AncestorSpy

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Family Tree Maker 2008
Enjoy to do lists & interactive maps and much, much, more!!!

Whether you are a beginner or have been doing research for a while, this page is for you. What is meant by documenting your family history is to record the source of your information. There are programs, wonderful software programs that help you do this. For years I have been using PAF and will to some extent will continue using this software program. It is free and can be downloaded free from the www.FamilySearch.org web site. As I give details in the AncestorSpy instructions, I will relate step by step procedures for this software program.

The NEW RELEASE of Family Tree Maker 2008, is now available . It has to do lists and interactive maps. Photographs and scanned documents can be added. One can also use information located in their own family tree to look up information on the internet. (No need to retype your ancestor's details on a internet form when using the Ancestry.com web site.)  This is truly exciting. To get a taste of how this software works, you might want to try the FREE FAMILY TREE by clicking below. The free tree is very basic, but it can give you an insight of a few of the basic features.

>>> Start Your Family Tree  - It's free!   Go there now and start today.

Back to documenting your family history. When my grandmother died, I was privilege to go thru her home and gather all her family history papers. She had been doing research for over thirty years. In my gathering, not knowing how she organized things, I created a big mess. At that time I was not familiar with family names and it was a big headache to sort it all out and organize it. It was the practice in my grandmother's time to record the source of her information, but, it was abbreviated. I did not understand the abbreviations and still do not understand them all. Therefore, the first rule is DO NOT ABBREVIATE !!!! Spell everything out.

Most family tree software programs will tell you what to record about a source. Whatever you record, here comes the second rule, MAKE SURE YOU OR ANYONE ELSE CAN FIND THE SOURCE AGAIN!

What to record:

1. Title or description
   
2. Author or recorder (can be a department, county or town clerk, enumerator, etc.)
   
3. Date recorded
   
4. Repository (place where the record is today or where you found it such as a library.)
   
5. Call or reference number
   
6. Page number
   
7. Date you found the record and your full written out name. (Important!)
   
8. And any other identify information.
   
9. It is also a wise practice to make comments such as hard to read, torn, faded, etc.

Documenting can be done in different ways. For my research I do it different that for books that I write.

Research Example

I first state the locality, followed by the type of record, followed by the title or description.

MO Linn - CENSUS 1910

MO Linn - CENSUS 1920

MO Linn Meadville CEMETERY "Missouri Cemetery Records"

MO Linn Meadville NEWSPAPER "Meadville Messenger"

MO Linn Meadville PROBATE - Will for Charles H. Clint Jr.

I took these examples right out of my PAF software family tree. By titling these sources with the location first, I can see at a glance if I already have used that particular source before. This saves me from needlessly adding it again to my list of sources when I find another ancestor is the same source.

More details later.

Until next time, I am Donna K. Clark, your AncestorSpy guide.

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