The Trouble with Literature Searches

Search PERSI by record type

When we start a new project it is wise to do a literature search. Typically a literature search may be done for a specific surname to see what has been previously been published. Or perhaps it's done on a subject such as the French and Indian War. It's very good practice to take a survey of already published materials before you get deep into a research project.

But what about when you want to research a general topic in genealogy? Let's use one of my favorite topics, probate, as an example. What would you do to find publications, whether books or articles, that are going to teach you what probate records are, how to find them and how to interpret them?

Interestingly enough many of the sources I use such as Ancestry's Red Book for specific information at the state level or Ancestry's The Source contain information about probate but aren't easily located by searching for probate books. Likewise another helpful source, Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures by Christine Rose also doesn't generate any hits by searching the keyword probate.

Probate inventories search results

When I do an Amazon.com search using the term "probate records for genealogy", it returns mostly probate transcriptions and abstracts primarily at the county level. "That's nice," I think to myself, "but I really want to learn what probate is not see specific examples."

One general book did come up in the search results, Will & Probate Records: A Guide for Family Historians by Karen Grannum and Nigel Taylor. This looks promising but how come I've never heard of it before? The name Nigel makes me suspicious that it was published in England. A further look shows me it was published by the National Archives of England. Probably a great book but when getting started I'll need to focus on American records.

So then I turn to the Genealogical Publishing Company online. First I do a keyword search on "probate." I have the same problem I had on Amazon.com. Most of the hits are again transcriptions or abstracts.  There is one general source listed Probate Jurisdictions: Where to Look for Wills by Jeremy Gibson. It looks excellent (despite being out of print) but ironically enough this book is also British.

Admittedly I am only glancing at the first page of hits. I'm not really willing to search through hundreds of transcriptions to find what I'm looking for.  Maybe I'm approaching this wrong so I decide to drill down through "Browse Our Full Catalog" and then "Browse by Category." At this point I choose "Wills and Probate Records." Here I encounter the same results as the keyword search, heavy on transcriptions with only the Gibson text offering general instruction.

I then move on to the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) which is an index of published genealogy articles. I access PERSI through HeritageQuest using an online database from my local library. PERSI is great because you can actually search for specific record types from the How-To's search option.  The search for probate records turns up 729 results! That's too much for me to sort through but some of the titles look interesting.

I go back and add "inventories" as a key word on my search. That narrows the results to 23 articles. One article called "What estate inventories reveal" was published in the NGS Newsmagazine in 2007. I might actually have that in my stack of old magazines. Two other titles look promising - "Using Probate Inventories" and "Probate Inventories as a source" both published in the Great Migration Newsletter (2000). I know I will have access to both of those at the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Most PERSI searches however, return results for state or county newsletters, many of which are only available through the Allen County Public Library. Their copy service is a great benefit but I want something more easily accessible than that.

Now I already know quite a bit about probate but as you can see finding information about probate would difficult for someone not well versed in genealogy.  What if I want to go beyond basic sources? Say I want to get deep into historical probate records in New England and the laws that impacted them. Where would I turn? I would search the JSTOR academic journal database and specific library catalogs from perhaps the Boston Public Library, the Massachusetts State Archives and the New England Historic Genealogical Society. I could also search through the indexes of the peer reviewed genealogical journals. I may get lucky and find something or I may again hit on transcriptions and abstracts.

Is the problem that most general genealogical books are written to cover many record types rather than taking an in-depth look at just one? I hate to say this but it all seems like so much work. You would think that after someone does extension bibliographic development that they would pull it all together in a how-to article. I suppose that's what speakers do with their syllabi but I can't access their syllabi on the internet. (...which reminds me of the option of Jamb inc conference recordings).

There is at least one example that I know of. If I were to search for literature on 17th century New England I would have to look no further than Martin Hollick's  New Englanders in the 1600s: A Guide to Genealogical Research Published Between 1980 and 2005 (NEHGS, 2006). This book, unfortunately, is a rare find.

