Besides getting a feeling for your ancestor as a person, discovering every possible scrap of information about your family can provide further search clues and even lead to important new information. Before we get into the how, what, where and why of gathering data, let's deal with handling all that information you're going to get. [You wouldn't go out and buy a whole lot of groceries with no shelves to put it all on would you?] A few of you who are just getting started may wonder why systems and organization are needed at all. I promise that in a few weeks or months when you cannot find so and so and are sitting there thinking, "Now I know that is here somewhere!" you will know why! The sooner you begin to organize your information the easier it is but it is never too late. There are many fancy systems advertised and used but quite a few of them are complicated and need special charts and diagrams. Many of them take more time to keep in order than they are worth. Two basic, widely used, systems are described here. Another system is described briefly as it is in common use in printed family genealogies and articles listing descendants of a particular individual. First - A 3 hole, looseleaf notebook is an absolute necessity. We have run across several poor souls who were packing around 3 or 4 spiral bound notebooks and madly flipping through them one after another hunting this person or that census note and so forth. With a looseleaf notebook [and some paper to go in it of course] you can start. Very helpful but not essential are index dividers and preprinted pedigree and family group sheets. We highly recommend that you stick with 8 1/2 by 11 paper and forms as they are the most widely used and easiest to handle. Most of you are working on your direct ancestral lines and that is our starting point. The base of the organization is the pedigree (ancestor) chart. Used properly it can act as a table of contents to the rest of your information. A pedigree chart is a diagram showing your direct ancestors and looks basically like the diagram below. [pedigree chart image here] Pedigree charts are widely available, both numbered and unnumbered [we suggest the latter] and, since you don't need to use too many of them, far easier to purchase than to draw yourself. You can get nice big ones going up to 14 generations or more to put up on the wall. A really attractive version of this is called a fan chart, but for everyday working purposes the five generation, 8 1/2 x 11 form works best. Lots of HOW TO books say "start with yourself" but you don't have to. Start with whomever you want to work backwards in time from. If you are doing just your paternal ancestry, your father can be #1 for example. You may be doing both yourself and your spouse's lines, then make your children #1. Further on we will be getting into subdividing your material when necessary but at this point it must be mentioned that if two lines come from very different areas and will be worked independently, it works very well to set them up right from the beginning as two totally separate systems: one notebook, etc., for the paternal side and one for the maternal side for example. For the purposes of discussion, let us assume that you are #1. Continue with the pedigree chart: father at #2, mother at #3, etc. When you reach the last generation on the page [#16 to #31 on a 5 generation chart] number the chart continuations with the same number as the individual: #16 is continued on chart #16; #17 on chart #17, etc. This will leave gaps in your chart numbering but it is no more difficult to keep in numerical order and keeps it to one number per person instead of having to cope with person #1 on chart #2 is the same as #16 on chart #1 and so on. Frequently genealogical publications include a variation of a pedigree chart leaving out all the lines and just listing everybody by number, skipping numbers where the individual is not known. The quick way to figure out who is whose father or mother in such a listing [where you don't have those helpful lines pointing the way] is to remember that an individual's father's number is double his own; the mother is double plus one. In other words, #8's father is 2x8 or #16 and his mother is 2x8+1 or #17. To find the child, just divide the father's number by 2. Put your charts in the front of your notebook. Now prepare the family group sheets to go with them. A few of you are working strictly direct ancestors. Even if you have no interest in their brothers and sisters, for research purposes you should keep track of the basic information about them. This is where the group sheet comes in. Pre-printed forms are widely available, in many variations. One of the most popular and widely used forms is the A1 form put out by Everton Publishers, P.O. Box 368, Logan, Utah 84321. [See the example on page 6] This form works well for area families. You can go through lots of these in a hurry especially when you are first sorting families out. Use the pre-printed forms when you have made some sense out of a family but for preliminary work and `genealogy on the fly' when you don't have time to be neat, try the following with a piece of ordinary lined paper. On the top line write the name of the husband, then go down the margin with b, d, s/o, md, skip a line, b, d, and d/o. [See sample on page 3] There is a list of commonly used genealogical abbreviations in the Appendix section. For the moment here are the basic abbreviations all but one of which was used on the family group `scratch' sheet: `b' = born; `d' = died; `s/o' = son of; `md' = married; `d/o' = daughter of; and, not used yet on the example, `ca' which means about or approximately and is an abbreviation of the word `circa' from the Latin for `about'. Using a family group `scratch sheet' like the example, skip two or three lines for miscellaneous notes and list the children, numbering them along the margin. Scribble in whatever notes you want to. On the next page is a filled out [fictional family] form which will be discussed in detail in a minute. First a couple of suggested habits: Always write SURNAMES in all CAPITALS. There are several good reasons for this. For one thing it makes them easy to spot on a page. For another, it solves the