June 2016 – Page 2 – Moore-Mays Genealogy

Genealogy Do-Over: Where I’m At

Posted on 15-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 am still working behind the scenes on a bunch of different tasks for my Genealogy Do-Over.

Most of my immediate family members had previously provided me with their vital information. My form will hopefully help to bring in some cousin connections a little further out from what I previously knew. That doesn’t get me the stories though. Then I had a really great thought while going through the really great tips the members of the Genealogy Do-Over Facebook group gave me. In our shed we have one of those binder machines like this:

Image used from a listing on Amazon.com

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of that little machine and I finally sparked an idea about how to get some of the stories down.

I’m in the process of using a bunch of different interview suggestions from Legacy Family Tree and making a book to send to each one of my Aunts, my Uncles, my Cousins, my Parents, and hopefully my Great-Aunt too. I’ll probably even fill one out for myself.

The other thing I am working on in the background is my research goals. I wasn’t sure how to go about this but again, the Genealogy Do-Over community was a big help. In the files, the author Thomas MacEntee shared an example of his research goals and it absolutely clicked for me. The way I am going about this now will help me to stay accountable for each fact. I think it will even better track my research. The best part is, it’s a Word document on my computer and I can always edit it.

Sorry for all the blurs, but most of the people in my research goals are my living cousins. What I really like is that by using the headings settings in Word, I can collapse each person when I’m not working with them. When I am working with William Lawrence Moore, I will be able to assess him deeper and add in Prove his land ownership or Prove his occupation. I really believe this will help me out tremendously!

Thanks for sticking with me through this transition period!

Re-Organizing my Old Blog Posts

Posted on 13-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

I’m here to show you how I’ve become a complete organization addict. I’ve been doing really great at setting my organization up for my Genealogy Do-Over. I am still working on that and still working through Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W. Jones. It’s going against everything in me not to follow some leads that I see in my head as I look at some of my old blog posts.

Speaking of old blog posts. I am re-organizing them. I never really used a consistent organization method with them and that’s what I’m going back and changing now. I have a lot more time on my hands while I work through my other tasks. The most important reason is I want to be able to find what I’m looking for easier. I use the blog as a way of talking things over with myself or others. I think this will help me to remember what I’ve already said on a subject before and to easily find past entries.

Meet my new Blog Tracker. I am tracking the date I posted, the title, names I mentioned, tags I used, categories I used (some are changing as I go), whether I added SEO data, if I want to re-visit that entry, if I have links to my database website to fix, if I want to go back and add source citations, and if a family member commented.

All that is the data I want to track. Oh boy, it’s a lot. It doesn’t take me more than a couple of minutes to actually log this information. I like that I am using the filters feature, because I can see at a glance all my entries for Lewis Thorward or George Thorward.

Most of the information I am logging, is actually view-able at a glance on my post listing. There isn’t a really efficient way for me to view 62 pages (!!!) of information and cut through it. Unless there are some great search tips that I don’t know about.

There isn’t anything changing in the old posts. I am just adding Tags for the family names discussed and making a shorter category list for now. Later I will go back and fix links, once I am into my research again and know what numbers to use. I will also make links between entries that ended up being a part of a series.

Hopefully, this won’t take me 8 years to do, but I have a feeling it will go quicker than I think. Are you going through an organization overhaul? Is it kicking your butt too?

SNGF: Genealogy Database Statistics

Posted on 11-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

It’s Saturday night and time for another round of Saturday Genealogy Night Fun from Randy Seaver! This week Randy tells us to go into our genealogy management program and share some statistics! This means how many people, places, sources, and more!

Since I’m starting a Genealogy Do-Over, I will show both my old file and my new one. There should be a drastic difference here!

In my old family file here are the basic statistics:

Number of Individuals: 3957
Number of Families: 1170
Unique Surnames: 788
Master Locations: 821
Master Sources: 404
Citations: 23,955
Events: 7619

Time for the new one!

Number of Individuals: 66
Number of Families: 25
Unique Surnames: 25
Master Locations: 38
Master Sources: 19
Citations: 189
Events: 11

Definitely a difference there! I haven’t even finished adding in my first cousins and their children into the new file yet!

If you’d like to participate, head over to Randy’s blog and get the instructions. 🙂

Coincidences

Posted on 10-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

I’ve talked about coincidences before on my blog. It seems there is always a little taste of it in genealogy research. Two of the first coincidences that I remember coming across, I’ve already blogged about. The time I found someone from my mother’s side of the family, in a book halfway across the country that my father’s side of the family owned. The other time was when I got some Redford family photos from my Great-Aunt Barb and it had William H. Moore written on the back. This would be a generation before my Moore grandfather married my Redford grandmother.

I’m back today with another Redford coincidence, but this time when it comes to the address they lived at. Between 1910 and 1920, Herbert Redford and his wife Sadie Sutcliffe-Redford lived at 16 Gist Place in Orange, New Jersey.

Well, now that I know who Sadie’s parents are, I was able to do some census searching for her siblings and parents. It just so happens I found another coincidence around the corner and a couple blocks away from Herbert and Sadie’s residence.

The location of this other household is not the coincidence. It’s their surname.

The household at 197 Day Street is the home of John Gist and his wife Alice. Alice’s maiden name just happens to be Sutcliffe and her sister Elizabeth Sutcliffe even lives with her. Alice and Elizabeth are the sisters of my 2nd great-grandmother, Sarah (Sadie) Ann Sutcliffe.

It’s definitely a small genealogy world. It’s crazy to think Sadie’s family has been there all this time. I’ve had Herbert and Sadie entered into my database for over 10 years and now, I find Sadie’s sister just a few census pages from her in 1910.

Note: This research was done before I started my Genealogy Do-Over.

Coincidences

Posted on 10-Jun-2016 by Kathleen

I’ve talked about coincidences before on my blog. It seems there is always a little taste of it in genealogy research. Two of the first coincidences that I remember coming across, I’ve already blogged about. The time I found someone from my mother’s side of the family, in a book halfway across the country that my father’s side of the family owned. The other time was when I got some Redford family photos from my Great-Aunt Barb and it had William H. Moore written on the back. This would be a generation before my Moore grandfather married my Redford grandmother.

I’m back today with another Redford coincidence, but this time when it comes to the address they lived at. Between 1910 and 1920, Herbert Redford and his wife Sadie Sutcliffe-Redford lived at 16 Gist Place in Orange, New Jersey.

Well, now that I know who Sadie’s parents are, I was able to do some census searching for her siblings and parents. It just so happens I found another coincidence around the corner and a couple blocks away from Herbert and Sadie’s residence.

The location of this other household is not the coincidence. It’s their surname.

The household at 197 Day Street is the home of John Gist and his wife Alice. Alice’s maiden name just happens to be Sutcliffe and her sister Elizabeth Sutcliffe even lives with her. Alice and Elizabeth are the sisters of my 2nd great-grandmother, Sarah (Sadie) Ann Sutcliffe.

It’s definitely a small genealogy world. It’s crazy to think Sadie’s family has been there all this time. I’ve had Herbert and Sadie entered into my database for over 10 years and now, I find Sadie’s sister just a few census pages from her in 1910.

Note: This research was done before I started my Genealogy Do-Over.