I feel like I am whining with this post but I think it should be easier for new genealogists and even more advanced ones to find the resources necessary to learn what they need to know.

Of course, all you really need to do is find one well-sourced book on your topic. That should contain a bibliography sufficient to refer you to all other needed sources. But the trick is finding that book.

Please let me know if you have found an easier solution to literature searches. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong. I think I could take a week long institute course just on how to do proper literature searches.

Not All PDFs are Alike

I've been working on photographing my local historic cemetery for the past seven years. I did it fairly casually for the first five years. I'd wander through the cemetery and randomly take photos. Eventually I realized this was not the most effective way to ensure that I got a photo of each stone.

My local library's website has a transcription of the old section of the cemetery that was created in 1900 by a local town historian. I used this as the basis for my cataloging. Last week I started cataloging in earnest, making sure I photographed all the stones I had missed. As I photographed I took the time to compare the information on the stone to the epitaph in the transcription.

Imagine my surprise to find errors in the transcription! There were cases where the dates in the transcription had the day wrong, the year, the month or all three. A few gravestones weren't cataloged at all. And some of the transcription mixed up people with the same name.

I got to thinking about this dilemma. As a genealogist and historical researcher I want to be able to pinpoint the problem.  The transcription on the website was typed and not an image of the original transcription.  So I had to ask myself two questions 1) Were the errors in the original transcription or 2) Were the errors introduced when converted over to an html file?

I can imagine two scenarios. Either someone manually typed up the list and posted it online or some kind of OCR software was used and then copied and pasted into the html file.  In either manner errors could be introduced.

Last night I was at a meeting where there were some folks from the local historical society. I asked them if they knew the background behind the online file.  They didn't but they did have a pdf of the original 1900 transcription that they could share with me. Then the conversation got a bit sticky.

I have to stop here and say that genealogists have a reputation, for better or for worse, of being very precise. Honestly, it drives most non-genealogists crazy!  The folks at the historical society are very patient with me. They do their best to answer my questions without saying, "Are you crazy? What does this really matter anyway?"

So the big question I popped for them was whether their pdf file was images of the original transcription or an OCR translation. OCR, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is optical character recognition. The special software not only captures the information but turns the content into searchable text. This is a huge advantage over simple images of a publication which are not searchable. The problem with OCR scanning is that the conversion is not 100% perfect and errors are introduced into the text during the process.

They couldn't remember the answer to that off the top of their heads but the gentleman who did the scanning says what is important is when the scanning was done. More recent OCR software is much better than old OCR software. To me, that logically make sense. But the genealogist inside of me is still wary and wants to know the exact likelihood of errors being introduced. I will never really have my answer without comparing the pdf file to the original publication.

Do you ever think about that when reviewing a document? (I hope so!) How many generations removed is it away from the source? In this case the online transcription is two generations away from the source. The first generation is the 1900 published transcription and the original source is the gravestones themselves.

When we are thinking about pdf files we have several things to consider as well.

1) Is the pdf an image of the original?

This can be a benefit for genealogists because there is no question that we are seeing the document as it was published. The disadvantage is that it is not searchable with a computer. Let's hope it's not a long document.

2) Was the OCR scan done recently or quite awhile ago?

Without knowing the person who did the scanning this question could be impossible to answer. Should we trust old OCR scanned pdfs less than more recent ones? Yes, OCR scans to pdf do have the incredible advantage of being searchable but we must remember that the document is now one generation further removed from the original.

This is just some food for thought to get your morning started. I am no technical expert nor do I know the ins and outs of pdfs. If you are more technically advanced perhaps you could share some feedback in the comments.

In the meantime, I'm going to have to compare the pdf from the printed original or just works strictly from the original publication.

Are You Losing an Important Resource?

