Cousins,
Recently someone called my attention to a web site that includes a
"Genealogy Tip of the Day" <
http://www.emazing.com/> written by George G.
Morgan. Many of these are rather ordinary; the sorts of things we all know
to do. Occasionally, however, they post one that is so clever, or
practical, or essential that I just say "YES!" and so I've occasionally
saved them to remind myself of ways to improve my research.
If these interest you, you can visit the web site, and subscribe to a daily
e-mail which contains the "Tip of the Day."
Regards!
JS
Here are a few of my favorites:
Wednesday February 9, 2000
PERPETUAL CALENDAR
Have you ever wondered on what day of the week your
great-grandmother was born? Or have you wondered whether someone famous was
born on the same date as your father? An excellent perpetual calendar
resource on the Web can be found at Calendarhome.com's 10,000 year calendar
Web site at <
http://www.calendarhome.com/tyc/>. Here you can select a
century, a year and a month and click to display a calendar. Then, click on
the day of the month if you want to learn the moon phase, historical events
on that date, the names of famous people born on that date, and much more
information.
Thursday February 10, 2000
RECORDING LOCATIONS
For each of your ancestors' vital dates (birth, marriage, death),
always record the precise name of the location as it existed at the time of
the event. That means listing the town, the county or parish, and the state
for U.S. events. For foreign locations, record the town, province and
county. More important, because boundaries and jurisdictions change so much
over time, make certain you have recorded the correct names of county or
state or province or country as it existed when the event occurred. This is
important to you for purposes of locating copies of records and important
for future researchers who want to confirm your research and obtain copies
of documents for themselves.
Friday February 11, 2000
TAKE COPIES WITH YOU
Never take your original materials with you on a research trip.
Always make copies in the event that you lose them or need a quick place to
make notes. You can always make another copy but originals are difficult to
replace. Copies of pedigree charts, family group sheets and other documents
make excellent 'working copies' when you are on a research trip.
Monday February 14, 2000
SEEK ALTERNATIVE PATHS
When you encounter a dead end in locating the parents of an
ancestor, look for records for his or her siblings. Your ancestor's
obituary, a family Bible or another record may provide the names of
brothers and/or sisters. Try to trace one or more siblings' records back to
identify and locate information about the parents.
Tuesday February 15, 2000
RECORD SOURCE INFORMATION ON COPIES
When you make a photocopy of a page from a pertinent book at a
library or archive, make a note of the publication information for your
source citation. Include:
-Author's name(s)
-Title
-City and state (and country if foreign) of publication
-Name of publisher
-Year of publication
-Other appropriate information (volume number, edition, etc.)
When you return home, enter this information into your word processor in a
bibliographic citation format. Feed the photocopies through your printer so
that the citation will be neatly printed on the back of the photocopies you
made from that source.
Friday February 18, 2000
RECORDING NEIGHBORS FROM THE CENSUS
When working with census records, be sure to record the names of
neighbors in six residences on either side of your ancestors. This can be
helpful in other censuses, before and after, in determining when and where
you ancestors arrived in or departed from an area. It can also be helpful
in locating any land and tax records for your ancestors if they owned
property.
____________________________
James Shuman, art instructor
Modesto High School
jshuman(a)telis.org
____________________________