I was also frustrated by the lack of a good program to keep a research journal - so much so, I am still considering going back to a paper-based system for that part of the process.
Magicalpad dead how to#
I was confused when I started out, because most of the software reviewed was lineage-based, and I didn't know how to relate that to the source-based process I had been taught. Make a list of things to talk about with the informant in the next sessionĪll sources are identified as to where they came from and the day and time you collected them, so that if you find out Uncle John likes to play practical jokes and tells you fibs on purpose, you can go back and find all the things he told you and pull them out of your index file.Īs you can see, the process is source based. Write up the analysis in the research journal, with notes about the facts not directly found in that source on the facing page of the journal Make a fresh transcription of the interview in a research journalĬonstruct an index with paper slips and file under all the relevant facts that need to be indexed The process I did on paper was like this: Now I see where I went wrong, so I want to reconcile or correlate good practice the way I was taught and good practice from the POV of genealogy and family history. What I didn't understand when I started out is how to do family history research the way I was trained to handle data in graduate school.
What I want to establish is my workflow - a standard method of handling any new source or bit of information that I discover - which in this case means either a new acquisition, or an old source that I had mislaid, and am reviewing and putting in its proper organized place. I will look at my old files for reference, and copy things out of the notes and so on, but I'm not going to try merging any of the old GEDCOMs in to my main file. When I first started out, despite reading several how-to books, I made all the classic beginners' mistakes, the kind all the how-to books and articles warn you about. I'm writing this all out to clarify my thinking, and to help others who may be feeling muddled the same way I am. I like to hear what others have found useful in their work, so please chime in if you feel like talking about the process. I need to start over and organize things properly, and do fresh analysis while I'm about it. I have probably lost images of digitized source material due to hard drive failures and bad backups. Since then, I have moved computers twice.
I've long since passed the point where I need to review everything I've collected, and do a fresh analysis. It's seven years and a bit since I started working on family history.