General Chat

Thanks for your reply Karen, I have emailed MFHS . This book is just what I need and I will order a couple. Thanks too for the tip about wriiting in pencil.


Val.

Hi Val,
My apologies, I've only just come back onto this thread for a look, and so only now I have noticed your request. Luckily Kath has given a link - yes that's the one!!

How I wish I had bought more than one, as I'm doing other people's trees now and could do with one for each of those, too. For small outlay it has proved an invaluable tool.
I'll wait til I'm back in the UK to purchase some more, so many thanks to you Kath for putting up the link ;-)


K

P.S. GIna - no it doesn't allow for further marriages, although I have managed to add them since there is plenty of room on the page to set things out clearly.

Sorry, not wishing to sound bossy, but I would advise it's best to add all your info in pencil, as this makes it easier when having to amend or add!! :-)

Thanks so much Kathleen for that information, I appreciate your help.
I have sent them an email.

Val.

when doing my tree at first it was ok every think in alder but as i went along adding more and more people i was geting in a right old muddle

i find what work best for me now is to keep my tree on ancestry.com along with copys of all photos and cert ect.

the only thing i want do now is open my tree to any one as i have some up date photos and info.
but im willing to pass other info on

I don't know who the publisher is but if you have a look here you can see the book:-

http://www.bookshop.mlfhs.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=675

Kath. x

Karen in the desert, I am interested in the book which you mentioned "Ancestral File, a record book of Family Research". I do not liive in the UK and here we don't have Family History Fairs, so I would appreciate it if you could let me have the publisher so that I could order it through bookshop.

Many thanks.


Val.

Some good ideas here to look into, one question, does the Ancestral File Record Book accommodate relatives who have been married more than once or twice??

GinaS

great ideas folks!! :-) :-)
will definately look into the ancestral file idea. I'm just getting back into this all after an illness break and find I haven't a clue how to sort my pile of papers as I have forgotten who is who!!
I know I'm going to pretty much have to start from the beginning again and this time I will file everything correctly so I can pick up where i left off in future :-D x

Me again - this might be the one :

http://www.bookshop.mlfhs.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=675

OR

http://www.thefamilyhistorypartnership.com/prod148.htm

CAZ.

Great response from you all, thank you very much. I agree probably best to research one name at a time and work backwards. Also the Ancestral File Record Book sounds a good idea and I shall try to get one. I have now started using A4 ring binders. I do find Ancestry Family Tree good as well.
Thank you all very much for your help. If I find out where the Ancestral File Record Book can be obtained I'll post details here.
Cheers Caz.

I have two books of clear files for 'each side' of Family. with pockets for certs. photos.info. etc..... but with recommendation from sister in law I find Brother's Keeper programme very good........

I agree with Karen in that I have an A4 Ancestral file which I bought for a fiver from the local fhs and I think it is a very useful record book.

As I have gathered more and more information I allocate an A4 lever arch file. Initially I had all the family in one file, then I split it into two and now I am on 4 files. I keep all the census in the correct time frame. Any certs I have bought I keep them there in a plastic cover and any information I have written over the years, so it is all together. .(.I won't mention all the pages of notes I have, which haven't landed in the right place as yet)

One thing I do differently from most is to write a list of every family as a written doc. rather than a tree. I find instead of sharing my tree as I have quite a few people on it now, it is easier to send an A4 copy of one family(i.e. father -mother- and children) with all the information I know about them, but that is purely down to choice.

I am sure you will find what suits you best. - jl

I really don't think there is a pattern to this. I would think everyone does their research in their own way.

Personally I started with my father's side (as this was my maiden name) and first of all just concentrated on getting names and dates of birth, marriage and death for the male side (which meant I was concentrating on my maiden name) as far back as I could easily get.

Then I started on my father's mother's side and went back through her male side (which was her maiden name).

I then did the same for my mother's side.

It becomes more difficult to keep to a pattern when you start on the maternal line of each branch because you go off at so many different branches.

My paperwork started off in nice neat plastic wallets (one for each surname) but it then becomes difficult to decide what to do with maternal certificates because birth and marriage certificates have a different name.

I must admit I then stopped trying and just have certificates in lots of different wallets without much order to them. I rely on my FamilyTreeMaker to keep all of my information and only get paperwork out now and then if I am showing someone else it.

Sorry - this doesn't really answer your question and if someone has a really good way of working I would also be interested to hear about it - although I don't think I am organised enough to improve things for myself.

Kath. x

I don't think there is any hard and fast rule, you just go where you can, and with whatever branch you can find information on.

Personally, I prefer not to keep chopping and changing from one branch to another, so if I find info on one, I tend to keep going with that person and that line. I find that the continuity works better for me as I tend to remember the people i've just researched, so it makes it slightly easier when tracing that family.
If you hit a brick wall, then it's best to leave it and go to someone else in the tree and work on them for a while.


Believe it or not, at the cost of £4.95, the BEST thing i have , as in ease of reference in seeing where to go and who I need to find next, is a soft-back booklet, A4 size, called 'Ancestral File, a record book of family research'.
I got it from the bookstall at a Family History Fair, and I'm sure they're available at other Family History fairs (or I can give you the publishers details from the book if you want) but I'm sure someone else on here will have it and know where else it's available.
Basically, it has charts which you fill out (recommend you do that in pencil) with what you know, thereby leaving gaps for what you don't know and have yet to find.
You start at the middle with Father and Mother and work backwards either side. The idea of the booklet is that it's easy and lightweight to carry around with you when you go to records offices etc, but I find it a HUGE help to have on my desk, as it shows immediately where the gaps are, rather than me having to keep referring to my whole tree.
Working from the booklet, I fill in any new info which I find, and after I've confirmed with certs or other docs, I then add later to my proper on-line tree. ;-)

Good luck.

K

Help! I am having problems organising my genealogy paperwork for all the different branches of my family. It's easy when you start with just two sets of grandparents but after that there are so many branches, with their wives (I haven't even tackled their children yet!). I can manage to get them on the Genes Family Tree OK but what I am finding difficult is to know what order I should research each generation and each parent. What I need is a pattern ? Can anyone help please? Thanks so much.