Every day on Facebook and Twitter I see status updates that say "A distant cousin just emailed me!" followed by expressions of jubilation and joy. Yes, it is wonderful that you have made contact with relatives who can potentially help you in your research. But are you letting the interaction go to waste? What are you doing to preserve the exchange of information?

I realized this year, especially after my recent exchanges with my uncle about the old neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, that there is a tremendous amount of genealogical information contained in the body of emails.  Not every email has a ged or pdf attachment that can be easyily saved.  Some emails have drips of important family history information. Some simply recount an exchange of research conducted.

I have implemented a policy to save all emails that contain family history information. And by saving I don't mean not deleting them! I use the 'save as' feature in my email and save the text of the email as a txt file in the appropriate genealogical folders on my computer.

In the last year I have gone through two computer crashes alone. While I have the old email files they are not in my current email file. That means I have to do a little work to find them. What if someday I accidentally delete them or forget where they are? If I save individual emails as text files I never have to worry about the original email.

I have gone back and saved all the critical emails from my uncle from the past few months. Now I need to do some deeper work and mine my old tucked away email file as well.

What about you? Do you regularly save your emails from family members or distant cousins? You could be losing a tremendous resource if you don't.

Photo credit: photo by digitpedia and used under the creative commons license.

Going All Out Virtual

This past weekend I participated in the Family Tree University Spring 2012 Virtual Conference. I have attended many virtual webinars as well as the live streaming events from RootsTech but this was my first completely virtual conference. At the start I wasn't sure how I would feel about it. I can say without hesitation now that I loved it!

The FTU Virtual Conference did require a paid registration. It is not my goal with this post to get into a discussion about cost or whether the price was worth it. Clearly it was worth it to those who registered. What I would like to focus on is the concept of a totally virtual conference.

I was not sure what my learning experience was going to be like. Would I get as much out of it as I do at an in-person conference? I was surprised that I found the conference to be very fulfilling. In addition to the webinars which could be downloaded and saved on my computer, there were live-chats, discussion boards, raffle prizes and more.

I love to listen to webinars from all the various providers that are out there today. Having a conference with lots of webinars over the course of a weekend really made it feel like a conference. I have to admit that I learned a lot. Like at any conference some presentations will interest you and some won't. All the ones I watched were professional and well done. There were 15 webinars in all presented at this conference.

The benefits of the virtual conference for me were:

1. Front row seating with clear sound for all talks
2. Food and bathroom breaks at my convenience
3. No traveling, dressing nice or putting on makeup
4. The ability to watch the videos at my own convenience on my own schedule
5. Not having to pay for parking, hotel and restaurants

Virtual conferences may not be for everybody but I can see them really filling a need for those with young families who can't get away, people who live a great distance from available conferences or people who simply can't afford the cost of a national or regional conference.

The Face of Education

I believe that there is room within the genealogy community for all types of education whether they are institutes, stand alone webinars, online or in person classes or traditional conferences. The variety of different types of genealogical education is a real benefit for the 21st century genealogist. I really believe that all these types of educational programs can provide quality education. Granted they each have their different levels, focus and goals but overall they are all advancing genealogical education.

My Crazy View of the Future

I am really excited by video learning! I could envision a company developing and focusing on the production of genealogical videos. They would produce courses that start with step one and can meet the needs of novices such as those that are getting excited about family history from watching Who Do You Think You Are? each week.

Is there enough of a mainstream market for these videos? Maybe not directly to the general public but I would love to see these videos created and sold to public and private libraries.  Wouldn't it be great if someone watched a genealogy program on tv and then went to their local library and got out an entire video course on genealogy research?  There could be videos geared towards adults and others targeted to children. The videos could give them a complete education on genealogical research and get them started in the right direction. I think it would be a wonderful thing.

What's Your Take?

How do you feel about the concept of a virtual conference? Would you attend? Have you attended one in the past? Do you feel that taking classes from videos is a viable option?  Let me know what you think.

