Genealogy Project? What's That?

Connecting people. Image courtesy of Dreamstime

Doing Genealogy

When we first start "doing genealogy" we're finding records, noting what we find, and trying to make sense of it all. As time goes on, we may turn into hobbyists, and begin using forms, consulting books, online repositories, and perhaps, building a tree on our computers, online, or both. 

Eventually, it grows so much we don't know what we have, or where! This is where all those "genealogy do-over" or "filing Fridays" projects start. Both of those might be useful in your situation, but here is the ruling principle that can bring quality into your work and peace into your heart: genealogy projects using the Genealogical Proof Standard, the GPS. This principle is what professional genealogists use, but it is not for pros only. Fortunately, it's not a secret; it is the key to effective and efficient work for researchers all around the world. 

Genealogical Proof Standard

GPS Shapes a Project

Many of us focus on step one of the GPS, the exhaustive research. Our curiosity drives us, that human desire to finish putting all the pieces of a puzzle together, and our longing to know our ancestors and our family in history. The deeper we go, the more we realize that locality, the laws of the time, along with social forces and disasters, wars, epidemics, and economics shaped the lives of our families. The more we learn about these forces, the more deeply we understand the records we find. We find their families embedded in communities and end up researching the "FAN Club"—their larger families, friends, associates and neighbors to fully paint the picture. 

There is no way to carry out such an investigation without a focus, which involves one person and one relationship, event, or analyzing their biography as a whole. As research proceeds, good habits will save time (and sanity) in the long run. Creating a research plan at the beginning will keep each project on track. Embed within that plan a research log, filled as databases and other record sets are identified, with citation templates. Not every resource is likely to give the best information, which are in original records created at the time of the event, so once you have identified the best, you can rank them. Focus on the records most likely to yield the best evidence possible.  Direct evidence may never be found, so you will assemble bits and pieces of other information and stitch them together to create a convincing case. 

Velvet Pieced Quilt: National Gallery of Art;
public domain image via Picryl

As research progresses, your plan may have to change. Perhaps you found direct evidence early, and there is other supporting evidence. What is the next event which needs to be understood? Are you ready to analyze the biography overall? Ongoing analysis of the quality of the evidence is important, and the practice of "writing as you go" will help. Writing helps us wrestle with and make sense of the facts. You may conclude that you have been researching two people with the same name, and need to disentangle them. 

Timelines Clarify

In the very beginning of a new project, it's important to review what is already known, and one useful way to do that is in a timeline. Whether you put this in a spreadsheet, database such as Airtable, or narrative, it will organize what you know and help you begin your preliminary analysis of the overall biography. If you plan to research the entire family, a combined timeline is useful as well. It makes clear that families are the original FAN club of every family member, even the children who died young.

Write As You Go

As you begin a new project based on the GPS, it's important to consider the end product, which is a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion. Many researchers falter here, because they have neglected to keep a log, have not collected all the information they need to cite their findings, and have not written notes, thoughts and questions while researching. It's useful to review, and it helps to have something written to review! Sometimes life intrudes, causing research to stop for awhile; as you research, keep your plan updated. When you come back to it, you'll be able to jump right back in. Also, you might get tired of this time period or family. I think it's important to enjoy the work, so record your thoughts and save the documents to pick up again when you want to return. Some stories are dark or painful, and we need to protect our health.

"Leveling Up"

Yvette Hoitink, MLitt, CG®, QG™ is a professional genealogist, writer, and lecturer from the Netherlands. In 2021 she introduced the concept of leveling up in her blog; many researchers have found this post clarifying and helpful. She puts her chart in a spreadsheet, but in my opinion the prettiest and most useful illustration of this is a color-coded fan chart; there is an easy way to create one at DNA Painter. Upload a gedcom file of your tree, load that into your family tree here: https://dnapainter.com/#trees. Once done playing with the new displays there, choose "Dimensions" and scroll down to "Research Level" to display it. 

Because this image is generated from an old file, levels are not properly shown here, but I still have a lot of work to do. Leveling up to the GPS for all identified ancestors is a worthy goal.

Generated at DNA Painter July 2024

Once finished writing your narratives, where do you display all that work? In this writer's opinion, everywhere possible! Perhaps you aim to get certification as a genealogist, and your work might become part of the work samples in a portfolio submission. Perhaps you have built a strong case for a relative or ancestor which seems to be controversial. Upload your well-cited document to your online tree, and onto their profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree, and on Wikitree*. Share your writing with your family, or even publish a book about it. If you write as you go, all of these things will be easier. Let's get started!

*PS: South King County Genealogical Society has two groups supporting just this work. The newest is a "SIG" (Special Interest Group) created by request, for those who want to use Wikitree. Join here: https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Wikitree-SIG. No meetings planned as yet. 

The other group is for those doing family history writing who want to share it with a small group for feedback and ideas for improvement. No meetings are planned. https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Family-History-Writing.

Have fun!

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Thank you for sending your stories to m.strickland@SKCGS.org

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Valorie Zimmerman