cardinal sin: badly recorded research and now I'm stuck!

[Rachandgarry]

Hi all,

I've been absent for a while due to real life events, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... and I'm just starting to pick up where I left off on my research a few months ago. The trouble is, I can't remember a thing! The good news is that all documents are saved to my computer in date order, and some of my research is typed on to Family Tree Maker but not all. I've just gone to a particular line and I have no idea whatsoever why I don't know some details. I don't even know where I've looked.

I could throw everything up in the air and scream (obviously at myself for being so stupid in the first place!)

Has this happened to anyone else, what did you do to solve it? Any ideas where to start?

Thanks,
Rachel

[skylark]

Thank you Rachel.....you have given me my one & only resolution for 2011...I fully intend to make a written note on WHERE I found my info from...I always think I will remember which site I have trawled but of course my memory lets me down EVERY time...so thank you for this timely reminder to make a note......

Margaret.

[clematised]

I keep a paper record of everything I find in a file with that family name on but I must admit to adding to the file without sorting it and they do become very untidy, and I will get around to tidying each of them but if ever I were to lose my computer history, I do have my private tree stored in Tribal Pages and notes on where the information came from in the notes box for each person.

Edna

[Little Nell]

Only today I was looking at some online Norfolk parish registers and when I went to transcribe my findings onto my PAF I found I'd already copied them some time earlier!

[Anne in Carlisle]

When I started, the excitement of finding things and the relatively small numbers of people meant that I though I would remember everything!!! How daft can you get!

Now (having had to redo lots of things) I make it an absolute rule to enter the source at the same time as the information. Even so I still don't enter exactly where in the source I found it :(. I'll just put something like "1851 census" or "Parish Record". My FH program makes it easy to record the source and I could enter loads more detail .... but I don't. I hope I won't later regret that decision!

Anne

[JBee]

Am with you on that I'm afraid - I write notes and then can't fathom them out when I get home!!!

If I can I try to get print-offs but its not always possible unfortunately.

[Christine in Herts]

For censuses I record the year and census ref (in full) for each entry. I used only to record as far as the piece-number, but then discovered that the lack of folio and page number caused problems when working back to check things.

If it's from the IGI, then I record the batch number.

If it's from some other source I try to make sure that I have some identifiable reference to follow up: Archive references (like the census refs); initials and membership numbers (or user-names) of fellow researchers; whatever looks as if it should narrow down the source adequately. If I'm making digital images at TNA, for example, I usually try to include that yellow docket - or enough of it to give the reference.

I always try to make sure that I note the source reference at the same time as making the entry. It didn't take me long to find that I wasn't remembering where I'd found things!

Christine

[Uncle John]

My research is done as scribbles on a sheet of paper, but I only tackle one family at a time. I then transcribe it into FTM straight away. I must admit that for censuses I just record the census date (and place if not UK) and address. Now that I have FTM 2010 I tend to put more in the notes than I did before. The bits of paper get recycled when OH says she wants to tidy the room.

[Darksecretz]

Rachel,

within FTM there is an option to source your findings when you enter them, I have used various incarnations of FTM, and never really bothered to source stuff, it wasnt until I really began looking at details and then I couldnt remember who I had found on which census, It has now become my task to find and source everyone in FTM, I am slowly winning that battle and any new families that I find, I source immediately so I dont forget.

[Anne in Carlisle]

Looks as if we all learned the hard way :rotfl:

Anne

[Darksecretz]

sure does Anne, I think if you break it all down and try and explain to someone that is beginning then it all becomes so daunting.. so may put them off, but, I think that we all learn more and remember more by the mistakes we make, if that means not sourcing stuff and learning the hard way, then, if it sinks in better, then its a good thing ultimately. :smilee:

[Lindsay]

Like others, I didn't bother with sources at first. Then I started to include them but not in a standard way:o

Since getting FTM 2011 I've been going through sorting them out - it would have been a lot easier if I'd done it properly in the first place!

[kylejustin]

i usually dont have problems remembering where my sources are, and if i do, a quick google usually locates the source.

[Christine in Herts]

i usually dont have problems remembering where my sources are, and if i do, a quick google usually locates the source.