Getting the Whole Family Involved

It seems that in each generation there is one designated person who is the family historian. Other family members are either mildly interested or roll their eyes at any discussion of family history. It doesn't have to be this way. With the advancement of technology it's the perfect time to get the whole family involved.

The problem is that in the past we have equated family history with research. Not everyone in the family is interested in doing family history research. There are now many other ways to get family members involved in collecting family history information without them having to do any research.  The key idea is that we need to draw on each family member's strengths and interests.

For example, this past weekend my brother converted 55 minutes worth of audio files from the 1970s and 1980s. He took the cassette tape originals and converted them into mp3 files which could easily be shared over the internet and played on a computer.  While he was in the process of doing the conversion he sent out five separate teasers. Each teaser contained 2-3 minutes of audio and a very provocative, catchy headline. He sent the teasers to the entire extended family. At the completion of his project he again emailed the entire family with a link to downloadable audio files of the entire 55 minutes (culled down from 5 hours worth).

My brother is not particularly interested in doing genealogical research. Yet what he did provided a incredible service to me (the family researcher) and the rest of the family. Harnessing his love of computers and technological skill provided us with a way to preserve our family memories for many generations to come. Quite a number of the people whose voices are heard on those audio files are no longer with us today. What a treasure it is to hear their voices again and to know that we will be able to pass them along. By distributing the audio files with the rest of the family, it will also encourage more of our family to get interested in learning about our shared family history.

When trying to get family members to participate in family history think of ways to harness their interests and passions.

Here are some non-research ideas to get the rest of the family involved:

• Encourage your family to scrapbook - either using paper and albums or electronically
• Have the music lover compile songs of the past or a disc of family favorites
• Convert analog video to digital
• Convert analog audio to digital
• Have the tech lover create a photo slide show and set it to music
• Have the kids interview grandpa using a digital recorder

When you think about it there are lots of ways to get your family involved in family history without having them do research. Remember, once you get your family involved be sure to share the end product with as much of the extended family as possible. Nothing breeds excitement and participation like sharing and getting others involved.

My Conference Learning Strategy

When you attend a conference, either online or in person, do you have a strategy for getting the most out of it?  Sometimes it's not possible to attend all talks due to concurrent sessions. Hard choices have to made about the best way to use your time.

I have heard that some people choose sessions based on the syllabus. Talks that have very thorough handouts are skipped in favor of ones that have little on paper. I can understand that but at the same time it seems counter-intuitive to me. Perhaps the talk with the weak syllabus also has less substantial live content.

Over the years I have developed a quirky but very specific way in which I choose the sessions that I go to.

In-Person Conferences

1) Rock Stars - I hate to use that term but it fits. If I'm at a conference where Elizabeth Shown Mills or Dr. Thomas Jones is speaking I will likely not miss the opportunity to go to see them. I would even go so far as to watch the same talk multiple times at various conferences. There are some people you just need to hear if you have the opportunity.

2) The Geography Factor - In a time slot where there are no rock stars I will then fall back on geographic selection. If I'm at a regional conference in New England I will choose to watch the presentation by the speaker that comes from the furthest away. The logic is that I will likely have access to local speakers at some other point during the year. Speakers from far away are much harder to see in person. If they have made the effort to come from a great distance I will return the favor by attending their presentation.

Online Conferences

With online conferences we don't have the same physical restrictions as we do with in-person conferences. We can attend from the comfort of our home through the internet. An online conference still forces us to make choices. Are there concurrent sessions that we must choose from or is it a simple matter of prioritizing which sessions we watch first?

1) New Topics - My basic strategy for prioritizing online conference watching is to choose the content that I know nothing about. It may even be on topics that I will likely never research. Something new, however, will hold my interest more than a topic I already know about. And even if it seems out of my research area I will very likely get some new ideas or strategies that I can apply to my own research.

2) Same Topics - This may surprise you but after watching the topics I know nothing about I will head for topics that either I think I know everything about or I have already heard someone speak on.

For instance, last Saturday I heard a presentation by Walter Hickey of NARA Northeast Region (Waltham, MA) give a talk on the coming 1940 US Federal Census. Then on Wednesday, I listened to the webinar on exactly the same topic by Thomas MacEntee. Many of you are likely shaking your heads and saying that is a waste of time.

It's not really. The explanation I received of how high school is different from college is that in college you learn critical thinking. Critical thinking is necessary for evaluating sources to come to a more informed conclusion. 

When I watch a presentation on one topic and never take advantage of further talks on the same subject then I am learning with a one-sided viewpoint.  By hearing two speakers on the same topic I can evaluate better all the information I received.

I admit I was a bit hesitant to hear both Walter and Thomas present on the same topic. I worried that perhaps one speaker might disappoint me. In reality what I heard were two excellent presentations on the same topic. I learned that individuals will approach topics from different viewpoints and provide different solutions or suggestions for tackling research. I was amazed that two talks sharing the same basic limited subject could be so different from one another.

So in this strategy I would seek out presentations on topics that I've already been exposed to in order to help me better evaluate the information.

Hopefully I've given you some food for thought. What are you conference learning strategies like?

A Difficult Decision

Not more than a month ago I was trying to decide which genealogy event to participate in this year. I was very excited because this would be my first time going away for a week for genealogical training. I sat down with my husband and we discussed the dates and the costs. In the end we settled on the National Institute of Genealogical Research (NIGR) in Washington DC during the third week of July. I was over the moon!

Last week the application arrived in the mail and I was getting ready to finalize my plans. Everything seemed on track.

Then the call came. The first one was from my brother. The second one was from my Dad. We had the opportunity to spend two weeks together on a family vacation on the coast thanks to a cousin offering us her house.

I readily agreed that the last week in July would be fine. But I wouldn't budge on that third week, the week of my institute. I spent time talking to my Dad and he really wanted us to go for both weeks.

I did some quick re-thinking. Perhaps I could go to another institute. GRIPitt perhaps? I really wanted to go to that anyway. No luck. That one takes place during the fourth week of July which was still during the family vacation time.

I gave it some really serious thought. I had an institute, my first real institute, nearly in the grip of my hand.

And then I let it go.

It will have to wait for another year I suppose.

Ultimately, I decided that the time my three boys can spend with their grandfather is more important than my need to go to a genealogy institute. The chance for them to spend two whole weeks with their grandfather in one of the most beautiful places in the world and one that is so special to our family outranked everything else.

Yeah, I am so sad but life is about choices. Our ancestors had to make far tougher choices. I will be celebrating the present and building memories for the future instead.

Yes, I came that close. * sigh *

What is Your #1 Source for Genealogy Education?

I was just reading the Journey to the Past Blog by Brenda Leyndyke. In her most recent post "Recommendations for Genealogy Education And Assessing 2012 Goals" she talks about various forms of genealogy education, particularly the ones available on the internet. She also runs through the educational classes she has taken during the month of February. Let me tell you she covered a lot of ground!

Brenda's focus was primarily on live webinars and recorded online videos. She's right - there is so much available online these days that it is very easy to broaden your knowledge of genealogy without leaving home.

But there are lots of other genealogical learning opportunities such as magazines, peer reviewed journals, books, in-person classes, institutes, conferences and  seminars. I'm sure there must be others as well.

I thought it would be interesting to stop and ask everyone to consider where they get most of their genealogical education. Is it from one of these sources or from something else? Are you finding that you are shifting from traditional sources to webinars and videos? Or are you sticking with books? Does your own personal learning style play into this? By that I mean do you still prefer in-person classroom learning, are videos more visually helpful or is there something else that suits the way you learn?

I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

For myself I think I have adapted to all learning opportunities. I like face to face learning but I can take away a lot from videos and webinars as well. I still do an extensive amount of learning in books and journals. As long as it makes me think and I learn something new then I find it worthwhile. Though I'm not so sure that I would like participating in an online class (as opposed to in person).

