Technology and Your Genealogy…

The application of technology to every aspect of our world is so rapid that it is hard for me to keep up. I don’t know about you. But…

It seems to me that if you can look into your fridge on your smart phone before you leave the store to be sure that you haven’t forgotten anything you need–
If you can check your medicine cabinet with a special app on your smart phone to ensure that you have what you need–
If you have no need to make a grocery or supplies list before you go shopping–

In such a world, you and I can locate your hard-to-find ancestor and extend your dead-end lineage. You and I just need to understand the technology–and the strength of search engines and record-match and digital sort and then allow the computer to do what it does best–find stuff.

My sincere apologies for the hiatus in posting on this blog, and my other blogs as well. I admit that I took a couple of weeks off to caulk and paint around the  windows of my house. The rest of  the time–

  1. I have been traveling to Southern California to attend the Jamboree and research the  original Virginia rent rolls (watch my Virginia blog for a run-down on those rent rolls);
  2. Traveling to Oregon to gather more than 60 additional boxes for the Conner-Bishop Library, this time Ruth Bishop’s photograph collection and her personal genealogy files that now make up a substantial portion of my Genealogy Library Center (watch for her surname list of genealogy materials);
  3. Watching the installation of robots on our dairy farm–they actually milk the cows and monitor both production and heath of the cows as well–four huge robot machines that mechanize the entire operation, all from the computer;
  4. And spending time in my 1/2 acre yard to counteract the drought and its effect on my two hundred-year-old elm trees. Gallons and gallons of water running 24-7 all summer I hope have arrested the dead limbs. At least I haven’t had to deal with fires burning the trees like so many parts of the Western United States;
  5. Researching for my clients–mostly Southern States, especially Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky with some North Carolina and south Carolina thrown in for good measure. And my latent interest in Vermont genealogy. I’m planning a field trip for research on very hard problems in these areas later this year–if you have research needs there, be sure to let me know;
  6. And reading 13 Hours (the true account of what happened in Benghazi)!

I have prepared much new information to be posted on my blogs–beginning 1 September 2016 when I will post again every day or every other day. With all the genealogy activity online, there still is substantial publication on paper. And I  love it when I can hold a book in my hands and turn the pages in the order I love to read–Index, Footnotes and Bibliography, Table of Contents, List of Maps, Photographs, and Illustrations, and finally Text. And I read the book in this order.

Actually when I begin to read the text, I start with the last pages where the author/compiler states conclusions. I want to know if the evidence used, as reported in footnotes and bibliography, warrants and supports the conclusions that are made. Sometimes I can see that some of the most important evidence has been overlooked and ignored. In coming blogs I will provide some examples. And I will share why reading is so important to me. Stay tuned–this Fall will be an exciting excursion into aspects of genealogy that can increase your success rate as it has mine. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS By popular demand I will again list research completed and reports ready to ship.

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