When I read the email from Thomas MacEntee on "My Latest Trip to Salt Lake and Why I'm Dumping My 20 Years of Genealogy Research" it really spoke to me. I had actually thought about doing the same thing many times in the 37 years I have been working on the family trees; I have my husbands, son and daughter in laws also in the works. Yes, that does mean I did start before the computer became a household item and back then it was "gather the names", citing your sources wasn't something we did every time, why did we need that data? We knew where we got that data. Yeah, I am kind of embarrassed now. So, when I tried to go back and find things in the past, hummm, where did I get that information? Which archive was I in? What book, where was that one found? See what I mean?
As time went on and I learned more, I did become move diligent on gathering the sources, not always citing them in my genealogy programs where I can print out that data for others. I am in the process of taking classes from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and have learned so much more to add to all I have learned from classes over the years from attending various conferences on genealogy. Genealogy is a hobby that is always evolving, more to learn, easier ways or better ways to research.
As I read all the FaceBook posts on our closed group I have learned so much already, check us out at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/genealogydoover We are all in the same boat from what I can tell, learning from each other. I now have even more to learn as I see posts on Evidentia, FileMarker, FileFolder, Evernote (I've tried this one but need to work on it more). Yes, it can be confusing, but what a great opportunity. A redo!
My goals for beginning this venture:
1. My genealogy is mostly boxed up, since I am in the process of moving, putting it away was fairly easy. This is a good time to begin I think. I still have binders on the shelf with some documents and I will use them.
2. I really need to update my files/folders on the computer. Again, great time for this since I had to begin fresh due to a virus on the laptop, but the backups from various machines are on various portable hard drives. Get the picture? I need some organization! This is the time!
3. As I research from now on I will be going slower than warped speed of old days. This means I will be digesting as I go, analyzing each item along with research plans and logs, citing my sources each time with no excuse.
4.Starting fresh means starting over with a new file on the computer. This is not that hard, just very time consuming, but I am not inputting "all the family", just the known members I have absolute knowledge of. I should end up with the same group as before I started if my work is correct. There might be a surprise but I don't think so. My research has been pretty solid, just not entirely documented along the way.
If you feel like your genealogy needs some work or you would like to learn different ways to make your work shine, take a look at what's being done on the Do Over Week 1 it's not too late! Come join us, don't be shy!
