details, details.....

A genealogist is nothing if not detail oriented!  That is a wonderful thing when you are researching, because you follow every lead and painstakingly gather every scrap of information, even if it is not immediately relevant.  You know that those seemingly random bits of data often end up as key pieces of the puzzle.

However those qualities that make a good researcher tend to bog down the person!  My youngest daughter just graduated from high school, and my life in the last few months has been busy with entertaining family and getting her ready to head out into the world. Talk about details.... whew!  Thankfully things are beginning to settle down into a summer routine.

I've been meaning to add the changes I've made to my Genealogical Research System to the template sharing page on the Bento website, but all the details of my life these days have kept me from doing it.  If anyone reading this wants a copy of the latest version (the census templates are linked to the main research template, and I've added a new template that helps you assemble your evidence to construct a proof), don't hesitate to email me and I'll send you the updates.

Meanwhile, with my new-found free time, I've been having fun on the Family Search website -- I'm thrilled to see all the wonderful content they are adding.  I've been looking at digital images of wills, birth records, naturalization records, and more as fast as I can find them.

The best part about having immediate access to these records is that it is now very easy to expand my strategy to include the records of my ancestors' friends, family and neighbors. This hasn't always been possible for me in the past.  As a mom with a busy family, my research time was limited; so whenever I visited a records repository, my searches had to be highly targeted strikes.  The fact that I can now sit at my desk instead of traveling is a real game-changer.

Of course this all has to happen now that I am becoming an empty-nester and I want to travel around....