That should work for some things, but won't work for info from a researcher's personal documents: a family bible, or old newspaper cutting, say.

Christine

[Uncle John]

There are online sources that aren't permanent. For example I trawled through years and years of the Newcastle Courant when I had free access to the Gale 19th. century newspapers.

[Rachandgarry]

Thanks for the support, helps to know I'm not the only one.

I've been sat at FTM 2010 last night and tonight, entering data and I've managed a whopping 2 persons lol! Only 300+ to go, then its time to add in the people who aren't even in there yet. Doh! In hindsight, wish I'd have had FTM when I first started, would have been easier doing it as you find the info!

Regards
Rachel

[Night Owl]

You've probably already thought of this but don't forget to back up your computer records regularly. I was quite good at that but just before my last PC crashed I'd done loads of work on my tree and when I transferred the stuff on my external hard drive over onto my new laptop, realised that I'd lost loads of the most recent entries. I think it was because I got carried away when a lot of the new London records came on Ancestry and kept putting off doing a new back up :(

I suspect that lots of others have done the same

[Caroline]

I use FH4 which automatically backs up when I close it, but since I had a dead hard drive, though I did rescue all the stuff of it and did have earlier backups elsewhere, I have tried various online backups, and have recently started using https://www.dropbox.com which seems to be the best so far. It syncs automatically so that I don't have to remember to backup the backup somewhere away from the hard drive and it doesn't matter which computer I am using.

https://www.dropbox.com/help

[Darksecretz]

Thanks for the support, helps to know I'm not the only one.

I've been sat at FTM 2010 last night and tonight, entering data and I've managed a whopping 2 persons lol! Only 300+ to go, then its time to add in the people who aren't even in there yet. Doh! In hindsight, wish I'd have had FTM when I first started, would have been easier doing it as you find the info!

Regards
Rachel

it does get easier Rachel, (honest) says she that has nearly 4000 people in her tree and now has to get her head around a totally different version of FTM!

[Uncle John]

I've been sat at FTM 2010 last night and tonight, entering data and I've managed a whopping 2 persons lol! Only 300+ to go, then its time to add in the people who aren't even in there yet. Doh! In hindsight, wish I'd have had FTM when I first started, would have been easier doing it as you find the info!

I've had FTM in various forms for nearly 20 years, but it's taking ages to go through the names, places and sources to recheck and update my crummy early attempts at record keeping. My tree currently stands at nearly 4000, though parts of it look a bit like Rabbit's friends and relations.

[Darksecretz]

I've had FTM in various forms for nearly 20 years, but it's taking ages to go through the names, places and sources to recheck and update my crummy early attempts at record keeping. My tree currently stands at nearly 4000, though parts of it look a bit like Rabbit's friends and relations.

SNAP John...

[Tom Tom]

I feel the same and am now making an effort to go through my FTM and add as many sources and details from the census as possible.
Also need to get round to writing in all the different occupations, abodes and grave transcriptions as well.

This is no small task as I am doing an extended study of a few Leicestershire villages which is all thrown into my FTM. So have over 14000 people (all my own research).

[dicole]

I use PAF and back it up onto my external hard drive and also a flash drive every third or fourth time. I also need to go through and make notes of my sources, a lot came from newspaper notices and I am guilty of adding dates and places with recording the newspaper source.

I also started a new tree in PAF, called "verified" but I am so daunted about adding the 12000+ family members I have, that I have only done about 5 people so far. I really need to do this so I can be sure of where I am up to with revising, but its so hard to get started with enthusiasm......especially when there are mysteries to chase......

Di

[Darksecretz]

I use PAF and back it up onto my external hard drive and also a flash drive every third or fourth time. I also need to go through and make notes of my sources, a lot came from newspaper notices and I am guilty of adding dates and places with recording the newspaper source.

I also started a new tree in PAF, called "verified" but I am so daunted about adding the 12000+ family members I have, that I have only done about 5 people so far. I really need to do this so I can be sure of where I am up to with revising, but its so hard to get started with enthusiasm......especially when there are mysteries to chase......

Di

maybe the incentive is that for every 10 people you add and verify that you do a little bit of research too?