In November I canceled my subscription to Ancestry.com. I was paying for it for months and not even visiting the site; my Masters degree work taking up the majority of my free time. During my holiday break, I’ve had some time to evaluate how I spend said free time and think up new ways to squeeze things in during 2011. While my class in American Art and Architecture is sure to be loaded with lots of reading, research, and writing, surely I can find the time to do more in 2011 – maybe even genealogy work.
I blame it on Buzzy. Halfway through reading Buzzy Jackson’s Shaking the Family Tree, I’m struck with the idea that I am probably due for some organization. I have binders for each surname, computer files, and several envelopes of documents that need alignment. About this time in the book (page 89) Buzzy is on the genealogy cruise listening to a lecture by Elizabeth Shown Mills, citation guru of genealogy. Buzzy comments a couple of time about how useful Shown-Mills’ techniques would have been in grad school. When the stars align, I pay attention. Shown-Mills’ book Evidence Explained is now on my wish list ($50 lowest price I can find…maybe I’ll check the library first).
I think back to the days before the internet – when I used to write away to the LDS and received their newsprint updates every so often or the trip to the Library of Congress with my sister, waiting in the lobby for our number to be called, sharing the microfiche machine. I think I’m at the point where Ancestry.com has served me well for several years and it is now time, when I have the time, to get back to the grassroots of the job and get organized. Ancestry.com and it’s contemporaries have a way of enticing you to the point where your searches end up going in circles, you linger for hours getting lost in Census records and “what ifs.” Taking some time to regroup will be good.
