Hello from Southern Maryland. I’ve been working a lot lately on a bunch of different things having to do with my Family File. Most of those things involve cleaning up my sources mess.
I realized last night however, that I somehow, in the midst of all this confusion finished entering in my family lines for the Family File Cleanup Project that I began many years ago. How that snuck in on me, I have no idea.
So now I think is a good time to do a little planning on what comes next… after I clean up the sources again.
For the Moores/Thorwards/Loves/Menzies and so on, my main goal is to make timelines and gather records for the individuals I need information for. I want to get my One Note research notebook setup so I can start analyzing these guys and finding my missing information more efficiently.
Same deal with the Redfords and Parkins. There is so little information on these families that I really need to start getting records for them so I can start filling in some blanks. That will probably mean a trip to the New Jersey Archives for me. No complaints here but I just want to make sure this time when I go to Jersey that I have a list of names and dates and where the records should be at.
The only problems I ever encounter with the Mays families are the sheer abundance of them. The hard part is that the part of the country they lived in didn’t formally start keeping records until 1911, which makes it really hard to track down a lot of the info. Not impossible, just hard. I also have a list of names that I haven’t put back into my working file because I don’t have the smoking record that links them to William Mays and Frances Adkins. Just family legend that they were a part of the family. So I have to start digging into Kentucky a lot of farther.
The Taylor family is probably my most emailed about family. There are just so many contradictory genealogies and researchers that just an afternoon spent researching the Taylors can leave you with a migraine. The great thing about it is that there is so much information on them. I wish I had as much information on some of my other lines! The best thing about the Taylors is that most of the researchers are friendly and collaborative so it’s a shared migraine. 😉
The Webbs, Crabbs, Applegates, and Wests are families I lose track of often. Despite finding a biography giving a ton of information on the Webbs, I’ve been stalled again while I figure out the geography and timelines of what my information is telling me.
As for my biggest mission. The case of Zeroah Black. I’m pretty sure she’ll end up being the focus of Mystery Monday once Belle Brodie is finished because folks, Belle Brodie is finishing up! How exciting. Hopefully I can tell you all about it on Monday! If I don’t make it, then it will definitely be next Monday. 🙂