The Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss ideas for organizing genealogy papers, documents, electronic files, and more. We'll talk about how to choose a personal family tree software program and how to create backups of your research so they don't get lost or destroyed. Diana is going to talk about her story of receiving a suitcase full of unorganized genealogy papers from her father and how she dealt with that. We'll talk about favorite tools and what which tools we actually use, then ideas for additional methods that others use. Links The Suitcase: Getting Organized One Paper at a Time, article by Diana Personal family tree software programs: RootsMagic, Legacy, Ancestral Quest, Family Tree Maker, etc. Google Backup and Sync Google Drive Dropbox Locality Filing System:BYU-Idaho handout - Organizing Genealogical Research and Note Files by Jill Crandall OneNote Evernote Using Evernote for Genealogy Research, article by Diana Create Your Own Genealogy Reference Center with Evernote Evernote Web Clipper Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com Thank you Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Share an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. You can easily write a review with Stitcher, without creating an account. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click "write a reveiw." You simply provide a nickname and an email address that will not be published. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. If you leave a review, we will read it on the podcast and answer any questions that you bring up in your review. Thank you! Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss a research project that Diana completed to determine if George W. Dillard was the father of our ancestor, Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Here's the objective of the project: The objective of this research project was to determine if George W. Dillard born 1781 in Virginia and died 1854 in Lee County, Alabama was the father of Cynthia (Dillard) Royston. Cynthia was born about 1815 in Georgia. She married Thomas Beverly Royston about 1833 in Georgia or Alabama and died 2 August 1882 in Collin County, Texas. As we discuss this project, Diana is going to share how she came up with him as a candidate for Cynthia's father in pre 1850 census records, and how she created a timeline comparison for Cynthia and George. She will discuss how she did a land study to see if she could link Cynthia's husband, Thomas B. Royston, to George W. Dillard. We also discuss a great piece of evidence found in a list of letters left at the post office in a Georgia Newspaper from the 1830s. Listen to find out if Diana solved this case and how the Research Like a Pro process helped. To view all the work samples discussed in this case study, purchase our book, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide, on Amazon.com, available in eBook or paperback. Thank you Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Share an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. You can easily write a review with Stitcher, without creating an account. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click "write a reveiw." You simply provide a nickname and an email address that will not be published. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. If you leave a review, we will read it on the podcast and answer any questions that you bring up in your review. Thank you! Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

In today's episode of the podcast we are talking all about why you should write your results at the end of a research project. There are so many reasons, but probably the most important is that the act of writing about something helps you make connections and solve problems. And of course, it also helps you to leave the project knowing that you can pick it back up in a year and know exactly where you were when you left off. We will talk about choosing the correct voice. This depends on your reader. Then we will talk about the elements of a research report, including strategies for adding data in tables, footnotes, document numbering, subheadings, and so on. We will also be discussing the difference between creating a summary of findings and the conclusion. Links: Research Like a Pro Part 6: Write it Up SLIG Night at the FHL – Diana's Classes on Citations and Report Writing Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com Thank You Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Leave an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss research logs. You know, that dreaded spreadsheet that you should keep when you're doing research. We will discuss a few different types of research logs, including Research Ties, spreadsheets, tables, paper logs, and the research notebook. We will also talk about how we normally use our research log in our workflow. Diana is going to talk about how she never feels like she's really doing research until she has her research log open and is recording her search results. We discuss the headings used in research logs and how to fill them out. Links: Research Like a Pro, Part 5: Where Did You Look and What Did You Find? Research Logs: The Key to Organizing Your Family History Research Ties - online research log with features for research planning, recording results, and document analysis Conferences mentioned in the podcast: BYU Education Week Professional Management Conference by the Association of Professional Genealogists RootsTech 2019 - article about the new Power Hour sessions at 9am RootsTech 2019 London Oct 24-26 Thank you Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Leave an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

