For better or for worse, I went ahead and just deleted my “old” Mays family tree from my website. It started as just deleting the living individuals. It evolved into a small rebellion on my part. People who have visited this site since it’s inception know how many times I’ve deleted everything and re-added everything. Not to mention when I’ve accidentally broken the website coding. This is how we learn though right? Well, I just forced myself over the ledge for the betterment of my family website.
Some may not like that I put all my research and documents out there for the data loggers and research thieves out there. I don’t mind though. As long as I’m not harming anyone living, I don’t see a problem with it. It’s amazing how much my genealogy world has widened just by reading blogs by other genealogists. I’ve always had all my information out there for the world to enjoy and yes people use a lot of what I put out there. I don’t mind though. It’s such a good feeling to be able to help someone in their own research. My family from all over enjoy being able to see all my research, especially since we usually only see each other once a year at the reunion. I don’t exactly carry the whole of my research with me. Sometimes some pictures, but usually only my laptop.
Family File (Before)
So I’m slowly adding a person at a time to the website and citing all their sources, while I also enter them into my program. Another plunge I made was I finally purchased the full version of RootsMagic. If I am a little short of my September Ancestry subscription goal, so be it (I don’t think I will be though)! I’m sorry but I just couldn’t get the sources to be a neat and manageable in Family Tree Maker. The way is there, but I just couldn’t get over the ease of RootsMagic. This by no means suggests I’ll forever give up one program for the other. In the case of building my “official” Family File though. I’m doing it in RootsMagic for now.
Family File (After)
The after picture shows you the real impact of this undertaking. In my old file I had 25 sources and 162 citations for 4171 people. With just 31 people in this tree, I already have 15 sources and 79 citations. That’s half of what I had in my old file and I’ve only added 8 families. This is probably the best thing I ever did for my family tree. Now I just have to figure out the best way of preserving the records and photos I have. One thing at a time though. Today the plan is to add some more census records and to search through the Kentucky Death Records. I love how much enjoyment I can get from an evening spent with a nice cold Ginger Ale and my fluffy pajama pants, going through Census records. In fact I think the Census records are by far my favorite thing in the whole wide world.
I did that on Saturday morning! Sat at my desk in my pjs drinking Ginger Ale {heh, I’m even drinking it now. I LOVE Ginger Ale!}, trying to find that one elusive census that you managed to nab for me. In case you forgot, THANK YOU SO MUCH! 😀
I was glad to help!
I seriously love sitting in my fluffy pajamas with a cold drink doing research. 🙂 Ginger Ale is my drink of choice in the past year. I do still drink Diet stuff, but I’m weaning myself off soda.
Ginger Ale is my current obsession, and it’s because I’m trying to get away from soda’s too. First getting rid of the caffeine, but I think I’m stuck on this. >.< I love it too much to give it up.
Could I ask you for another census? Its for Charles T O'Rourke {listed as Chas, I think} married to Hannah T. I've got the 1900, but there's a 1910 on ancestry.com that I'd like to nab, when and if you get the time. If it helps, its from Alabama and his birth year is 1834. These O'Rourke's are giving me nothing but headaches! But it feels fantastic when I find ways to obtain more info! 😀
I know, I think it’s great because it’s refreshing. I like that it doesn’t have caffeine or that heavy, syrup taste sodas have. In fact I’m about to break out the fluffy pajamas and ginger ale here soon.
Trust me, I feel your pain! The Mays family was driving me wild today. I still can’t figure them out. ^.^
http://moore-mays.org/images/orourke-1910.jpg