June 2016 – Moore-Mays Genealogy

Wordless Wednesday: Swimming

Posted on 29-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

Wordless Wednesday is a Daily Blogging Prompt from GeneaBloggers.

Genealogy Do-Over: More Prep Work

Posted on 27-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

This series of posts are based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂

First things first, I finally cleaned off my desk the best I could.

I will probably clean off all that stuff on the left eventually, but I need to get some more storage solutions for that. I cleaned off a ton of different books and papers. Only things I will need as I work are on the desk. This has probably been one of the most helpful things I’ve done. I’ve already noticed that I am a lot more focused than I’ve been in the past.

The other thing I did was I decided I wanted to overhaul my bookmarks. They’ve been a mess for years and I was so hesitant about it for about 5 minutes. Then I decided I would just clean out my Google Chrome bookmarks and start fresh. It’s amazing how much easier it gets to start fresh.

The fun part is I am still building that Toolbox and adding to my Genealogy bookmarks almost two weeks after I started fresh. This has also been a HUGE help in keeping me focused. I took off bookmarks to all my news, celebrity, and other time-wasting websites… Except Facebook because I use it daily to help my research. I have found that I don’t even miss those sites. If I get the urge, I just go ahead and type the address manually. I have found that if I have to go to the effort of typing it in, I don’t bother to go. That probably makes me sound very lazy!

Last but not least, is the research log. Sorry for the blurs, but I’m sure you understand. I am using a template that was generously shared by Thomas MacEntee. I have tweaked it a bit to help me use the filters feature more effectively, because I do love the filters feature. I am still trying to decide if I will be keeping just one log or doing one for each surname. Right now, I think I am leaning toward one for each surname but I just can’t decide yet. I figure I can always copy and paste later into a new file if it becomes too much to handle. I will fill you in on the research log more when I start adding in someone I don’t have to worry about privacy blurs with. Right now I am still working on adding in my living relatives.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Llewellyn’s Bits and Pieces

Posted on 23-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

Treasure Chest Thursday is a Blogging Prompt used by the GeneaBloggers community to help bloggers come up with things to write about their ancestors.

I’ve always known I am very lucky to have inherited a box of things from my Great-Grandmother Llewellyn. I could probably fill a whole year of Thursdays with posts about the many things that she un-intentionally passed down to me.

This is what it all looked like when I took the things out of the little baggy they were in. The tie clip was hanging loose but the rest were in the little box there. I should tell you my Grandpa Moore was an antiques seller for a long time. That means that every once and awhile you have to think to yourself, “Does this really belong with my family?” It’s entirely possible every bit of this doesn’t belong to my family, or it all could. These were definitely treated differently by him though, which makes me think that they had special meaning.

Tie Clip: I do believe this one belongs. The simple fact is that William Lawrence Moore and Lewis Thorward, his father in law, were both long time Freemasons. I have to learn more about all of that so I understand it better and what it can tell me about them.

Eastern Star pin: I know that Llewellyn and her parents were very committed to the Methodist Church in Caldwell. Llewellyn volunteered there almost her whole life. From teaching Sunday School, organizing socials, and whatever else she could help with. From her and her husband’s grave stone I have evidence that these pieces most likely are theirs. Even though Grandpa Moore’s memory wasn’t quite there, I’m sure that the life long commitment that his parents gave to these organizations helped him hold on to these treasures.

Crosses: Unfortunately this is where my background on the bits and pieces ends. I don’t know the story or the owners of these crosses, but I am keeping them with the other bits because it feels in my gut that these were Llewellyns.

Six pence: This one I am completely clueless on. Maybe Llewellyn or someone in her family traveled to England and kept this as a souvenir?

Other bits: The one on the left looks to be a bracelet that broke. The bird is possibly a brooch?

I may not know a lot about where these bits and pieces come from but I sure do love them as if they were passed down directly from Llewellyn herself.

Sources:

Llewellyn’s Boxes of Treasures for the bits and pieces

BeFunky: Used to help me create the graphic.

Disclaimer: This post contains no affiliate links and I receive nothing for using the websites mentioned.

Wordless Wednesday: Unknown Girl

Posted on 22-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

Wordless Wednesday is a Daily Blogging Prompt from GeneaBloggers.

Genealogy Do-Over: More Decisions

Posted on 21-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

The series of posts I will be writing is based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂

I have been ill for that last few days and after a lot of rest, I am finally feeling better! This means I am so far behind in all the tasks I had set myself up for this week. That’s alright though, there’s nothing like a little rest to help you get a clearer thought process!

Here are the things I’m working on this week.

1. Setting up a Research Log

I am still looking into the best way to set this up for my research. The hard part is figuring out what will work best for my research when I’m not currently researching. This will most likely change plenty as I go along but I’m probably going to start adding in responses from my form and my cousin’s information to help me get the log going. I will let you guys know what that looks like as soon as I figure it out myself!

If anyone has some research log tips, I’d love to hear them!

2. Digital Organization

The second that I decided I was going to open an empty Legacy Family Tree file, I created a problem for myself. Was I going to keep my current organization method or change it? Was I going to keep my current file name method or change it? The answer is I don’t know. I did a previous write-up on my working digital organization. That was working well for me, except for the OneNote part where I never really got it up and functional. I still want to do something with OneNote, I just don’t know how. The more I read from other researchers, the more I take in what they are doing and see that I could be more efficient in other ways.

birthrecordfolder — Old System – Birth Records Folder

PROs to changing my system

I really like the way people use a surname to separate their files. Mine is currently setup by record. If I were to organize it by surname, I wouldn’t have to flip through folders when working on just one ancestor.
Starting fresh and re-organizing everything will help me make sure I have every record entered and analyzed for each person.
I would better be able to see which records I am missing for each person.
Using an alphabetical system might be easier to navigate than the random numbering sequence I had used before.
Greater ability to keep family groups together. You can tell from my screenshot that before everything was sorted by number. That number was given as a person was entered into my program. That means records for one family group could be thousands of records apart. If I switch to a surname based system, it would be easier to group families together.

CONs to changing my system

I am really used to my current system and changing could cause me a lot of confusion.
My numbering system is going bye-bye. It would be too hard of a process to try to keep the numbers the same. This means renaming every single digital file. (This is not necessarily a bad thing.)

I have some more things I’m working through but not quite ready to blog about yet, so you can be sure I’ll be back once I do. I’m sure hoping that when I decide what to do this time it is for the final time! I hope you all are doing great in your research endeavors. 🙂