Today's episode is about source citations. We'll discuss when you need to make citations, how to do it, and the questions to ask that will guide you as you create them: who, what, when, where within, and where in the world. If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of making source citations you're not alone. Nicole tells about her experience really learning how to do it. Diana will tell us about layered source citations, and we'll also talk about the difference between reference notes and source list entries. To sign up for the Research Like a Pro eCourse, click here. Registration ends Aug 31. Also, we encourage you to purchase our eBook Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide on Amazon which is on sale at half price, $4.99, until Aug 31. Links Research Like a Pro, Part 5: Where Did You Look and What Did You Find? Source Citations: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Evidence Explained Website - Elizabeth Shown Mills' website with helpful articles and forum discussions about citation. Evidence Explained Facebook page Books These are affiliate links to Amazon. If you make a purchase through clicking the link, we receive a commission. Evidence Explained: History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace by Elizabeth Shown Mills - the source citation "bible" Genealogy Standards by Board for Certification of Genealogists Mastering Genealogical Proof by Tom Jones - all about the genealogy proof standard Mastering Genealogical Documentation by Tom Jones - new book about how to cite all kinds of sources Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Leave an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

Today's podcast episode is all about why you need to start creating research plans for every project, and how to do it. There are fives steps: Create a document with objective at top, compile a summary of known facts, write a hypothesis, make a list of sources to search, then finalize a prioritized strategy. We will talk about the need to be flexible as we follow our research plans, since plans change once you find (or don't find) something! To sign up for the Research Like a Pro eCourse, click here. Registration ends Aug 31. Also, we encourage you to purchase our eBook Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide on Amazon which is on sale at half price, $4.99, until Aug 31. Links: Research Like a Pro, Part 4: What's the Plan? Doing a Genealogy Research Project from Start to Finish - Research project template, which includes the research plan template FamilySearch Catalog United States Record finder from the FamilySearch Wiki can help give you ideas for kinds of records to search for specific information. Some additional record lists include the Resource Checklist at the FamilySearch Wiki and the Free Genealogy Research Checklist by Thomas MacEntee at Abundant Genealogy 3 Reasons to Revisit your research - post by Diana at Family Locket about coming back to your research later after you have gained more experience FamilySearch Indexing Legacy Family Tree Webinars Becoming An Accredited Genealogist: Levels 2 & 3 Study Group – Session 2, Research Planning Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Leave an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

Today Diana and I are going to wrap up our discussion of locality research. In last week's episode we talked about the first two question to ask: "What happened?" and "Where did it happen?" Today, we are talking about the last question: "Why did it happen?" This episode is all about the historical context that affected our ancestors lives. What is your favorite way to learn about historical context? We suggest several ideas, including county histories, biographical sketches, periodicals, and newspapers. Diana tells how she found a county history that explained why her ancestors moved around so much within Indian Territory. I am going to share an example of how I ordered a regimental history for my first project in the Research Like a Pro study group and how that helped me find the answer to my research question. Diana talks about PERSI and how the articles in the index are being digitized. They are an excellent resource for understanding the history of a location. Newspapers are a huge part of locality research. They can give you clues for more records about your ancestors, but can also reveal what it was like to live during that time period. I'm excited to share my story of researching in the British Newspaper archive's website and the shocking information I found about my black sheep ancestor. We'll also go over how to create a locality guide in more depth so you can get started on that assignment. To sign up for the Research Like a Pro Study Group or eCourse, click here. The sale on the eCourse ($89) and study group ($150) ends August 19. That's $10 off each! Registration ends Aug 31. Links Purchase our book Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide on Amazon to receive the locality guide template. Research Like a Pro Part 3: Where Did They Live? blog post by Diana Google Books FamilySearch Catalog Internet Archive Pioneers of Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory by Nova A. Lemons WorldCat for finding histories to order through inter-library loan PERSI (periodical source index) at FindMyPast Chronicling America – Historic American Newspapers The Ancestor Hunt website Elephind.com Newspapers.com, an Ancestry.com website Genealogy Bank British Newspaper Archive Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives of the United States (this is an affiliate link. If you make a purchase through this link, we receive a commission). Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Leave an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes.

