of storing my research does not lead to easily picking up where I left off last let alone mentioning the time I’ve wasted searching for records.

The solution that I think will work best for me is to embrace both worlds. Yep that’s right. I’m not choosing one over another I’m fully committing myself to both. Both have advantages, neither in my mind are a clear choice over the other and using both will give me the most comprehensive and complete family history I can gather together.

So how am I going to do this?

Currently I’m working on 14 surnames. (I hope to increase that number by knocking down a couple brick walls.) So I already have 14 binders labeled with those surnames. I have taken the stacks of copies, documents, etc. and distributed them into piles according to the surname they belong too. Yes this has resulted in quite a mess but I’m lucky enough to have a spare bed to stack everything on.

My next step will be to create a file on my laptop for each surname and scan the papers and photos to the appropriate file before I slide it in a nice glossy sheet protector. I’ll discard hard copy duplicates and other non pertinent information I’ve accumulated. Each surname file on my laptop will have subfiles for husband, wife and children. This process will also include printing out any information I have stored digitally that is not already included in my binders. During this project decisions will need to be made. Do I print out five censuses for my binder? For a complete and accurate family history, yes, but perhaps your digital files are your one true source of information. The choice in how you handle this is up to you.

Overwhelming project?

You bet! Just take a peek at my spare bed but we succeed at nothing if we don’t try. My solution is to work on only one binder a month. I’m working on mine a couple evenings a week and on Sundays. My surname binders are already matched up to the month they’ll be scanned with the busier months like November and December getting the smaller and less work intensive binders. My larger binders like the Williams’ and Marshall’s will be done in January and February which are less active months for us. Scanning doesn’t always require a lot of concentration so I’ll scan during football games and American Pickers.

Am I going to leave these binders and loose papers on my bed for the next year while waiting to be scanned? No I’ve gathered boxes to store each individual binder and papers in, labeling the box with surname and month it will be worked on. They will get stacked in the spare bedroom closet. Taking up much needed space will be an impetus to keep me working on this project.

Is this a fool-proof method of storing my genealogy files?

No of course not. I’ll run into many questions like how many subfiles do I need? Will a male/female be a child in one file and husband/wife in another? My answer is yes and then I’ll learn to link a document to more than one file so I’m not using unnecessary storage space. Certainly I’ll make mistakes and I’ll correct them as I go but my ultimate goal is to spend my time doing research and not sorting and searching for records like I’m doing now.

By the end of my 14 month project (sooner if I keep working at it) I will have neatly labeled binders full of documents, copies, photos and mementoes to pull out and share with anyone interested in my family history or for myself to look at and enjoy. I’ll also have that same family history stored on my computer in digital files, backed up and enabling me to find documents quickly and easily. My digital genealogy files will also be accessible when I’m “on the road” researching without lugging large cumbersome binders.

Filing and organizational systems are good as long as they accomplish your goals and you use them. So if you feel like I do and know you’ve got to make a change in the way you store your accumulated research let’s do this – together! We don’t accomplish a thing without starting. Remember the journey of a thousand miles . . . . ? So leave a comment to let me know you’re on board. Or if you have suggestions to aid all of us as we improve the way we store our genealogy files please leave that comment too.  I’ll update you on my progress and hope to hear about yours!

Cindy Freed, Online Genealogist Magazine

Color your Ancestors

Hi, everyone,

I saw this article and thought you might like to read it:

Color Your Ancestors!

Frequently, I see articles and blog posts about organizing your genealogy.  I found one method I like very well and that’s simple to use.  It’s a system that’s been around for quite a few years that was developed by Mary E. V. Hill, A.G.*  Mary E. V. Hill is an accredited genealogist who developed her Family Organizer System when she was preparing a workshop when she was a staff member at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

One thing nice about the Mary Hill system is that it works well with genealogy software and without it.  Some of the genealogy software programs have the Mary Hill system as a feature in the software or have color-coding options that you can use to set up this organizational tool.  I use Legacy Deluxe, which includes the Mary Hill system.  I believe that the Master Genealogist and RootsMagic also has this feature.

The system is based on color-coding your ancestors.  Each of your grandparents is assigned a color.  This color is then carried through to each person in that grandparent’s line.  Your paternal grandfather is assigned the color blue.  Your paternal grandmother’s line is green.  Your maternal grandfather’s line is red and your maternal grandmother’s line is yellow.

If you use Legacy Deluxe or another software program with this feature, you merely go to “tools” and click on “apply ancestor colors”.  A box in the appropriate color for each ancestor will appear on the family view screen.  When your program is set to the pedigree view, each box containing your ancestor’s information will be color-coded.  You can make charts that will also automatically contain the color-coding.

Color-coding your lines helps you know at a glance who is in that line.  Knowing in which grandparent’s line a person belongs can be helpful when doing research on that person.

You don’t have to stop with your database, though.  You can purchase hanging file folders in these colors and sticky dots and color code all of your paper files.  Everything saved in your computer, file cabinet, and notebooks can be color-coded in these 4 colors, making all of your genealogy easy to find at a glance.

Hanging files in the color for each line can be placed in a file cabinet drawer or file box. Manila folders holding your documents can be placed in the colored folders with sticky dot of that color on each folder.  Sticky dots can also be placed on th corner of each document.

Colored marking pens could be used in place of sticky dots, but I prefer the dots.  They don’t smear and most will peel off if you want to remove them.  They are also more attractive than the ink marks.

With this simple system, you can keep everything straight on your ancestors. In addition to coloring them in your database and on charts and documents, you can color-code Family group sheets, pedigree charts, to-do lists, research notes, research logs, time lines, migration maps, and anything else you have on your family.

You can find more details on using the Mary E. V. Hill Family Organizer System by doing an online search using Google or your favorite search engine.

 

* The AG® certification marks are the sole property of the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists.

November 20th meeting

Just a reminder to everyone that we are having a supplemental meeting on November 20th @ 6:30.  There will be no announcements per se, as I plan to share news through the blog until the January meeting.  This meeting is for research and research helps.  If you have been struggling with a brick wall or a problem with resources, then I suggest that you attend this meeting.  I will be available to help everyone get back on track via methodology and the Executive Committee will be there for research helps as well.

Even if you don't have a brick wall - come join us for refreshments and a last 'hallo before the holidays!

Hope I see you there!

Leslie

 Sorry - maybe this will show better - notice the windows?  And the four look like the end four in the top - I am sure this is a cropped version...

As I stated in my previous answer to Catherine - this came from another blog - the owner identified it as a picture from a home for the aged in England...