I am taking part in the Genealogy Do-Over this year.
The Genealogy Do-Over tasks for November are:
- Reviewing Social Media Options
- Building a Research Network
- Reviewing Research Travel Options
1. Reviewing Social Media Options
About 8 years ago, before I decided to have a 'genealogy blog do-over', this blog and I were active in genealogy social media - Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest.With challenges in other areas of life, and because I was following too many social media feeds, I found myself quite overwhelmed with information and suffering from a sort of 'genealogy burn out'. I decided to cut back quite a lot. I stopped reading blogs all the time and stopped using Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. I continued on Facebook but limited the number of pages and groups I was following. I am hoping to continue this way but I am always on the watch for 'information overload'. If the noise becomes a bit too much, I know I need to cut back and simplify.
I have had a look at one of the resources recommended for this months task - the Genealogy on Facebook List. There are quite a lot of groups and pages to listed there for people just starting out exploring genealogy social media. My best advice is to remember not to overwhelm yourself by trying to follow too many things at once!
2. Building a Research Network
My steps to Building my Research Network at this stage are -- This blog
- Facebook - Following a manageable number of genealogy groups and pages, and creating groups for descendants of my ancestors (I have a couple of these so far, some more successful than others).
- Wikitree - I still feel like quite a newbie at Wikitree, especially to the collaborative side of the site, but I hope that I can continue to contribute and learn.
3. Reviewing Research Travel Options
I don't travel often, for several reasons, but I hope to make a few small genealogy research trips in the future. With my genealogy do-over in mind, the first thing I need to do is to travel to the cemeteries, buildings (or the locations where the buildings used to be) and landscapes that relate to my closest ancestors - my parents, my grandparents, great grandparents etc. I will start with the locations that are closest to where I live.Travelling overseas to the UK and Ireland to explore the places my more distant ancestors lived and to access archival sources not online, is unfortunately not something I expect to be able to do. Thankfully technology such as Google Earth allows me to virtually explore locations I would otherwise be unable to visit. And there is an ever-increasing amount of archival documents being digitised and made available online.
The recommendations for do-it-yourself research trips listed in this months genealogy do-over tasks are useful to keep them in mind.
A good plan for my research trips will be essential. I will have to make sure the goals for the research trip are specific and achievable within the time frame. Checklists will be a great help too. What do I want to photograph? Whose grave do I expect to find at that cemetery? Do I know the location of the grave? I need to ask all these questions and more before I head out on any genealogy journeys.
The full list of Genealogy Do-Over topics for 2018 is on Thomas MacEntee's Abundant Genealogy web site.
© 2018. Australian Genealogy Journeys. This post was originally posted at https://ausgenjourneys.blogspot.com/2018/11/genealogy-do-over-november-2018.html
Genealogy Do-Over is © Thomas MacEntee.
