Sunday, January 25, 2015

Plugging Away


I have previously blogged about I am decrapifying my life, this also applies to my family history files and tree.

In a recent GeniAus Hangout on Air someone suggested writing down the steps one is taking while Revisiting Recording and Revising one's research.

I have previously mentioned that I think this is an ongoing evaluative process that never stops but I realise that, although I am continually  Revisiting Recording and Revising some of the people in my database may have been missed.

These are the actions I am taking to ensure that I eventually cover all people in my database, it may take some time!

Common errors I have found so far are many hundreds of instances of sources recorded as notes, many unsourced assertions, some wrong genders or no gender and quite a few typos. There are a few duplicate people but not as many as I thought I might have. Until the new version 6 I could not add witnesses to events into Family Historian so Witness Recording is an important part of the Revision.

I am forcing myself to be consistent, I am recording the same type of information for the indivisuals in my database in the same format  in the same fields. Over the years I have used several genealogy databases and just transferred my gedcoms from one to another. Inconsistency has been a result of both this and my past practices.

The Jobs

* Revisit and Revise my Place List in FH that was a bit of a mess. I feel pleased that I sorted this before attacking the people in my database.

* Revisit all of our direct ancestors in my FH database and revise their entries.

* Sort the entries in my FH database by "Last Updated" and revisit and review these systematically (in Alphabetical order) . The earliest are 14/8/2010. Once I revisit and review these I will then work through other dates systematically. I will examine each of these entries putting more effort into those who are direct ancestors of Mr GeniAus and I. Once I catch up with the backlog I can continue this process.

* Go through all of my physical family history folders and extract the BDM certificate copies and transcriptions I hold. After going through these with a fine tooth comb (reviewing) and extracting and recording as much information as I can into my FH database I will scan them then file them all by individual's Surname/Given Names in archival quality sleeves in an archival quality binder.

* Examine all of the papers in my physical family history folders, scan them and file into my digital folders, extract and record as much information as I can into my FH database.

* Periodically update my website to reflect the changes I have made in Family Historian. (There have been at least half a dozen updates so far this month.)




6 comments:

Bribie Family History Association said...

Thanks Jill sounds a lot like my plan and nice to know that I am not the only one with an inconsistent place names database. Slow and steady gets you there in the end and you know you won't have to redo it again. Wish housework was like that!

Cassmob (Pauleen) said...

You are plugging along with it Jill - you'll get there in the end. I'm in bumblebee mode -too many conflicting priorities right now but decrapifying is right up there.

Helen Connor said...

Thanks Jill - I have taken notes about revisiting and revising as well - it's on the to do list - busy sorting Evernote so I can use that more effectively first

J. Paul Hawthorne said...

That is a big job! That will probably take years, Jill. I want to do the same thing, but I'm still in my education mode right now. Maybe, if your done with all your worldly travels, you can get down business and do it... oh wait, your going to Salt Lake City in a couple of weeks... LOL. See you there!

Rosemary said...

Join the club Jill. I'm adding my folks to WikiTree and have certain milestones to accomplish for each person. To get things in better shape I'm spending $$ on certs from London, Oz (both for me) and Alabama, Louisiana and Florida for DH. Louisiana and Florida are only $5!! What a bargain.

True Lewis said...

I'm trying to keep up. I love the word DeCrapifying!

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