Today we're talking about preparing to research by learning more about the where your ancestor lived. Doing locality research is absolutely essential! Previously, we talked about objectives in epsidode 2, and analysis in episode 3. Those are the first steps in a research project. Today, Diana and I are going to dive in to the next step, locality research, and talk in depth about all the ways you can learn more about a location. Before creating a research plan and digging into sources, it's so important to prepare by learning about the location. Diana will tell about a mystery in her timeline and how location researched helped solve it. Have you tried making a locality guide yet? In Research Like a Pro: A Genealogists Guide, we assign that project after Chapter 3. This episode will go into detail about how to find the resources you'll want to include in your locality guide. We are going to tell you all about the three questions to ask when you do locality research, and sources online and offline that can help. We'll talk about maps, boundary changes, jurisdictions, geography, history, county histories, biographies, the FamilySearch catalog's listing of records by location, and more. We had so much to talk about, that we decided to split this episode into two! Locality Research Part 2 will come out next Monday. To sign up for the Research Like a Pro Study Group or eCourse, click here. The sale on the eCourse ($89) ends August 19. Registration ends Aug 31. Links Search – Places: FamilySearch - details about any place in the world, including research links, jurisdictions, etc. Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States - historical, cultural, and geographic info from 1492-1931 Cyndi's List - genealogical links by location David Rumsey Map Collection - thousands of historical maps for locations worldwide Google Maps - street view, lakes, rivers, cemeteries, schools Google Earth - view area topographically; mountains, valleys, rivers that affected migration Library of Congress Maps - thousands of U.S. historical maps England Jurisdictions 1851 - counties of England with Parish and civil jurisdictions from FamilySearch Vision of Britain through Time - Contains topographic, boundary, historical maps and more for the British Isles FamilySearch Wiki - great starting point for location research; migration routes, etc. Google books and Internet Archive - sources for digitized gazetteers Atlas of Historical County Boundaries by the Newberry Library - boundary changes in the United States FamilySearch Catalog - great source for finding location specific records; many digitized county histories Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Leave an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes. The image of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition used in the podcast episode image is from the NYPL Digital Collections website, here.

Analyzing genealogy sources is essential for unveiling hidden details and ensuring accuracy. The hosts discuss creating timelines to identify inconsistencies in records. They emphasize the importance of using original documents over digital representations to avoid errors. Exploring census records reveals the need for supplemental sources, while authored documents require careful scrutiny. There’s also a compelling story about a transcription error that changed everything, highlighting the value of thorough research methods.

Today, Diana and I discuss research objectives. Focusing your research with a question is an important step when getting started in any research project. We'll talk about the three types of research objectives (identity, relationship and actions) and the best type to start with. Diana talks about writing down your objective and including unique identifiers. This is so important when you're doing a project to identify a person. When I started my first project in the Research Like a Pro study group, I had a large objective covering three brothers. I tell about why this was a problem and what I did to fix it. We discuss example objectives that are narrow in focus. We go through the three steps for making objectives - analyze your pedigree and choose a question, formulate a research objective, and then write it down. Diana tells about how she always puts the client's objective at the top of the report and in front of her computer when she's researching. We also dive more deeply into unique identifiers and what to do if you don't know the birth, marriage, or death dates and places, and then go over a few more examples of research objectives. When you're done listening, you'll have everything you need to know to make a research objective for your research project! Links: Purchase our book: Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide on Amazon Research Like a Pro Part 1: What's Your Questions (Research Objectives), post by Diana Am I Researching the Wrong Person? Research Objectives Can Help, post by Nicole Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Leave a comment in the comment section. Share the show Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Leave an honest review on iTunes. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.