Valorie Zimmerman fan chart from Ancestry.com Sometimes we want to take a break from researching, or our budget tells us  that we need to do so.  How will you handle this? We know that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" but you are reading this post, so you still want to learn more. What to do? Will  exploring a new (free) website  be enough? Everything—every search, every record, every download—on FamilySearch is free and available every day, all year long * . The same is true at the Library of Congress , the National Archives , Archive.org , all the US state archives, and state digital newspaper collections, your own public library system, and often neighboring systems as well! King County Washington residents have access not only to KCLS , but also Pierce County , Snohomish County , and Seattle Public Libraries as well. Don't overlook local college and university libraries, county and city archives and many large and some smaller museums. Sometimes gett...

Revisit Old Research   White Goose Flying - Royalty free from pickpic.com Why Rake Up Old Research?  There are lots of reasons to revisit old research. Perhaps: New DNA match New record  Questions from connections Or maybe questions you ask yourself based on new education, more experience and newly-found connections. No matter the reason, I have found that revisiting is more useful than a "do over. " We all learn as we gain experience, both in methodology and as we deepen our understanding of our families and their stories, migrations, and the places where they lived.  DNA Tools Give a Reason for a Fresh Look Recently I asked my cousin to generate a DNA cluster report for my McBee uncle, because he is one generation closer to our ancestors than any of us cousins are. If you have never seen an autocluster, see one here:  https://education.myheritage.com/article/autoclusters-for-dna-matches/ . It is fun to see the report take shape, and the groups are very useful....

Courtesy PublicDomainImages.net "Car Burning Rubber" Deadlines I used to dread writing reports, from grade school on. Deadlines caused dread, and there was no pleasure (or learning) from scrabbling together all the sources into something readable. When I began doing genealogy research, writing reports of my findings never entered my mind! Not even when I found massive help from various books and articles. I never saw myself then as a contributor to the body of knowledge; only as a consumer.  From Consumer to Contributor https://www.wikitree.com/ Two things changed my viewpoint. The first was finding Wikitree, where I took responsibility for the linked profiles for many of the family members I had found through my years of research. The Wikitree focus on sourcing, collaboration and narrative, not just a bare skein of facts, began to change that "consumer" stance, into becoming a contributor.  Focus and Collaboration The other event that taught me how to contribute be...