I have to admit - I am kind of a "don't color within the lines" kind of person. That carries over to my methodology (or lack thereof) in searching for family history "stuff." 

Most genealogy "pro's" will tell you that you need to develop research plans prior to starting searching. I wholeheartedly agree. And I try to create those as much as possible.

But - I also like to infuse a little bit of "stream of consciousness" searching into the time that I have available to hunt for stuff.

To me - this adds fun to the process - and most importantly adds the ability for the subconscious to add to the mix. 

We are talking about finding stuff, NOT analyzing or proving things. Some call it willy nilly searching and look down on that. But my view is that you need to find stuff any way that you can. Now if you are a professional and are performing work for clients then you obviously are working with someone else's money and you need to have a detailed plan and be cognizant of your time expenditures. 

But if you are searching for yourself, then in my opinion anything goes. It is your time and no one else's so if you end up wasting time you are the only one to have to deal with it. And all of us have different "searching personalities." Not to mention it is hard to add searching discipline if a disciplined way of doing most things just does not "fit you."

What kinds of techniques apply if you want to find stuff and have some fun doing It and don't have a detailed research plan?

Fill in the Blank Searching

This is frowned upon but I do it anyway. Just do some filtering and extracts from your genealogy database of the folks with missing information (dates and locations). An example - Which individuals do not have any birth information? Or who do I not have the burial information for? Irrespective of repository I allow myself an hour or two online just trying to find birth records or burial records to complete the blanks. I may combine these fill in the blank searches with the next type - repository searching. Here's the deal - you have to start somewhere. And obtaining that first piece of information to fill in a blank is a start. Doesn't prove anything - but at least you are on the road with some kind of evidence that will help the argument. Then you can plan to obtain additional stuff to further your argument.

Repository Searching

This is where you hone in on the records available in a specific repository or collection. This technique can be used for offline as well as online searching. In this case again I do an extract of which individuals are in the location served by the repository. Planning is indeed recommended for doing a site visit. For example when my cousin was doing research at the New York City Archives for our family, I created an extract and prepared a list of individuals, all of whom had a presence in New York City at some time in their lives. Not necessarily all to fill in the blanks, but also to find a birth certificate when all we had previously was info from an index. I used this technique when the 1940 Census became available as well. I created an extract of everyone in my tree that was alive in 1940. (See my tutorial  Easy to Create a Census Checklist using Excel.) Then I proceeded to use the repositories available to find the census records for those names extracted. Note - save yourself a bit of frustration. At least look at a list of what is and is not available on these online sites. Here is a recent article from Ancestry Anne Mitchell regarding How Do I Know if a Vital Record Exists? The FamilySearch Wiki is outstanding as well in providing information for what is available and where.

Updated Repository/Collection Searching

This approach does require some forethought. Say that ancestry.com or FamilySearch provides an updated collection to one that already exists by adding new records. Or provides a brand new collection that you wish to search online. Here I do extracts again based on the location served. And I save those extracts and checklists and make notes of what I need and what I have found, as the collection may likely be updated in the future - thus I won't have to start from scratch next time.

Total Stream of Consciousness Hunting

This has no plan. The worst way to search but sometimes can be rewarding. Fully by the seat of your pants, but make sure and give yourself a time limit. And it is fun. This works for those personality types like me, who wouldn't color within the lines when they were a kid.


Again, we are talking about finding stuff, not analyzing or proving assertions. In my opinion you can get results when you have a loosey goosey searching style. Search without guilt; go for it - you might just find some things that you really want. But most of all have fun.

Anyway - this is what I do some of the time. Is it kosher? Heck if I know - but it is fun for me. And I have found tons of stuff. Many of my ancestors are now known - and remembered.

I have been researching my family history and searching for my ancestors for about 11 or 12 years. During that time I have made what I consider to be great strides. Along the way I have discovered many of their stories and have been introduced to a lot of dead people who I never knew existed.

I have found pregnant women who have been jilted by their lovers who deserted them in their hour of need. I have uncovered one who went to prison for pimping out his stepdaughter, and two for selling stolen fractured silver. A few have committed suicide, and several have registered patents and invented things. Two were in the movies, a few went bankrupt, and several were attorneys. Many of them immigrated to America and three were murdered in the Holocaust. The list and the stories go on and on.

As I have gotten involved in connecting with the genealogy community, I have learned quite a bit. I still am not interested in seeking certification as a professional, as that is not what interests me, but I admire those who do so if their intention is to help others and serve the general public in their quest to find their "family tree." And of course it is a pursuit that for some can provide some financial rewards.