confusion when both first and last names could be the other way around like Jackson James vs. James Jackson. If you write it Jackson JAMES you will never have any doubt which is which. Always write dates DAY-MONTH-YEAR and put the month in letters. Abbreviate months but we suggest June and Jany in handwritten material rather than Jun and Jan as a careless `u' or `a' can move a date five months. Never use the #/#/# method! You may know if 6/3/25 is June 3 or March 6 and whether it's 1825 or 1925 or even 1725, but no one else can be sure and even you can get it turned around easily. Use black ball point ink pens. Blue ink is highly unreliable in making photo copies and you never know when you might want to copy something to send a new found `cousin.' Felt tip pens are very nice BUT if you spill a little coffee, get caught in the rain or anything else a bit wet it will smear and smudge often to where you cannot read what it says. We don't recommend pencil either for several reasons, it also does not always photocopy and often smudges. Yes, it erases for the correction of errors, but, it is often useful to know where you have corrected something. For example, what if you put 18 Aug 1853 as a marriage date, obtained from someone else's work published in a society quarterly, but cited as being the actual date of record. But, you later examine that record yourself and find it was 1855? If you cross out your original entry as you would with pen and write in the correct date, you will know that there is an incorrect date floating around. [If you make a mistake like writing the birth date on the death date line, there is this magic little bottle of stuff called Liquid Paper that will cover it up.] FILLED IN FAMILY GROUP `SCRATCH' SHEET [scratch sheet image here] Line by line: The #16 by John DOE's name indicates he is #16 from the base pedigree chart. The circled numbers such as the `1' by his birthdate refer to footnotes at the bottom of the sheet. There is a question mark by his death date to indicate some uncertainty. As explained in the note on that line, it is a tentative assumption because he is not listed with the family in the 1860 census. The `star' by his parents name is a code I use to indicate that I have a group sheet for James and Mary SMITH DOE. [I could also have noted their numbers: #32 and 33.] Develop your own code for this sort of thing. On the marriage line, the year is listed first here. The note in ()'s shows that it is a bond date not an actual marriage date. The book and page are noted right on this same line for reference convenience and to cutdown on the number of footnotes. The only other item to which the marriage record could footnote here is Elizabeth's maiden name and you could presume that it was listed as such on the marriage record since it is not stated other wise. [See further in Marriages - Section Two.] There are two dates listed on Elizabeth's birthdate line, as indicated by the circled footnote numbers, one is from the 1850 census, the other from 1860. There is no significant difference between the approximate years of 1822 and 1823 but in the preliminary work-up of an individual it can be important to note all variations, even slight ones. [See a further discussion of this in BIRTHS and in WEIGHING EVIDENCE.] No note has been made on Elizabeth's death date at this point. Her parents are listed with a couple of question marks and the side note of why it is thought they might be her parents. The next two lines contain a couple of miscellaneous notes and then the children's list begins. If you're building this scratch sheet from something like a will or deed that gives no indication of the birth order of the children, don't put the numbers along the margin. When you establish all or most of the birth order, number accordingly. If our example had come from such a source and the children [without birthdates] been listed Mary, Joseph, George, Andrew, our numbers would have been 3, 2, 1, 4. When this is recopied to a regular group sheet they can then be put in the correct order. Note that George's birthdate has both 1 and 2 for footnotes, indicating that he was age 10 in 1850, age 20 in 1860. The side note of (1870c) indicates that he has been located in 1870 with a wife named Betty. Since there is no star indicating a group sheet for George & Betty, there appears to have been no further work done as yet on that couple. On the other hand, Joseph is starred and has a pedigree #8 so there's more on him elsewhere. The `VR' that follows Mary A.'s death date stands for Vital Returns. This source is discussed in detail in Births and Deaths in Section Two. I use this source frequently and have adopted a shorthand for it. Develop your own shorthand for references you run across frequently. Andrew Jackson comes up as born about 1848 from both the 1850 and 1860 census records, per the footnote numbers. The additional information about his death in the Civil War is a bit lengthy for a side note so it was placed in a footnote. On a scratch sheet mentioning someone solely as "aunt Ellen" will suffice as long as you have no doubt about who she is, etc. When you properly fill in a regular group sheet, you should add her full name and any other pertinent details such as address, age, credibility and so forth. These scratch sheets can be filed in your looseleaf notebooks until you prepare a regular sheet. Put the pedigree chart reference number [#8 in our example] in the upper right hand corner to act like a readily visible page number. It is also very helpful to code the pedigree chart in the front of your notebook so you know if you've done a group sheet. The easiest - simply circle the number if it has a group sheet. In cases of multiple marriages: on your pedigree chart [marriage information line] use the number of the marriage that is in your line. In other words if grandpa was the child of his father's second marriage, put #2 immediately after the abbreviation for marriage. If he was of the first of two or three marriages put #1, if there was only one marriage don't put any number. If it was one of multiple marriages of the mother, put an m#2 or whatever by her name. On the `scratch' group sheet, leave a line for another marriage so you have somewhere to put date