One of the greatest aspects of blogging in this genealogy sphere is the interaction that comes in getting to know other researchers going through all the ups and downs of this crazy field we love right along with us.
One of those people is Amy Coffin of We Tree fame who has given all of us reasons to learn more about our families through the past years in the series named "Jump Start Your Genealogy Blog: 52 Ideas, 52 Weeks", "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy", and this years series "52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History" which just began and is one I would strongly encourage for everyone. There is no pressure to complete all the prompts, just join in when you can.
There are many of the prompts I have completed, but many more that I missed and I think I will some day go back and actually use some of those I missed for further learning.
But that is not why I am writing this today- SOURCES is. I have a family program on my computer as many of us do, and when I was trying to decide about keeping Family Tree Maker or moving to another program Amy was one of those who sent a message my way. When I went back and read some of her entries she was lamenting the chore in which she was going back through her program and citing each fact and coming along quite well with the process (I say with clenched teeth).
That's when I knew what I was going to do, and that's why I am thankful for Miss Amy (no big head my dear).
I purchased my new program and I am only entering people and data as they are fully sourced, no matter how tempting it gets to jump the fence early. So, my name went first, followed by all the data off my birth certificate, and so on. If I do not have records to source a fact, then I am not entering the information yet. Instead, I use my "working tree" which is FTM 2010.
I like it this way. I feel more in control of the data on the tree and know that I can show how it got there. Thanks, Amy.
2 comments:
Thank you for the kinds words!
I am so proud of you for taking the scary step of starting from scratch. It is a huge pain, especially when you first start and you have to enter ALL that information.
It's now been about well over a year since I started over. I have about 400 people in my tree so far and it looks great. Sometimes I pull up mock reports and charts just to see all the citations there.
Don't give up. Don't cheat. Take the time to do it right. The feeling of knowing you have all your sources in order is worth it!
Thanks Amy. I love the idea of pulling off reports now & then just to show how much has been completed in sources! And I pledge now not to cheat. Instead I will call you for an intervention.
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