In that recent "connecting" I have noticed that it is easy to be influenced by the "you should do it this way" or "you should do it that way" mentality of those with greater genealogical knowledge and experience. Some of that is just the general tendency of humans as they become more experienced to want the less knowledgeable or less experienced to do things "the right way." Maybe it is the influence of all the crap trees that are on some of the online tree sites put there by the inexperienced; maybe it is ego, who knows? And of course there is the constant drumbeat regarding citing sources. But citing sources is just plain common sense anyway.

But really, none of that "experience conflict" matters, because for the hobbyist to succeed, in my view they need to take a different tack. So, I offer this pledge that helps me. Hopefully it will be helpful to other hobbyists:

1. Don't take this too seriously. It is supposed to be fun. Remember it is a hobby, not a job.
   

....and no, the rest of the pledge has not been cut off or deleted. There is really only one thing to remember.

It is my birthday today and on your birthday one should be able to do just about anything, right? Since I have written recently about the frustrations of trying to collaborate with uncooperative cousins (Cousin Collaboration - 16 Secret Commandments), it is now time to turn the tables.

Well for this birthday, I wish to pay tribute to my family history research buddy. The one who has contributed everything she has and knows about our collective ancestors. The one who has shared with me the joys of our newly found discoveries, and put her brain together with mine to solve some of the family mysteries.


​
To say I am appreciative would be a gross understatement.

So for you Watson - here goes:

The words are not correct and the verb tenses aren't right but it sounds good to me - and isn't it the thought that counts?

Tis been years of toil and sweat,
For my ancestors that everyone did forget
Yet I thunder on.

And she appears out of the cloud
Soon the I becomes we
And we thunder on.

The images are mostly faded
And for the most part unaided
We thunder on.

A revelation occurs as we find the will
And the homeland reveals a new beauty
And we thunder on.

With revitalized energy we continue to seek
And even though the results become bleak
We thunder on.

In the midst of this journey
An eternal friendship occurs
So we thunder on.

She calls me Sherlock
And I call her Watson
And we thunder on - together.

When we are doing our family history research, we sometimes get lucky. Sure, sometimes luck is involved when finding a document or some facts that further our research.

But the luck that I am talking about is finding a family member who you can collaborate with. I have had such luck. About 3 1/2 years ago because of another family history website that I created, I was contacted by a third cousin, once removed. It was a challenge for us to connect but it happened. And it changed my genealogy "life."

The first year of our collaboration was "hot and heavy" - not THAT kind of hot and heavy. 30 to 50 emails a day hot and heavy - sharing information, emailing newly scanned old photos, discussing who was who and who might be related to who, etc. It was a blast.

During the course of that first year, we found living relatives - "cousins" who we had never met (and previously did not know the name of) - and started asking them for their help. As one might expect, there were different levels of response and cooperation. Some were "pretty cooperative," some thought they were being quite cooperative but weren't, and others - well their cooperation sucked.

So in a fit of frustration with our newly found relatives (and those not so new) - I created the following list of Commandments for Cousin Collaboration. This list was written in 2010 and I just found it again and thought I would share it with you. Names have been deleted to protect the guilty.

(Apologies in advance to those who don't like coarse language - it serves to demonstrate the extreme frustration at the time)

The 16 Secret Commandments for Big Bad Cousin Collaborators (or Not)

1. Details matter.
   
2. Reading and responding appropriately to emails matters.
   
3. Scanning photos instead of making shitty Xerox copies and mailing them matters.
   
4. ACTUALLY participating when you say that you are instead of saying that you will and basically doing squat matters.
   
5. Making a friggin decision about sending some photos to some dude that you have never met rather than asking a couple of other relatives if he's a thief matters.
   
6. Answering an email with some semblance of knowledge of the English language rather than writing like you are stoned matters.
   
7. Cutting the bullshit and getting to the facts matters.
   
8. Handling a lot of info at once matters.
   
9. GUESSING at who's in the photo does not constitute a move out of the Unknown Photo Album matters.
   
10. Opening up and scanning and sharing what's in the Hefty trash bag in the attic or the magic box in the garage matters.
    
11. Giving all your stuff to the relatives that are actually doing something matters.
    
12. Allowing your grown adult son to talk to big bad genealogy searching relatives matters.
    
13. Realizing that when you die all your thoughts regarding family stories about your ancestors dies with you unless your big bad genealogy searching relatives can see dead people so you better get off your ass and do something to help them now matters.
    
14. Sending a family DVD that you promised probably 5 or 10 years ago to your cousin matters.
    
15. Realizing that you will not have your identity stolen if you tell your genealogy interested relatives where your parents were married matters.
16. And lastly - for me and my collaborator - Making jokes while researching this INCREDIBLY SERIOUS ENDEAVOR matters.

 
How many of these have you dealt with?