Genealogy Do-Over Week 1

It's January 1, 2015. Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to my great grandmother who was born on January 1, 1848. I have chosen her as my focus person for the do-over. I know a great deal about Martha Jane McCollum and yet, many of the facts still allude me.

The do-over actually starts tomorrow with topics for the week:
1. Clean house
2. Prepare to research
3. Review the Golden Rules

I don't know what any of this means.

Clean house I can guess at and I've already spent several hours this morning working on cleaning up my photos. I've scanned about 3000 and although they are in good shape, there are some unnamed and duplicates out there. I also think cleaning house means I need to start a brand new tree. I am going to use RootsMagic. I deleted the other tree so it's empty except for me and some records that I added with sources cited.

I hope prepare to research doesn't means I have to scan the other three or four thousand pictures still out there. I can't wait to see what preparing to research really means but I know it's something I need to do.

I'm interested in learning the Golden Rules. I sure I have broken most of them so it will be nice to have a set of rules to adhere to.

Week one will also be interesting because I am making a trek to the San Francisco area next week for a family gathering. In one of my other posts, I wrote about my uncle who passed away in November. The family is getting together to do a memorial, very low key, just family and a few of his friends. I have gathered newspaper articles from the Billings Gazette to take with me so I can share his life in the eyes of the newspaper. Sad event but I am looking forward to be a part of the celebration of his life.

I am wishing today away because I am exited to begin the Do-Over tomorrow. I plan to post once a week to share what I have learned. The best part of this is the amount of information I have picked up from the other Do-Over folks. I read everything that was posted and feel privileged to be in such good company.

Changing families for the Do-Over

Thomas McEntee started the Genealogy Do-Over.  I was instantly in, planing to do the Yeakley side of the family until today. I know it needs work and it is missing sources. I was pretty excited.

Today while waiting for the Do-Over to start, I read through the posts on Facebook and the blog. I thought I'd do something proactive.

I pulled the 1920, 1930, and 1940 Census for my dad's family. My uncle recently passed away and there is a family gathering next week. I wanted to take something with me to share about my uncle. I printed the blank forms and started to fill in the data, translating the codes for employment. I found some things I didn't know or didn't take the time to understand. I was pretty happy until I realized that on two of the census reports, my great grandmother's birthplace was listed as Virginia. That can't be right since she was born in Tennessee. Or was she?

My mom did genealogy for 30 years, tramping through graveyards and traveling from courthouse to libraries. I never questioned her research, she has a lot of documentation. She did cite sources. However, I found nothing on the birthplace for my great grandmother. Is it wrong?

I need a do-over. If I can miss something so different in a census report, something I have looked at multiple times, how much more information have I missed assuming the answers were right. I can't wait to get started!

I need more time to play with GeneaBloggers

GeneaBloggers is a really cool site. It's new to me and their daily prompts look interesting. I want to get started there too but am in the middle of the A to Z Blogging Challenge with my Completely California blog and I am finding it hard to manage my time.

Writing the blog isn't a problem. It's finding and scanning the pictures. Yesterday looking for pictures of Kings Canyon and Sequioa, I found pictures of my grandmother's brother and sister in the hundreds of photos and slides my mom left me. I found the Kings Canyon pictures but also pulled the family photos to scan and put on Ancestry.com for later posts. 

Then it hits me that I have spent so much time scanning and posting family photos that I have lost an hour or two that should have been spent working on the posts for the California blog. So it's back to California and the family history will have to wait. 

That might not be a bad thing since I can spend the first part of May getting ready for the trip to Tennessee. Then I can do an in-depth search and really determine what I hope to find in the records there. Fortunately, GeneaBloggers will still be there for me to really play with. Kind of a reward for completing the A to Z challenge.     

 

I joined GeneaBloggers

I see their badge all over the Internet but I wasn't really sure what it was all about. Then yesterday, I read a post on the Monday Morning Mentions on The Armchair Genealogist by Dear Myrtle. I will have to go back and read the whole blog because I don't quite get GeneaBloggers but wow, so many blogs to read. Then, there is the Pinterest page. 

I just started the A to Z blogging challenge so lots of my time is being spent there. I am still planning the trip to Tennessee. There is so much going on and it's spring so I need to get my garden started. All of this is taking away the time I want to spend reading the 3000+ plus blogs on GeneaBloggers. Still, I will get to them eventually because my newest passion is family history and I'm quite sure that I can learn from all the bloggers. I really can't wait.