Tuesday's Tip - Original sources can be WRONG!

We just received the official copies of my father-in-law's death certificate.  AND, his father's name is WRONG!!!!  Being the family record keeper, I provided the information.  BUT, I have a copy of what I gave the mortuary (and the form is filled out correctly) and someone there, or in the county recorder's office, put the middle name as the last name.  So it says that Glenn Chester Blackmore's father's name is Clifford Franklin instead of Clifford Franklin Blackmore.  Now what????!!!

Now a minor problem is that we reported that Glenn had been in California for 93 years, but only in the county for 27.  The death certificate says he's been in the county for 93 years. 

Just another problem for us to solve, but a remember to all of us researchers to question even original, official documents. 

Tuesday's Tip - Message Boards

Let’s get back to reading message boards and queries:  on rootsweb, USGenWeb, and those on our societies'  web pages.   (I am assuming that we are members of more than one society.)  Let's make an effort to answer at least ONE each week, even if it is not directly related to our family and our research.  Obviously the surname will be one of ours; perhaps just not our direct ancestors.

What will happen?  We’d have more activity on what used to be very active sites but are now floundering.  Just not enough postings or responses.   We might find new cousins.  We may have someone answer our queries.  Who knows what will happen?

I know that I could probably spend 30 minutes each week looking something up for someone else.  No, I’m not the expert, but my search techniques may be different than those of the person who posted the query.  So, perhaps I could find an answer that has stumped them.  Or I could make a quick phone call to a repository nearby.  Perhaps I could look through a catalog of a local library. 

So, what’s my tip?  Use those message boards, both by posting queries and answering them.

Tuesday's Tip - Article by Thomas on Collaborating with Genealogists

While reading google+ this morning, Caroline Pointer had a link to this article.  It's really good and has some great ideas for all of us.  Thank you, Caroline, for posting this link.

Thomas MacEntee wrote "How To Collaborate With Other Genealogists" and this article was posted on September 23, 2011.  The link is below.  Thomas, thank you for a well-written article with some really good suggestions.

http://www.archives.com/experts/macentee-thomas/collaborate-with-genealogists.html

 I'm going to mention this to some other genealogists.  If we all made an effort to follow even half of these suggestions, our community would expand and we may get through even more of our "brick walls." 

Tuesday's Tip - Local Libraries & FHCs

I believe one of the least used resources for genealogy research is the local library.  No, it may not have books, microfilms, or documents that will help you.  However, most of them have computers. 

Yes, I know.  We have computers at home.  But did you know that most of them have subscriptions to ancestry.com?  And it’s FREE!! For use in the library.   Some libraries even have subscriptions to obituaries, footnote and other sites.  And don't forget Heritage Quest.

Also, don’t forget the local Family History Centers.  Because they are staffed by volunteers, the hours vary.  These FHCs often have ancestry.com as well as other subscription sites.   Some of them have 5 or 6 different sites.  You can use the computers for free and check out the options.  Then, either continue to use this valuable resource, or decide to pay for one or two so that you can stay at home.  But this is a great way to learn about more and different online resources.  

Sorting Saturday - New Furniture Should Be A Joy

I put off buying new filing cabinets and bookshelves for my office/work room for about 2 years.  I thought I kept postponing the purchases because I couldn’t decide what types of file cabinets I wanted, how many, or where to place them.  Also, I didn’t know how many bookcases I needed and where I wanted to put them.

NOW I know why I was procrastinating.  I was going to have to sort through about 20 feet of books, 4 feet of magazines, 8 feet of notebooks, and 15 feet of files mostly, but not all, in file folders.