The end of a great conference is always a little sad –don’t you think?
- Will you go home and forget the excitement of learning something new–I always teach you something new!
- Will you go home and tell others how much you learned? And how you can’t wait to get to the nearest genealogy library to use the new strategies you saw demonstrated?
- Will you stash your notes in a drawer or on a shelf to be forgotten in the days ahead and especially through the coming Holidays?
- Will you lay aside the books you bought and had autographed with their how-to-do-it-better and more successfully techniques?
- Or will you take ACTION? Gathering new information from all the relatives you will see in the coming weeks–at Thanksgiving and at Christmas and at New Year’s. And those you will write to or call.
KEEP the magic you felt: describe, on paper, or on your laptop, your most challenging ancestor. Summarize what you know. List the traditions you have heard all your life. Find a photograph of this ancestor and scan it into your genealogy summary–and make copies to give out to all your relatives as they arrive. Or to tuck into Christmas cards for those you probably won’t see–with a request for them to add what they remember.
Provide an empty family group record, or some blank sheets of paper or an empty computer disc or CD for their stuff. Add a stamped, self-addressed envelope with padding to protect these precious things so they can be sent to you–as New Year’s Resolutions–theirs and yours!
Don’t let the “Pirates of the Pedigree”* steal your best chance all year to update, expand, enliven, illustrate, correct, and compile your genealogy!
Do it before the glow fades, before you forget the magic you felt.
Two appealing finds at the Cheyenne Jamboree:
Family Atlas–genealogy mapping and publishing software from Roots Magic. What I especially liked–automatic migration patterns created from your genealogy data. I have been doing all of them by hand on a county-outline map. Reasonably priced and powerful. See www.familyatlas.com.
Family History Journal–an easy template and utility program to create and share pictures, stories, events, recipes, and family letters as pages of your family history using Microsoft Word. Available with your choice of designs: zinnia (my favorite), daisy, or feather details. User-friendly and charming. A delightful way to preserve the precious things of family. See www.mendedmemories.net.
*term borrowed from Aunt Myrtle’s presentation at the Jamboree.
***Serious Reminder***
Two new volumes of my Virginia Research series:
X. Little-Known and Rarely Researched Virginia Jurisdictions
XI. Virginia Research and Family Collections
Available about 1 Jan 2007
These are being compiled as this post is published. If you’d like to be on the notification list, drop me an email–arlene@arleneeakle.com
your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle