Have You Heard the News?

 

Have you heard about the new digi-mag? It's called The In-Depth Genealogist. The driving forces behind this new digital publication for all levels of researchers are GeneaBloggers Terri O'Connell, Finding Our Ancestors; Stephanie Pitcher Fishman, Corn and Cotton Genealogy; and Jennifer Holik, Generations.

They have asked me to join their team as a writer! So in addition to reading The Turning of Generations you can also read articles and blog posts by yours truly over at The In-Depth Genealogist. I'll be writing a monthly column on land and property records called Timeless Territories as well as a couple of blog posts each month.

These ladies have several wonderful writers on board as well as guest contributors. I encourage you to check out this new addition to the genealogy community.

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

21COFH - Weeks 21 & 22

For the next couple of weeks, we are going to get some of our papers organized. I know you have piles of genealogy papers! Try as we do to keep the paper tiger under control and digitize more and more, those piles still have a way of appearing and reproducing!

For the next couple of weeks, pick a project to work on. Here are some suggestions:

• Take one pile or a box, sort through and organize the papers according to your organizational system. If you're looking for ideas, last fall, I reported on the progress made with the Archival Closet and the next steps to be taken. The previous year, I wrote Organizing Research Documents. 
• Get those syllabi and presentation notes from NGS, a local conference, or your society meetings organized and filed (and maybe even digitized).
• Go through your genealogy "In Box" and file or process the documents that are waiting for a home.

Don't expect to get it all done at once. Just look for progress. One box, pile or handful at a time.

I'll be reporting soon on my project.

Let us know what you're working on and any tips and tricks you come up with. You can do so either in the comments or in a post of your own (still leave a comment with the url). Good luck!

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

21COFH Summer Schedule

Those not so lazy days of summer have arrived. Kids are out of school, or will be soon. Families are planning vacations, and we are not exception. So we are going to a reduced schedule for the next few months on our 21 Century Organized Family Historian projects. I'll still be posting every two weeks or so. It's just time to make family memories right now. The organizing part will come, but just a little slower. Stay tuned.

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

It's been a nail biting couple of days in the Goodrum household. The Oregon Softball team lost their first game of Super Regionals to Texas on Friday night.

On Saturday, they were victorious in the second, contentious game and had to play a third game. In which Oregon was victorious! It's on to the Women's College World Series for the University of Oregon! Go Ducks!!

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Happy Mother's Day - 21COFH Weeks 19 & 29

Happy Mother's Day to all mother's everywhere!

We're taking this week and next off from our organizing projects. This mother needs a little break!

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures - The Finale - 21COFH Week - 18

OK, I was wrong. I said there was one thing left to do before putting this project to bed. There's two things.

1. Identify as many people as you can in the group of photos you are working on.

While most of the pictures in this box are unidentified, I do recognize a few faces in there. So, using a number 1 pencil, I will be labeling those that I can. I'll also be adding name "tags" to the digital copies.

2. Send copies of some of the pictures to other family members. Maybe these ol' pictures will put a smile on someone's face and just maybe they can help ID some of the faces in the photos!

Now we're done. I promise.

Whether you are attending the NGS Conference in Cincinatti later this week or not, enjoy it. Personally, I'll be following as many blog posts as possible.

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Ongoing Pictures, Pictures, Pictures Saga

Do you ever have a project that started out innocently enough and then never seems to end? Our Pictures, Pictures, Pictures project has taken on a mini life of its own!

This week I had two tasks left to complete:

• Write up a few sentences regarding the provenance of this mini collection: the who, what, when and where. Also describe the naming convention for the files and where the pictures are stored. Like the index a copy needs to be in the Project Notebook, with the digital photos and with the physical photos.
• Add metadata.

The first item was fairly easy and I'm finding it is becoming easier as time goes on. This is mainly because now that we have a Project Notebook, so it's easy to refer to other write ups for ideas and to even cut and paste and make the appropriate modifications.

I even took pictures of the old candy box this photo collection lived in for the last several decades. Just for old times sake. Actually, various family members have referred to Grandma Lowe's pictures in the candy boxes. Now if this doesn't make your mouth water....

The Chocolate Covered Almonds sound particularly scrumptuous!

Getting serious, I'm still struggling with metadata. Using Photoshop Elements, I applied a tag to this collection of photos. I wanted to add a two sentence description of this collection in the Description field but realized you must do this to each photo individually. Since there were over 360 scans, I wasn't up to the chore this week! I'll wait until I've got a grasp on Lightroom where you can do these types of things in batches (at least that's the impression I'm under).

So for now, I made a note at the bottom of the write up of the tag that was added and the description I would like to add. At least for now. This little box of gems can go to its new home in the Archival Closet.

There's one thing left to do before we put this project to bed for now. Check back tomorrow!

Related posts:
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures - 21COFH Week 16
My Take on Pictures, Pictures, Pictures - 21COFH
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures Continued - 21COFH Week 17
Using OneNote as a Project Notebook - 21COFH Week 14

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum