February 7 meeting: Month 2 of the Do-Over

Before we talk about the Do-Over, make sure you go ahead and RSVP for the 5th annual FREE All Day Workshop! Tell your friends! We will have sessions for beginners and intermediate level genealogists, plus one long session on DNA! We will also have dedicated rooms for "hands on" work with help from our steering committee members. Bring your research and let's break down those brick walls! The workshop is March 5 2016 at Clayton State University. The cafe and sub shop will be open for breakfast and lunch. RSVP by sending us an email from the link above. The workshop is FREE, but we have limited space, so you must RSVP. 

There seems to be a broken link with our email address above. To RSVP, you may need to copy the address and paste it into your email program to send the message. ourgenealogygroup@gmail.com

February 7 agenda: 

We are starting month two of Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do-Over. 

Click this link for a review of month one of the do-over

Click on this link to buy/read the Do-Over Workbook

Hello OGG members! Are you ready to start month two of the Do-Over? In month one, you have "prepared to research". You have everything (EVERYTHING) put away. For example, my goal is to work on my mother's maternal line so, things I know I have are grandmother's birth certificate. I think I have her marriage certificate. I'm not sure. (Good thing I'm doing it over!) . I'm going to research as if I don't have these things. When I need them, instead of going to vital records to get these things again, I'm going to "Angela's Vital Records Closet" in my office to search for that record.

Month 2's goals are to Establish Base Practices and Guidelines and Set Research Goals. I'm following Thomas MacEntee's Do-Over and reading his Do-Over Workbook . I like his base practices which are to

1. Track all work, even dead ends, negative evidence and non-productive searches.
2. Cite all sources! This often scares people. You could use the Evidence Explained book or website to help you if you want your citations to be "perfect" or "standard". But, more importantly they need to work for you and be usable to future genealogists. So as long as you cite the "what, where and when" information you'll be doing fine. Just make sure you cite the same way consistently throughout your work. Don't change formats halfway through. Click HERE for a citation machine. (This is what I used for college papers..shh don't tell.) HERE is an explanation of citations for genealogists.  
3. And "make the first pass the only pass"! Yes, slow down! Don't get distracted by those BSOs! (Bright Shinny Object: ie: fluttering ancestry leaves)

So, this blog will be one of the ways that I choose to track my work. But many of us use Evernote . We will be discussing creating a blog and the best ways to use Evernote for genealogy during the meeting on February 7th. 

I'm ready to dive in, how about you? But I must slow down. The actual research doesn't kick in until month 4!!! We are about to start month 2. We are still preparing! I think I need to go organize the genealogy closet, and pull all the craft supplies off the genealogy boxes.