Evaluation of my digital tools:
Familysearch.org is a great way to organize genealogical information. It is very user friendly. The site allows searches into other genealogical lines, which means if my line connects with someone else’s line, then I can connect into their research. My favorite way to use family search is to visualize the connections. I can use the tree to follow lines or I can use the fan to see the generations. This is an easy way to see where the line has empty spaces, so I can identify a missing person. It is amazing.
Ancestry.com is great research tool. This site facilitates searches through census, marriage, death, and military records. This makes “finding” people online possible. The tool I found the most amazing was the timeline. This connects the events of a person’s life collected from different records. This is the beginning of creating the story of their lives. It may start with where they were born and who were their parents, but continues with where they lived, who they lived with, what work they did. This is the real story.
Things I learned this week:
- I am almost as good at loosing information with technology as I am with finding information. I love technology!
- My husband’s grandmother had at least three husbands that I know of, maybe more. This needs more research. There are still more children to identify from other spouses.
- My mother-in -law lost her son to lymphatic cancer just a month before she lost her mother to cancer as well. I already knew she was an amazing person, but that is remarkable.
Next week: I need some help. Time to investigate my human resources.