Monday, April 2, 2007

10 Wise Genealogy Decisions

I posted 10 of my foolish ways yesterday, and wanted to be positive today - so here are 10 Wise Decisions I've made relative to genealogy research over 19 years:

10) Made or obtained audiotapes of several aunts and an uncle about their family life, including earlier generations they remembered or heard about.

9) Pestered my mother about family papers, photographs, etc. and who people in pictures were, if she knew (she had 4 generations of papers and stuff). Even so, I found many papers, books and ephemera in the house after she died.

8) Joined local and national genealogy societies in order to obtain periodicals and enjoy the membership benefits. I submitted queries to many of the societies for my elusive ancestors in those areas.

7) Used local libraries and the FHC to obtain books (sometimes through Inter-library Loan) concerning my ancestral families and localities. At the FHC, people were very helpful when I started my research - so much so that I went almost every week for many years.

6) Determined early on that the Family History Library microfilms and microfiches were wonderful sources of primary information records; I ordered innumerable films at the FHC, and used them extensively in the "research" phase of my ancestral search.

5) Traveled to ancestral homelands on vacation, and visited family in those places, in order to experience the places and the people. I learned that there are many unique genealogy records in local historical societies, genealogy societies and libraries.

4) Started a family newsletter (19 years worth so far), and self-published two books, in order to share my research finds with my extended family - children, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I have provided these mainly as Christmas gifts.

3) Put my research results online - in the form of ahnentafel and descendants reports in order to share them with other researchers, and using them to elicit contacts or queries from other researchers.

2) Participated in my local societies when possible - by speaking, volunteering, leading, helping, and creating ways to bring people together to share genealogy methods and research.

1) Pursued continual genealogy education - in the form of reading articles, magazines, or books; attending talks, seminars and conferences; helping friends and family with their family history (and thereby learning about new localities or time frames); searching for and writing about current genealogy events and research techniques.

What wise decisions have you made during your genealogy research activities? I encourage my fellow genea-bloggers to create their own lists and share them with us and the people in their local society.

2 comments:

Jasia said...

No more fisking for me today (sorry about that). I didn't make your mistakes but I didn't make all your wise decisions either. My hat is off to you for all your widsom.

Anonymous said...

Ni3adA The best blog you have!