Looking forward to hearing which educational opportunities you are taking advantage of!


Photo Credit: Photo by cdsessums and used under the creative commons license.

Ellis Island: Did They or Didn't They?

Ellis Island Museum

I've always heard family historians say that their ancestors' names were changed by the clerks at Ellis Island. And I've heard numerous talks by professional genealogists disputing this fact. They say that name changes did not occur at Ellis Island.  In my own probate talks I've demonstrated how many people did change their names - in the court system.

Recently I was browsing through my mother's collection of genealogy books. I happened to stumble upon Ancestry's Guide to Research: Case Studies in American Genealogy (Ancestry, 1985) by Johni Cerny & Arlene Eakle. I decided to pull it out and give it a read.

Imagine my surprise to find this nugget (p. 14) about Ellis Island:

"Cerny, a Slovakian surname that is spelled Cierny, denotes the color black. Jan Cierny (pronounced chair-nee) had his name changed when he arrived in the United States to John Cerny (pronounced sir-nee) by Ellis Island processing clerks. His wife had her name changed to Theresa Zahorec."

Both Johni Cerny and Arlene Eakle are respected professional genealogists. Are they right or is this a mistake?

So I ask - What is the definitive answer about name changing at Ellis Island? Did name changes occur or not?


Photo Credit: photo by Jeff Pearce and used under the creative commons license.

Scanning Up a Storm

original photo

This year I made it my goal to try to get better organized and to digitize my photos. This past weekend I made inroads toward that goal by scanning up a storm.

My father recently gave me a photo album from my great grandparents with photos taken between 1901 and 1912.  These photos are wonderful because they show the family at play on vacation when they are their most relaxed. Prior to this I had seen mostly formal shots that gave me no indication of their personalities or their interactions with each other.

I got out my Flip Pal and tore through 160 photos. That's quite a lot of photos to scan! The original photos weren't in great condition so now I am in the process of correcting/improving them in Adobe Photoshop. After I complete that task I will share the digital copies of the photos - both the original and corrected versions - with all my family.  The important thing is not that they do anything with the photos but that multiple copies are preserved in several different locations.  The other key thing is to make sure all descendants who want them have copies of the photos.

Corrected version

I still need to do work on acting as the family archivist. I need to catalog the photos/album, note the provenance (the chain of ownership) of the photo album and identify where the original physical copy will be kept. That's next on my list!

But I feel good. I feel like I got something accomplished and I'm glad that the line of communication is open with my other family members so that they can get excited too.

This album is just one pebble in a riverbed of scanning and cataloging that I need to do. Small steps. Each small step will get me closer to my goal.





Photo notes: These photos show Sarah Estella Gurney Edwards (1871-1963) helping her young son, William Henry Edwards (1898-1976) up the front porch steps during a family vacation in 1901. The location is unidentified but is likely the south coast of Massachusetts or Rhode Island.

What Professional Genealogists Can Learn from Megan

Megan Smolenyak is undoubtedly the most internationally well-known genealogist. A storyteller at heart, the tales of her projects resonate with audiences regardless of geographic boundaries.

I have often wondered what makes Megan so successful. I've always wanted to ask her what she felt were the keys to her success but honestly I've never had the guts to do it.

Now that I have finished reading her latest book Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing (review will be forthcoming) I think I now understand some of the basics to her success without having to ask her. If you read carefully it's all right there in print.

If you are a professional genealogist I'm guessing that you are running a business of some sort.  You are either trying to make a living taking clients, writing articles or books or acting as a genealogical educator or speaker.  With that in mind, there are many aspects of Megan's success that we can learn from to help improve our own businesses.

This article is not intended as a "Isn't Megan Great!" article but rather a serious look at extrapolating a person's business success and incorporating and learning from those lessons.

