Category Archives: FFF Database

Organizing

Categories: FFF Database, Genealogy
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 37 seconds

Most genealogists get to the point where they realize that they have a lot of information and it’s not well organized. We start out trying to be organized, or we don’t really know what we’re doing. And then one day, the idea of how to get better organized hits us.

Then we have to actually make it happen. After a lot of years of research, that gets even harder. I have long put off my own research in favor of my clients’ research, as rightly I should, but I still often snuck in some work on my own family. The problem is, while I’ve gathered records over the years, I haven’t been adding information into my database.

I have a folder on my computer called “Documents To Do” inside of my genealogy folder. It has over 3,000 files in.

OK, so about 1,000 of them are Chicago birth records that I began indexing. But then Cook County went and indexed them all, so I didn’t have to do that anymore. Maybe I should delete those, because I didn’t find my cousins’ records until that other index showed up.

I also have some other records that I’ve meant to index, or do something with. I have been collecting Feldstein records for a one name study that I haven’t really started. I have about 300 census images, but I only finished gathering those up to 1910.

That still leaves at least 2,000 files. So how am I going to go about organizing that?

One file at a time.

And that’s what I’ve been doing this month, instead of blogging. I’ve been meaning to blog. I found someone in a census seven years after she died and thought that might make for an interesting short blog post. I got to work on my 1940 census entries and found two in a row that had the supplemental question — I hadn’t noticed that I had any before. And I just keep digging away, slowly, at the records. I even added a new person to the database, when I found an uncle in someone’s household.

I actually started this bout of organizing last year, or was it the year before, so I have to figure out where I left off and continue that part also. I was working on replacing my paper files with digital copies; where they came from the Family History Library, I am scanning from the microfilm again instead of just scanning the old paper copy.

I’ll be doing this for a very long time but hopefully I’ll make a serious dent. I’m trying to avoid finding any more records until I’ve gotten all the old ones straightened out. So far this month, I’ve been pretty good about that. But I have no doubt that I will be adding new documents as I find them. I just have to make sure they go straight into my database so I don’t have to revisit them to figure them out again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more organizing to do in my own database, right after I deliver some things to my clients.

The URL of this post is http://idogenealogy.com/2013/01/31/organizing/.

Party and Programming

Categories: Accountability, David Tennant, Doctor Who, FFF Database, Genealogy, Genealogy Wiki, UJGS, Web Site Development
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 31 seconds

Went to Rochelle’s 60th birthday party. Alan and Andalin showed up eventually, so there were other people I knew. Had fun anyways.

Still working on my new FFF web site. Should be working for clients. Not prepared to go to the FHL today so will now plan to watch WDYTYA tonight and go downtown on Saturday. Must get some client organizing done for that.

Also, need to get back in touch with John, web site development client. It’s been since early in my cold that I last contacted him. I will need to do a lot of custom programming for his site, and integrating WordPress into it. I need to give him a rough estimate of the time/costs but haven’t even begun to think about that. I hate trying to estimate time; I suck at it.

Must still write a blog entry about the UJGS meeting.

Katie reminded me of Script Frenzy; I’d already gotten an email about it. I can’t think of anything to write except for something about David Tennant. What else is on my mind? But I wouldn’t know what to write. I’m a songwriter; I write vignettes. I can take five seconds of emotions and turn it into a four minute song, but I’m not loaded with complete stories. The NaNoWriMo novels are difficult enough. The only script I could think to write right now would be the Doctor Who episode I’ve been mulling over in my head, but it has no story. I’ve got a new companion and how they meet, lots of other details about her that would be revealed over time, and nothing else. That would make for a short script.

New Site Going Well

Categories: Accountability, FFF Database, Genealogy, Genealogy Wiki, UJGS
Estimated reading time: 0 minutes, 50 seconds

Got some research at the FHL for Michael.

Been working on my new FFF site. Got the name indexes and descendent trees automated so I won’t have to draw up those trees anymore. Those looked nice but were a drag to draw. I suppose I could try to automate those, but it’s more work than I want to do just now. I’d rather update the web site. I still have to update the database with a lot of new information for this year and finish the FFF newsletter.

Today is Rochelle’s birthday. I plan to drop in to her party.

I didn’t write up a blog entry for the UJGS meeting Monday night. It was a great success and we’re going to repeat that topic once every year. But it needs to be renamed. I’ve got a while to think of something clever.

Faces of America – Inspiration

Categories: FFF Database, Genealogy, Genealogy on TV, Genealogy Wiki
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 51 seconds

I just watched the third episode of Faces of America on PBS and was inspired. I meant to write a blog entry about the second episode which dealt with immigration and naturalization, two topics I deal with a lot in my research, but instead, this third episode has given me a revelation.

Of course I was interested in the stories of the families who were in America before it was the USA, but the story that hit me the hardest was that Yo-Yo Ma. It was that book, the one that literally fell out of a wall. What genealogist wouldn’t do anything to find a book like that?

He is incredibly lucky to now have such an item in his possession, but the only way most of the rest of us are going to get a book like that is to make it ourselves. We probably won’t be able to go back as far in the lineage, and we certainly won’t have first-hand accounts of anyone who lived more than 100 years ago, but we can take what we know now and begin the book.

It’s the old adage of “publish or perish” that most genealogists have heard time and time again. We need to create the book ourselves so that future generations will have the information to look back on.

Can you imagine how the genealogist of your family in 100 years’ time might feel when they want to know more about their family history and they find the book that you create today?

So I have a new idea in mind for how to go about this. It’s an old project that has had a few starts, but maybe this will be the one that works out and finishes. (Not that genealogy research is ever finished, but the others never came very close.) I want to combine a blog, the coolest features from my genealogy wiki, and hopefully incorporate the genealogy database I already have to create a new web site. I want to entice my relatives to leave their own stories as comments, and be able to reasonably easily publish all of the information in a printed book or PDF. Oh yes, I have a lot of programming to do.