Time

We've found time to be a funny thing when it comes to genealogy. There is a great sense of urgency to find ancestors, know their stories, and record the history that you find, yet genealogy requires a ton of patience. I think for the first time since our genealogy journey started, we are beginning to feel somewhat stuck and anxious that time is moving too fast.

The Genealogy Queen (Grandma, remember?!) told me that she had been researching a particular ancestor for 40 years....FORTY YEARS.....so I guess our advice to ourselves and to you is: when you get stuck, leave it, work on another line, and revisit it after a set time.

Amateur

From dictionary.com, an Amateur is defined as:

1. A person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than financial benefit or professional reasons.

and

2. A person inexperienced or unskilled in a particular activity.

By both definitions, Stephanie and I are amateurs, but we are learning daily and loving genealogy.

I just spoke with our Genealogy Queen, Grandma Putnam, who gave me a few pieces of advice that I thought were awesome.

1. When trying to find ancestors, focus on one line for a certain amount of time. Give yourself 30, 0r maybe even 60 days, to delve into records, censuses, State websites, etc, for one line. Do NOT be a grasshopper, as Grandma put it....jumping around from name to name, getting stories, dates, and info confused.

2. Keep written notes! Grandma Putnam recommended a spiral notebook or even an open Word Document to keep notes from things you find. I have found family trees on http://www.ancestry.com that have confusing information with multiple spouses, extra or missing siblings, and dates that do not match up. Keep notes that you can refer to throughout your searches....this is a must!

3. Do not add incomplete information to your http://new.familysearch.org/. Try to find a government document. You can go to http://www.ancestry.com/ to find censuses, etc, and you can also use http://labs.familysearch.org/ to find records. In most cases, it's important to find your own records and don't rely on what others have put on their family trees.

4. Once you find information to add to your http://new.familysearch.org/ , print the document for your own record keeping. A three ring binder is perfect for holding documents and organizing.

Now get to work!!! :) I'm off to work on ONE line....I will not be a grasshopper.

the first step

Vanessa taught History at Timpview High School and Stephanie majored in Sociology and took a Genealogy class at BYU, then we both became stay at home moms in 2009. On a recent trip to Idaho, we sat down with our Grandma to discuss family history. She encouraged us to help our dad with his family history. Our Grandma is the Genealogy Queen and is currently serving as a Family History missionary for the LDS church. She is our mentor and will hopefully continue to give us advice so we can share it with you. You are probably wondering, "Where do I start?" We encourage you to start by registering at www.new.familysearch.org . Your first homework assignment is to listen to Elder Russell M. Nelson's talk from conference, "Generations Linked in Love" and to register at New.FamilySearch.