and name. For example, if the widowed Elizabeth in our example had married again, a line immediately following `d/o' would read, for example, md#2 2 Dec 1871 Henry SMITH. The other tricky situation that turns up frequently in this area is when the same couple appears more than once in your family tree, in other words when cousins of some degree or another have married. For example if #16 and #24 on your chart are the same individual, use the first of these, #16, for the person but mark it as #16(24) on the group sheet and note it at both #16 and #24 on the pedigree chart. Set up in this manner, a glance at your pedigree chart will tell you what number family group sheet to go to to locate further information on that family. Keep your group sheets in numerical order and it works like page numbers. If because of numerous children or multiple marriages you have more than one page just mark it "#8, pg2" for example. Of those we have seen, the type of group sheet on page 6 works best for area families. We suggest putting the family group number in the upper righthand corner rather than where indicated as it's easier to find in your notebook. The `Chr'nd' line [for christening date/place] is useless for that purpose in an area where adult baptism was [and is] favored but it's handy for additional remarks concerning birth. Both this line and that for `Burial' are essential in New England work where such dates were often recorded. It is not unusual in the New England states to be able to locate a christening date but not a birth record. At least the burial line gives you somewhere to note the where although in this area you will rarely find a date of burial. The remaining information lines are basically self-explanatory. The lined area to the left of the husband/wife data area is excellent for your short footnotes. Lengthy items can be referred to the back of the sheet or to a separate page. [See more on footnotes on page 8.] Now for the columns under children. The first one is to indicate the sex of the child. It's really only necessary to note this when it's not clear from the name [Mary's a girl; John's a boy; but Frances could be either] and in those cases we've found it handier to note this right with the name: Frances (f), and leave the outside space for other things such as the pedigree reference number, the code for having a group sheet of their own, renumbering in birth order when necessary [when you've got the whole thing written up and find out the children you have 3rd and 4th are the other way around - neatly cross out the number as given and put the correct number(s) in the outer margin where you will notice it]. "Full Names" is what the sheet says but unless the children don't carry the father's surname, there's no reason to take the time and crowd that little space with the repetitive surname. Another little marking we've found useful is when someone has a double barreled name like Andrew Jackson, underline the portion of the name used most often. As we know from Aunt Ellen's note on the scratch sheet, the one in our example apparently went by `Jack' so his name ought to be written Andrew Jackson. Do put the full name of the spouse on the second part of that box. Remember to put the surname in all capitals. With multiple marriages in the children list, we suggest putting the marriage you consider most important such as the one in your ancestral line, the only one of four that had children, the one that lasted the longest, the current marriage,etc. Number it correctly on the marriage information line and then note the others elsewhere [if that child has a group sheet, just code it and put the information on the other group sheet]. How to write dates has already been dealt with [DAY/MONTH(in letters)/YEAR]. We skipped over "places," so here goes. The standard post office abbreviations work just fine for the state but, if you can't remember easily if MO means Missouri or not, write it out. The county if known is tremendously important as a great many records are organized and located by the county within each state. Remember county lines changed over the years. A death record in 1920 might state someone was born in 1848 at Callaway in Bell County. But, Bell County did not exist at that time. How do you correctly enter this information, probably the best way would be "Callaway, Bell [then Harlan] Co. KY" or "Callaway, Harlan [now Bell] Co. KY" Bell should be footnoted to the source reference for the death record. If you know probably or possibly for a date or place, enter it, just be sure to indicate the strength of the information. There is further discussion of indicating and judging the strength of information elsewhere. FAMILY GROUP SHEET reduced in size [Everton Publishers] Many of us get interested in developing information on the descendants in one or more of the families in our lines. At this point an additional numbering system is useful in keeping people straight. Let's assume for the moment that James and Mary SMITH DOE [#32,33] in our fictional family fascinate you and you develop information on the rest of their children and grandchildren and so on. In order to add a system that will keep them in order and yet still fit within the basic framework, just use James DOE's pedigree number as the base. His children [in birth order if known] would be as follows: 32-1, 32-2, 32-3, etc. Assuming our John DOE was his oldest child and thus #32-1, his children would be numbered #32-1-1 George, #32-1-2* Joseph, #32-1-3 Mary A., #32-1-4 Andrew Jackson. [An asterisk or other marking can be used to note which is in your direct line.] Thus, Joseph's children would be #32-1-2*-1, #32-1-2*-2, etc. [NOTE: some people alternate between letters and numbers: 1-a-2-b, etc., same basic idea though.] With these combined numbering systems you can readily work your way forwards and backwards tracing anyone in the lines with relative ease. You can use these same numbers to indicate who is who in your data notes as well. As your information builds, index dividers come in handy to sort out your family group sheets from your census notes and your census notes from your vital statistics, and so forth. You might even want one for unidentified or problem individuals. As each group of notes