Sunday, January 4, 2015

The First Bite: Genealogy Do-Over

Having jumped All In in the Great Genealogy Do-Over of 2015 I was now faced with the dilemma of where to begin. Simple you say, start at the beginning (it's the very best place to start). Advice from Alice In Wonderland popped into my head:  "Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked. 'Begin at the beginning.' the King said, gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end; then stop." Well there you have it.

But it really wasn't that simple. I had quite a lot of research that was correct. I really did not want to reinvent the wheel. My grandmother, the Genealogy Queen, had compiled a very well documented pedigree that had gotten her into the DAR, the Huguenot Society, and The Colonial Dames of America. I was NOT putting that research aside. Plus it was already entered into my Ancestry program and Family Tree Maker.

After a time of pondering, contemplation and several heated conversations with myself (what happens in the Genealogy Cave, stays in the Genealogy Cave) I have crafted the following plan:

In Family Tree Maker I created eight separate smaller trees that begin with my four grandparents and an additional one that is my maternal side only. Four of those trees are direct lineage only. Four are direct and collateral. The Maternal tree is direct and collateral and I plan to attach my mother's DNA results to this tree when it is processed.

Starting with the direct lineage trees I have begun comparing the written work my grandmother did with what I have collected. It is tedious but manageable. Today, four days in,  I have verified one surname to it's known end and deleted the names that I exuberantly added from Ancestry Public Trees with no citations attached to them.

I have learned over the years not to include ANY information that was gathered from "Family Tree Files" sources including Millenium Files, Family Data Collections and Family Trees. That is where all my trouble started.

I have also learned to slow down, take my time and do it right. None of my ancestors are going anywhere, so what's the hurry? Today it's One Bite At A Time.

I'm ready for a second helping .....

2 comments:

  1. Anne,

    Did you know that you can work on your 4 separate "trees" but remain in the SAME file?

    Have you thought about using the Filter Feature in the People Workspace, Tree View?

    The reason that I thought about that while reading your blog post, was this question:

    What if, after all of this work on 4 separate file, that you want to Merge them together down the line.

    I find the Filter Feature allows you do Focus on a specific set of people.

    Just a thought.


    Russ

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    Replies
    1. Russ, thanks for the tip! I'll look into it. I'm still learning to operate FTM. ~Anne

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