Monday, July 26, 2010

Whew! Back to the future?

...
My genealogy pursuits seem to rotate between genealogy speaking and teaching, my own family history research and database management, and doing research for others.

In the past three months, the focus has been on the first item - the speaking and teaching. I counted it up, and I've done the following since May:

* Teach Genealogy 101 Workshop for Chula Vista Genealogical Society (4 two-hour sessions, new presentations and handouts).

* Present "Wikis for Genealogy" at Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) (one-hour, new presentation and handout)

* Present "Using Ancestry.com Effectively" at San Diego Jewish Genealogical Society (SDJGS) (1.5 hour, significantly revised presentation and handout)

* Teach "Beginning Computer Genealogy Class at OASIS in San Diego (4 two-hour sessions, revised presentations and handouts)

* Talk on Blogger Panel #1 at SCGS Genealogy Jamboree (Q&A session, no handout)

* Present "Using Ancestry.com Effectively" at Chula Vista Genealogical Society (1.5 hour, slightly revised presentation and handout)

* Present "Using Ancestry.com Effectively" at Corona Genealogical Society (1.5 hour, slightly revised presentation and handout)

* Present "Finding Your Elusive Ancestor: Doing a Reasonably Exhaustive Search" at Genealogical Society of North Orange County California (GSNOCC) (1 hour, significantly revised presentation and handout)

* Present "Using the Old and New FamilySearch.org" at Chula Vista Genealogical Society (2 hours, new presentation and handout).

Fifteen speaking efforts in about ten weeks. It's been fun, but tiring, and the preparation has really cut into my blogging time and my personal research time. I have nothing on the speaking/teaching calendar until October when I do the OASIS class again. Or until somebody else asks me!

For the next two months, I'm going to try to do more work in my genealogy database - fixing my source citations, eliminating duplicate persons, combining duplicate places, etc. I will also try to find more information for some of my ancestral families for which I have nothing in my Research Notes - I may have material to enter from my paper collections (if I can find them). I'm looking at my bookcases of research notebooks and thinking that I can probably triage many of them - weed out the useless papers, review the useful pages and enter material into my Notes, and integrate the papers in the "to be filed" piles into the notebooks.

I also need to start going to the Family History Center more often. I've been exactly "zero" times so far this year - that's embarrassing! There are plenty of microfilms that can be ordered, reviewed and images captured therefrom - just need to get off the keyboard and into the Mercury and tool up the freeway to the FHC.

My one-name studies of Seaver, Carringer, Auble, Buck and Dill have sort of been ignored for the past several years - and there are many new databases just waiting to be mined for information about these families. Doing that is "fun" work and I'm going to try to do more of it, but I need a "plan" to make sure I check the available databases once.

Then there is the research work for other persons. I have several projects on hold and hope to be able to finish them in the next few months.

Of course, Grandpa Camp with grandson Lucas is in August, and we expect to see the grandgirls once or twice each month, and we will probably go up to the Bay area in September to see the grandboys and Linda's brother's family.

3 comments:

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

Thanks for the reminder, Randy, to sit back and evaluate here at mid-year. Suppose I should look at my first of the year resolutions.
Best wishes!

Bill ;-)

http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/
Author of "Back to the Homeplace"
and "13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories"
http://www.examiner.com/x-53135-Springfield-Genealogy-Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-58285-Ozarks-Cultural-Heritage-Examiner

Brenda Leyndyke said...

I know what you mean about the FHL. I can walk to mine and I don't go often enough-If I can't remember the last time I went I guess it is time to go!!

Unknown said...

I read the "Checklist Manifesto"
https://sddp.sirsi.net/uhtbin/cgisirsi/iLRNYsNou9/CENTRAL/311690154/9 and have been trying to devise a checklist for genealogy ever since. I want to go through my database - fill in and update - and thought a checklist would be useful.
Here are the items I have so far:
IGI, Census, Steve Morse
Fam. Search, Footnote, NEHGS [Register and TAG], Message Boards via Google search, FHL Card Catalog, Google Genealogy search, World Vital Records, Digital Atlas to verify locations.
There would be many others depending upon the country and time period.
What do you think of the checklist concept?