Scanning, scanning and more scanning! My ‘paperless’ project and my ‘genealogy do-over’ projects merged this week. I switched from scanning my file folders to scanning my family notebooks. Scanning the notebooks is slower, but it has allowed me to check and update source documentation as I go.
In the process, I’ve been learning my way around Roots Magic and source citations. I’ve tried to be diligent about adding the media to the source and about designating the quality of the source. With this slow process, I am about to finish scanning and documenting my parents, my brothers and their children.
During the week, I picked up on two ideas that I want to implement. The concept of using a closed Facebook group to share family photos jumped out at me as I’ve been scanning a lot of photos this past week. This should be a great way to share those photos with distant cousins.
The second idea is the use of a timeline. By tracking events in this manner, it should help identify issues with data as well as provide hints for finding more information. While driving around Emporia this week, I started wondering where all my grandmother had lived. The various locations had been mentioned by my mom over the years but I didn’t have any street addresses. Since I had time while driving thru Topeka, I stopped and did some research at the Kansas State Historical Society using old TELEPHONE BOOKS. I had never thought of using phone books as a genealogical source, but they proved to be a great tool. I’ve now tracked my grandmother from 1940 to 1960. I even took my time and added each telephone book to my ‘research plan’ document for my grandmother!
Even though I haven’t added a single person to my tree, I feel that this week has been very beneficial in that it has caused me to go back thru documentation and to ask questions about missing information.
#Wk3GenealogyDoOver