Boulder, Colorado, October 2010.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sorting Saturday - Organizing Research Documents
I'm taking the Family Tree University course, "Organize Your Genealogy: Get Your Research in Order (and Keep It That Way)" taught by Nancy Hendrickson. This week I chose to organize all of my "unprocessed" research that has been accumulating. You know, the stuff from the last trip to Salt Lake City, those death certificates I ordered but haven't entered into my database, the census records downloaded from Ancestry, and the list goes on. I seem to find documents faster than I can analyze and process them.
The first step was to gather up all of the piles and bins of semi-organized documents (I'm sure more will turn up). Next I spent a couple of hours doing a quick sort by surname and in some cases locality. Fortunately, I had been organizing and sorting in spurts along the way so the pile wasn't a complete disorganized mess. The problem I have is that life gets in the way and the half organized papers get stuffed in a pile somewhere and forgotten.
I had a file drawer in the room where I work that would be a perfect place to house these papers, so I cleaned it out and threw most of the stuff away. Yeah!! Using the advice of my daughter's fourth grade teacher that "the brain loves color," I decided to color code the files by my four grandparents' lines and file by surname within those four colors.
Hopefully with these files within easy reach of my workspace, I will make some good progress on processing the results of some of my research.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
The first step was to gather up all of the piles and bins of semi-organized documents (I'm sure more will turn up). Next I spent a couple of hours doing a quick sort by surname and in some cases locality. Fortunately, I had been organizing and sorting in spurts along the way so the pile wasn't a complete disorganized mess. The problem I have is that life gets in the way and the half organized papers get stuffed in a pile somewhere and forgotten.
I had a file drawer in the room where I work that would be a perfect place to house these papers, so I cleaned it out and threw most of the stuff away. Yeah!! Using the advice of my daughter's fourth grade teacher that "the brain loves color," I decided to color code the files by my four grandparents' lines and file by surname within those four colors.
Hopefully with these files within easy reach of my workspace, I will make some good progress on processing the results of some of my research.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
Friday, October 22, 2010
Finding the Low farm in Boulder
In my Almost Wordless Wednesday post the other day, I mentioned we were driving around the outskirts of Boulder. One of my family branches, the Lows, had a farm that we were looking for. If you read my Time Capsule series, this would be the Lowe family that Frances Robinson Lowe married into.
I obtained the legal description of the property from the estate file of Theodore Low, the original of which is housed at the Colorado State Archives. Using Google Earth and the legal description, I was able to produce an arial map showing the boundaries of the property. Then it was a matter of hopping in the car and driving out there. Don't you just love modern technology?
As I was reading off the directions from the map, Younger Family Member, who was with us, suddenly exclaimed, "Jay Road! That's where my friend lives. Give me that map." Upon examination, Younger Family Member determined that said friend lives adjacent to the former Low farm. A text message ensued informing said friend that they are living almost on the property where Younger Family Member's ancestor's farmed. I think that might be a GOTCHA! Only time will tell.
Today the area is still very rural with a couple of housing enclaves consisting of what I would call "horse property." There are lots of fenced pastures.
I like to think that this peaceful spot with the beautifully painted buildings could have been the site of the Low home.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
I obtained the legal description of the property from the estate file of Theodore Low, the original of which is housed at the Colorado State Archives. Using Google Earth and the legal description, I was able to produce an arial map showing the boundaries of the property. Then it was a matter of hopping in the car and driving out there. Don't you just love modern technology?
As I was reading off the directions from the map, Younger Family Member, who was with us, suddenly exclaimed, "Jay Road! That's where my friend lives. Give me that map." Upon examination, Younger Family Member determined that said friend lives adjacent to the former Low farm. A text message ensued informing said friend that they are living almost on the property where Younger Family Member's ancestor's farmed. I think that might be a GOTCHA! Only time will tell.
Today the area is still very rural with a couple of housing enclaves consisting of what I would call "horse property." There are lots of fenced pastures.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wordless Wednesday (Almost) - Jay Hill Farm
While driving around Boulder, Colorado the other day, in the area of Jay Road, we ran across the Jay Hill Vegetable stand. They have some of the most unusual gourds I have ever seen.
We were in the mood for pumpkins on that day and there was an excellent selection.
For my Boulder readers, I encourage you to stop by the stand on Jay Road just east of Highway 119. They have a really fun selection of the fall harvest!
For the rest of the story on why we were driving around the area, check back in the next day or two...
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
Photos printed with permission.
We were in the mood for pumpkins on that day and there was an excellent selection.
The "Cinderella" pumpkins spoke to us so one of those was selected.
For my Boulder readers, I encourage you to stop by the stand on Jay Road just east of Highway 119. They have a really fun selection of the fall harvest!
For the rest of the story on why we were driving around the area, check back in the next day or two...
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
Photos printed with permission.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Family History Society of Arizona Fall Workshop October 23rd
The morning begins with a Round Panel Table of published genealogy authors with ASU professor Duane Roen as the moderator, followed by his class "The Writing and Preserving of Family History." In the afternoon will be a presentation "Historical Research" by ASU professor Eduardo Pagan, team member from PBS’ "History Detective".
There will be several classes to choose from during the afternoon sessions.
If you are interested, you can get a registration form from the FHSA website. Registration is due October 16th. The workshop is being held from 9:00 to 4:30 at the Glendale Adult Center, 5970 West Brown St. in Glendale, AZ (Brown Street is one block south of Peoria on 59th Avenue).
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
There will be several classes to choose from during the afternoon sessions.
If you are interested, you can get a registration form from the FHSA website. Registration is due October 16th. The workshop is being held from 9:00 to 4:30 at the Glendale Adult Center, 5970 West Brown St. in Glendale, AZ (Brown Street is one block south of Peoria on 59th Avenue).
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Sorting Saturday - Inventory of Genealogy Lectures
I keep reading that one should keep a list of all of the family history/genealogy related books so as to avoid making duplicate purchases. As I was reviewing the FGS 2010 lectures that are now available on JAMB, it occurred to me the other day that it might be a good idea to do the same with genealogy lectures.
At first I didn't think I had purchased enough to make it worth my while to put together a list. Then I remembered all of the lectures I purchased from Lulu.com from the 2006 FGS Boston conference. I started a list.
As it turns out, I have purchased more than 80 lectures over the years to while away the time on the treadmill and while toting kids to and fro. And yes, there are some that I almost ordered again so I am glad I was able to avoid ordering duplicates.
I made a simple Excel spreadsheet with columns for Lecturer, Title and Conference. Since it's in Excel, it's easy to change how it's sorted. I'll be making an Excel list for my genealogy books too. Right now that list is on a piece of notebook paper.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
At first I didn't think I had purchased enough to make it worth my while to put together a list. Then I remembered all of the lectures I purchased from Lulu.com from the 2006 FGS Boston conference. I started a list.
As it turns out, I have purchased more than 80 lectures over the years to while away the time on the treadmill and while toting kids to and fro. And yes, there are some that I almost ordered again so I am glad I was able to avoid ordering duplicates.
I made a simple Excel spreadsheet with columns for Lecturer, Title and Conference. Since it's in Excel, it's easy to change how it's sorted. I'll be making an Excel list for my genealogy books too. Right now that list is on a piece of notebook paper.
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)