My Genealogy Foundation

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks by Amy Johnson Crow has Week 1 (Jan. 1-10) weekly prompt as Foundations.

So what comes to mind when you think of Genealogy, Ancestors and Foundations? Many things come to mind, such as my genealogy foundation of education. I have an A type of personality, thus before I jumped in Genealogy, I researched the processes of how to do genealogy. 40 years ago as an 18 year old, I went to my local library and started reading beginning genealogy books. Talk about information overload. Even after reading all those books, I end up redoing my genealogy in the year days, because I overlooked the importance of standardized forms. All my forms were not the same size and were not even the same form. For example, I used many different Family group sheets.

Therefore, I am going to start my 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks with what I learned when I started doing genealogy, my foundation into genealogy.

I started with one binder with 8 tabs and placed my great-grandparents surnames (women’s maiden names) for each tab. Even though, none of my grandparents were alive, my parents were and they knew who their grandparents were. (At least I thought they did, more on that later).

I interviewed my parents about their parents and their grandparents. Collecting as much information about them and recording them onto Family Group sheets. (please pick one family group sheet and use this from now on). Back when I started, personal computers were in their infancy. Don’t overlook using paper forms for collecting information from family. These forms are your starting point.

In the beginning, I didn’t really use research logs. I used logs to record when I sent snail mail out to family or repositories, but not where I looked or what I looked up. In the beginning I wasted time, looking at the same books, more than once. Therefore, even it’s only a simple notebook; write down what you looked up. Books don’t change, therefore if you looked up the surname Jones in a book and whatever you find or don’t find, record it. This is also true for some on-line database you look up. What you don’t find today, you might find tomorrow. Or if you don’t find it, it might not be added in that database. Understand the resources you are using. You may want to repeat some lookups or try them a different way.

Never assume anything and don’t exclude anything unless you fully research it. For example, in the beginning I was looking up a book of Marriage indexes and found my 2^nd great grandmother Wilhelnina Booth. I found her marriage to my 2^nd great grandfather Seymour Hiltz. Then I saw another entry for a Nellie Booth and I ignored it. I ignored it for about 30 years. I revisited this entry when I discovered that Seymour abandoned his family and Wilhelnina married someone, but I didn’t know who. Well guess what, this was her second marriage. Had I not ignored it, dismissed it because I thought this could not possibly be her. This also applies to ignoring anything that isn’t spelled the way you want it. Our ancestors were not as picky about spelling as we are.

Finally, record where you find your information, don’t rely on memory. In the beginning, I asked my Aunt who was mentoring me, if we need to record where we find this information. She said no because it isn’t like we were going to join a lineage society. However, if you don’t want to waste time, knowing where you found stuff will save you from looking there again. Plus, when you share stuff with other researchers, they want to know where you looked and where you found stuff. You might find more things in the same location.

Therefore, good genealogy relies on a good foundation. A good foundation relies on good research skills and habits. Start off properly and you won’t have to repeat what you have done.

Good luck in your research.