Here are some key points that I learned from Megan's book that we can all apply to our own businesses.

1. Read the Newspaper

One thing I noticed about the source of Megan's projects is that she reads a newspaper and that often generates ideas for new projects.  That may sound like a really simple thing but it's key when you think about it.

When I look at my own habits, I don't regularly read a newspaper, watch tv or movies for that matter. With the advent of the internet, where we get information has become segmented. We now follow specific channels rather than the main networks. We get our news online and filtered just the way we like it. We are missing the big picture of what is going on in the world when we do this.

Reading a general news source such as a newspaper or news magazine will remind us of everything going outside of genealogy, our family, our local region or our other interests. It could become the source of your next project.

2. Think outside the box

Transformation is the key next step. Don't just read the newspaper. Expand upon it and think outside the box.  Many of Megan's projects come from news stories that are not related to genealogy.  She found stories that piqued her curiosity and discovered a way in which she could apply her genealogical skills to solve a problem. Think of how she applied her genealogical skills to help coroners and start the Unclaimed Persons program. Reading the newspaper also led to Megan's interesting work with the FBI.

3. Follow your curiosity

 Megan harnesses a non-genealogical story, formulates an idea and the applies her skills to it. Whether done casually or in-depth, she jumps right in and starts researching the topics that pique her curiosity. I'm sure there are many side research ideas that didn't pan out for her, but some of them have led to major projects. If you see something that piques your curiosity from the newspaper go with it. Do some basic research and see where it leads.

At this point, however, let me say that you should have a well thought out business plan. Have you identified your target projects? You should have identified what your niche is and what type, location or time period makes up your focus. Following your curiosity is great but it should be supporting your well laid out business plan not taking you on an unrelated tangent.

4. Reach out beyond your comfort zone

Have your ever considered calling a reporter? Would you ever have the guts to call the FBI? Would you cold call the descendants of a historical figure that you are researching? This kind of outreach can be unnerving. We can give ourselves all sorts of excuses not to do it. Megan consistently reaches out to people she doesn't know. I suspect her need to solve the mystery is greater than her fear of being rejected or being thought crazy. We need to overcome our fears and reach out to those that can become out of the box clients or stakeholders that can help solve our puzzles. This is exactly how Megan got her job with the FBI. She picked up the phone and reached out to them. You can do it too.

4. Believe in yourself

One of the major underlying themes of the book is Megan's belief in herself and her ability to solve a mystery. I think you believe in your abilities too. How far will you allow your confidence take you?

In the case of Annie Moore, the first person through Ellis Island, Megan was trying to identify Annie in a photograph. She contacted Ellis Island and they flat out said basically that's not her, it was taken in the wrong location. How many of us would have abandoned the search at this point? Megan believed that she really did have a photo Annie Moore and went to great extremes to try to prove it despite what the folks at Ellis Island said.

We need to harness the strength in our own skills and allow that to translate into confidence that will thwart the naysayers in appropriate circumstances. Learn when to walk away and when to stick with it.

5. Invest in yourself

At times Megan has had to invest in herself. When no one else sponsored her projects, she sponsored them herself. Over the years, Megan has spent her own money on researching projects she believed in. Initial investment is key to starting any new business. Perhaps as genealogists we need to re-think investing in ourselves and our own businesses. And I'm not just talking about buying business supplies.  If your curiosity is piqued by a history mystery, you may have to invest some of your own time and money to make the project become a success. Consider it a business expense and get started. If it fits within your business plan and you believe it's worthwhile then don't hold back.

6. Become a storyteller

Genealogists love details and footnotes! But sometimes we get so mired in the tiny details that we don't step back and enjoy the story. Genealogists have great stories to tell. Many people would enjoy hearing these stories whether they are other genealogists or just folks who enjoy a good tale. Step back from the details and learn how to tell an interesting story.  Megan has made a career of this. You don't have to sacrifice great genealogical research to become a good storyteller.  Author Diane Rapaport is another wonderful example of this.

