Month 1 of the Genealogy Do-Over Class Review

Here is a review of what we covered in our class on January 10th.

For 2016 Our Genealogy Group is participating in Thomas MacEntee's "Genealogy Do-Over".  Our first priority is to decide what our goal for the year will be. Each of us will have different goals. My goal is to "do-over" all the genealogy for my maternal grandmother's line. Your goal may be to do your entire genealogy over from scratch, or maybe you will just focus on photographs. Some of you may feel that you like how your genealogy is right now. Instead of a "do-over" you may just want to do a "look-over" this year.

Secondly, we need to "prepare to research". You may think that means to gather your pencils and notebooks and sit at the computer to be "prepared". But, we need you to go deeper than that. This is a "do-over", meaning, YOU NEED TO START YOUR RESEARCH OVER. You will need to pack up any documents or photographs you have and start from scratch, as if you know nothing! As you go through your journey, you will come to points in your research where you can then go pull that document to verify your information. Otherwise: PUT IT AWAY!  

A great synopsis is HERE . Please read it.

In preparing to reasearch, you may find that you need different hardware. Your computer may need upgrading, or you may need a better scanner, or you may decided to go for a tablet. Our member, Dee Leclair had a fantastic presentation on comparing hardware. Hopefully I can get her to link her power point to the "Files" link on our FACEBOOK GROUP page soon.

Lastly we discussed B.S.Os. "Bright Shinny Objects". These are the things that distract you in your research. I highly recommend you have with you a "to do list" as you are researching. If you come across something interesting, or if you have a thought about something else to search for, just write it on the to do list. That way, you can stay focused on the original task and not get distracted by that BSO.

You may come across a BSO online. In that case, you may want to use your "favorites" or "bookmark" link on your browser, to save the page to look at later. HERE is some instruction for that. Some people are using EVERNOTE for organization of tasks. I have to admit, that I don't know the best way to use it. But! Evernote instruction will be a part of next month's meeting!

Lastly, we talked in depth about using hashtags. HERE is a good blog about it. When posting family information on Facebook or Instagram to share with your relatives, I encourage you to use a hashtag. What hashtag should you use? It doesn't matter, you get to make one up as you go, or use one already created. As an example in class, I brought up my INSTAGRAM account. Go ahead and click on that link. Look for a "selfie" of me in front of my grandparent's grave, and click on that photo. After you have clicked on it, you will see in my description " #hicksfamily ". On a whim, I just decided to add that hashtag. While we were in class I clicked the #hicksfamily link to show everyone what would come up. We now get a lot of links to other members of the Hicks Family from all over the US. I clicked on a few of these pictures to read their descriptions. In one picture you will see a lady with a man on either side of her. The description on their photograph says "The last of Nathan and Pearl Hicks' children". Well, I have a Pearl Hicks in my linage. I have no contact with that side of the family, but now through the use of hashtags, I may have a lead. I can now "comment" on their picture and hope that they respond. This lead came to me just because I used a hashtag on my photograph!

You can also search google with hashtags. Just go to your search bar and type a hashtag with your surname and see what comes up. Remember: NO SPACES IN A HASHTAG . #hicksfamily #bennetfamily #pendletonfamilygenealogy #georgejones #catsareawesome #lookatmyfeet  . When you explore hashtags on Instagram, you will only see the one's posted on Instagram. The same with Facebook. If it was posted on Facebook, you will only see if on Facebook, etc. Explore in all the places you can think of.

So, I will request that all of you who are participating in the Do-Over to go to your Facebook Page, or Our Genealogy Group's Facebook page, or your Instagram or Twitter and post your goal for the do-over. Add to your goal the hashtag #ogg . (Our Genealogy Group) In class in February, I would like to explore the #ogg and see what we find.

We also discussed how Pinterest is a great place to store the BSOs. The Do-Over has it's own BOARD on the site for references and links to general content. But, you may want to create your own board with things and BSOs that interest you personally. Here is a LINK on how to use Pinterest. After you know how to use Pinterest, HERE is a link on how to use it to help with your genealogy research!

In closing, I encourage you to download Thomas MacEntee's Do-Over workbook HERE is a link. And/Or join the DO-OVER FACEBOOK GROUP and keep up with his blog which I posted in the first link on this page. And for me remember to post that goal with a hashtag if you are on a social media site!

Next Month's class will be on : "Establishing Base Practices and Guidelines and Setting Research Goals".  Have you noticed that we haven't started researching yet?   See you February 7th!