gets too bulky and unwieldy to readily find what you want, subdivide it. Census notes can be divided between states, between years, or between counties. Land and Tax records, lumped together at first can be split. Military information can be split up by the war involved, or, if you just have a lot of Civil War information and not much on the others, just split out the Civil War and leave the rest lumped together for now. The important thing to remember when dividing sections up is that it must work for you, for the way you are working your families and the way your work is developing. Family Group Sheets can be divided by splitting off a particular line. This works best when you have a line heading off in some other direction. For example, in my husband's family, his paternal grandparents are both solid Harlan County as is his maternal grandmother. On the other hand, his maternal grandfather came to Harlan from Lee County, Va., just before the turn of the century. This man, George Dillman, is a natural point to subdivide. A note on the pedigree chart saying so and a pedigree chart beginning with him, still numbered as #6 and everything from him backwards is split off into a separate section. In other words "KEEP THINGS DOWN TO SIZE." When your first notebook gets too thick, graduate to two... eventually you may become a total addict and have notebooks all over the place. Miscellaneous suggestions that may be helpful whatever system you use: Have a folder handy for unprocessed information so you don't lose track of it. Many military, court and deed records are oversize. Make reduced copies or notes from these for your working notebooks and put the originals away in a large manila envelope or file. Even records that are okay for size should not be put in the original in your working notebook, make a copy, holepunch it and put that in your notebook. [A good three hole-punch runs about $10 and can be worth every penny.] Then you can use a highlight to mark the important stuff on your working copy without marking up the original [even though it is probably technically a copy of an official record some where]. Keep a research list handy, much like one might keep a grocery list, where you can note work you need to do as you spot it. Then when you have the opportunity to get to the library or out-of-state or whatever you have the list all ready and handy. There are research log forms available if you like them. The third widely-used numbering system for genealogical work is mostly found in printed genealogies of the descendants of a particular individual. It is not adviseable as a working system as it has no room for change or addition but it is included here because you will run across it. The way it works is really quite simple. The progenitor [earliest ancestor] is #1. His children are then numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... assuming he only has the five children, it then goes on to the grandchildren beginning with the children of #2 who would be #7, 8, 9, and so on. The numbering continues consecutively down through the generations. It is nice and neat but if you discover for example that someone you have listed as #9, a child of #2, is actually a nephew of his wife's that he raised, you have a sudden gap in your numbers. You have the opposite problem if you discover a child you were previously unaware of... there is no number to give it. There is also no indicator of how many generations you are from the progenitor as there is in the descending system already described. ORGANIZE NOW! Take it from one who learned the hard way, the sooner you get organized the better! If you are just beginning, organize now. It won't hurt if you give it all up and if you keep up this work you will be forever glad you did particularly when you run across some poor soul at a library or somewhere with a pile of bits and pieces of paper, ragged spiral notebooks and a lost bewildered look. As the majority of amateur genealogists do not have and/or use a computer for their hobby, nothing has been said in the proceeding pages about using genealogical computer programs. There are several good ones at various prices, but there are two that are superior in Footprints opinion: Quinsept's Family Roots and CommSoft's Roots II or Roots III. Harlan Footprints issue III/3 contained a lengthy article and review on computer programs which considered Roots II and Family Roots about equal. Roots III has come out since that time and with the additional options and improvements we consider it the best choice for most genealogical work. [See SOURCES in the appendix.] One last word on the subject of organizing... FOOTNOTING & CITING YOUR SOURCES Keeping track of the source of your information was briefly referred to in the discussion on family group sheets. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! At first you will be able to look at a sheet and remember where you found out what but all of a sudden you will start discovering that you haven't the foggiest where you found that out and what's worse now you have conflicting information and have no way to judge the strength of your sources. Other times you might want to be able to go back to a source to check for further information, or knowing you have already checked that source, you won't waste time checking it yet again. This can get tedious but there are some shortcuts that will help. If you have a great deal of references in one particular county, a simple capital letter might suffice to cite that county's census or marriage records. The Footprints Family Files which cover Harlan and surrounding counties uses several such abbreviations, a capital `H' is Harlan, `Let' is Letcher, `Les' is Leslie, Lee is Lee Co., Va., [never Lee Co., Ky. - if we ever had to note that one the KY would be added]. These "abbreviations" plus an `*' indicate a county record. A `c' at the end of 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, etc., means the census. Work out your own and if you're not sure you'll remember them, make a little list and tape it in the front of your notebook. Some other possible source abbreviations for work in this area are listed in the Appendix section Abbreviation list. Now, let's get started on your family.....