7. Share your stories

Don't be afraid to share your stories! You can write the stories yourself in an article or a book or you can contact a reporter who could be "your voice." If your client work has led to fascinating stories don't be shy about contacting the client for permission to publish. Perhaps they will be flattered by the offer.

Think back over your projects from the past year. How many of them can be transformed into great tales? Now count up how many of them you have shared beyond yourself or your client. Instead of reinventing the wheel draw on your vast supply of completed project work.

Business success, regardless of your line of work, is all about thinking outside the box and finding underlying themes or needs that others miss. When I set out to read Hey, America, Your Roots are Showing I never expected it to be a guide to success.  Learn to look beyond the obvious message as you process the world at large and you will change your business and your life.

Digging a Little Deeper - Digital Vs. Paper

Yesterday, I asked "What format do you prefer for genealogy information?" I am always taken aback with what strikes a cord with readers. Apparently that one did. I had many comments on the blog itself as well as on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

One thing that surprised me was how many people are either completely digital or mostly digital in their genealogy research. That's not a bad thing just not exactly how I operate.

Let me bring you a more specific scenario and see how you respond.

When you are working on a specific challenge or brick wall how do you go about your analysis? I am not talking about regular fact finding genealogy research where you gather information about ancestors. I'm talking about that one (or two if it is a husband and wife/father and son, etc) ancestor that stops you dead in your tracks and makes you think.

When I am working on a really tough problem I can't work from my database or my digital files. I need to see the relevant documents spread out in front of me, side by side. I need to be able to read documents over and over in case I've missed something. I have one document, a deposition, that I acquired five years ago that I am still reading and gleaning information from.

I just can't do this sort of thing electronically.  I can do background research online, create a research plan on the computer, type up my notes in a word processor, etc but I have to do this on paper.

Even if all the documents were stored in a software program, I couldn't bring them up on the computer side by side big enough to compare them.

So, tell me, am I unique in needing visual print outs for this kind of analysis? Are the rest of you doing this on the computer?

They say there are different styles of learning. Maybe there are different styles for analysis too. But I was really surprised by all of you who keep everything stored solely in the computer. 

Now I'm starting to think I'm old fashioned! :)

What Format Do You Prefer for Genealogy Information?

Last week I gave a webinar called "10 Brick Wall Tips for Beginners."  The first point in my webinar was reviewing your data and looking at it with fresh eyes. That got me thinking. What format *is* your genealogy information in? I am really curious to know.

Is your family history handwritten on paper? Is it written out as text in a word processing document? Is it on random papers and stuffed in manila folders? Is it all kept in a software program (that is hopefully backed up!)? Maybe index cards?  Or something else?

My genealogy information is in four basic formats:

• My genealogy software program
• 3-ring binders with sheet protectors for documents
• Personal genealogy reports in Microsoft Word documents
• Typed up notes and/or transcriptions from research trips in Microsoft Word

When I started out in genealogy I put everything in my genealogy software program and stuffed random papers in manila folders.

As I became more experienced, I still used the software program but now do more in a word processor. My personal genealogy reports include my objective/task, what I searched, what I found from those searches and my conclusions up to that point.  I find those are really helpful with brick walls that are researched over a long period of time. It's hard to keep all the information in my head and the research report helps remind me quickly where I left off.

I used to fight the urge to use 3-ring binders and sheet protectors. Now I have caved into it. When I am hot on the genealogy trail I need to be able to access and review my documents quickly. Stuffing them in a manila folder doesn't let me flip between the documents easily. As I am processing and analyzing I sometimes flip through the information hundreds of times. I also print out pedigree charts and family groups sheets and put them in my binder so that I am not dependent on a computer for a quick look-up.

If you were to review your information as I suggested in the webinar, what format would you find your information in? How would you gather and sort through it?

Let me know!

Photo Credit: photo by Muffet and used under the creative commons license.