Happy New Year! I have 1 day of vacation left and I’m still in an organizing frame of mind. I have been working on my citations and have several pieces of missing information. (New “resolution”: ALWAYS write down the total number of images on FamilySearch films that are only available to view at affiliate libraries as you are looking at them!) So in the back of my mind, I was going to go to the library this afternoon to find this information. But of course, the library is closed today – as I would have realized it would be if I had only been thinking clearly!

So instead, I’ve decided to use my Bennett research to think of a better way to organize the information that I have been gathering. What type of information? Excel and Word documents! I always feel so “scholarly” when I open a Word document and begin to document where I’m researching and what the result of each search was. It’s not unusual for me to be writing these documents while at the library and I then save them to my Google Drive. But I don’t do a very good job of naming these files. Sometimes, it’s just the date (as if I’ll remember that date that I found that missing record!) The name might make perfect sense to me at the time, but months later, I will see that document in my list of files and wonder, “What in the world is THAT?” In the same way, adding information in Excel files makes me feel like I’m oh so organized, but does that matter if I forget that I’ve created the file?

I need to think of a way to NOT forget about these documents because they just may contain a nugget that doesn’t fit my puzzle at the time, but gives me the perfect hint later on. And I need to think about whether the information has been added to my research notes, or my Family Tree Notebook files that I’m trying to put together to pass on to the next generation of family researcher.

I’ve always had the goal of having all of the information I have found for an ancestor in an Excel file. I started this plan with the Ancestor Inventory that I developed. Over the last year, I have added another tab to this Excel file for Russell County, KY Resources.

I created this tab in my Blank Ancestor Inventory with the goal of listing every single book, website, or FamilySearch resource for Russell County that I have found along with links to any of these things that are found online. As I create citations for any of these records, I am copying the citation as a template to be used for future research and include that in a different column. Each of these citations WILL include the total number of images or pages so that I don’t have to go back to the library just to find this information (which is PROBABLY in one of those Word documents that I’ve forgotten that I created.) Once that tab was created, I copied it into each ancestor’s Inventory. Now, within each ancestor’s personal Inventory, I can hide any rows that are out of the date range for that ancestor, to ultimately give me a nice list of all possible information that I might be able to find at this time. And at the bottom of this list in the Blank Inventory, I’m going to list who’s Inventory the list has been added to along with the date. That way, if I find a new resource, I’ll know who’s individual inventory I’ll need to update. So what’s included in this Russell County, KY Resources tab:

  • The first column is used for a Y/N to show if a resource has been search and if contained information on my ancestor.
  • The 2nd column is the name of the resource with link added, if appropriate.
  • The 3rd column is used for date ranges and/or book call number. I’ve also used this column for “sub-resources”. For example, the 1860 census has 7 sub-resources. The Agriculture Schedule, Manufacturing Schedule, Social Statistics, DDD Schedule, Mortality Schedule, Slave Schedule and a link to Instructions for Enumerators. Some census years include a link to the ED map for that year.
  • The 4th column is used for the citation template. With my template, I’ll be able to adjust a few pieces of information (names and page numbers mainly) and have a quick way to create a final citation.
  • The 5th column is used for notes. The notes might be about image quality or a question I’d like to research further. The note might indicate that there is no index along with a list of pages that have been searched so far.

And of course, any Excel files that I’ve created can be copied over to each Ancestor Inventory if there’s information for that ancestor. HOWEVER, there needs to be a way for me to note where the document can be found, or the original document needs to be deleted so that if/when I add information to that spreadsheet within an ancestor’s workbook, I’m not adding to the original and forgetting to add to the ancestor.

I’m going to add one more tab. This tab will contain a list of all of the Word documents that apply to the ancestor and what information is included in the document. As I am doing this, I will have to consider if the documents can be combined in some way or if the information would be better in a different format.

That is my plan for now. I think this may be a “slow” week for work as the new year ramps up again, so I’m hoping that I can get everything for an ancestor into 1 Excel file workbook (Ancestor Inventory) starting with Silas Bennett. As I work on his workbook, my plan may adjust here and there, but this is my plan for now.

I hope you have a great year of research ahead!

Happy 2024!