Category: Genealogy Tools
Tools of the trade, ranging from software or websites to critical thinking and research technniques.
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Who are we really doing this for? By this point in any New Year, you may have had your fill of annual retrospectives, best-of lists, motivational etudes, and resolutions. (If you haven’t, here are some good resources at Projectkin and Mission:Genealogy to help launch your New Year.) But if you’re like me, feeling leery of…
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The right tool for the right job When I was putting together the Callin Family History, I spent about seven years doing research to augment the work I had inherited from George W. Callin, my 2nd-great uncle. Along the way, I submitted dozens of photo requests to Find-a-Grave. By the time the CFH was ready…
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What does social media do for you or your research? This post was intended to be a “here are some social media platforms I’m on and some of the people/groups I follow” post, but I felt like some explanations were needed, and it kind of ballooned into … this. If you already know or don’t…
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Rescued from obscurity Before we begin: I’ve been struggling to make these Wavetops posts work the way I wanted them to work – so I’m taking a slightly different approach. Instead of pointing at the “top” and talking about the work that still needs to be done, I’m going to start at the “bottom” and…
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A connection to the world tree When you put your work into WikiTree, the goal is to make your contributions as solid as possible. You want your ancestors’ profiles to be as thoroughly documented with evidence as possible, with source citations pointing other researchers to your sources. At some point, an ancestor you’ve put a…
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Building profiles as part of my process If you are a regular reader, you may have seen that I include links to WikiTree profiles for ancestors or cousins mentioned in my essays. I do this because I have found that people have difficulty viewing my Ancestry files without an Ancestry account.1 I also want other…
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What to expect when you’re expecting collaboration By now, you may have noticed that I love using WikiTree. I do my original research primarily using my Ancestry membership (which is expensive and not an option for everyone), and then take what I learn about each family/relative and craft it into a biographical profile on WikiTree…
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Perfection is the enemy The Devil is in the details. Or, so I have heard. But that aphorism, according to Tally over on Medium, “derives from an earlier German proverb — “Der liebe Gott steckt im detail”, which translates as ‘God is in the detail’.” Any genealogy researcher can tell you that both are true.…
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That means all three things you think it means Recently, I responded to a question posted by the WikiTree folks on their Mastodon feed: If you spend any time interacting with me, you will come to realize that “Critical Thinking” is my answer to almost any question. But not everyone understands what the term “Critical…
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Looking for the father of Abraham Witter (1786 – 1882) A few weeks ago, I published Family Reunion: Witter, which prompted a conversation about Abraham Witter (1786-1882) with my dad’s first cousin, Pat Witter. Pat had sources connecting Abraham to the family of Joseph Witter and Hannah Washburn; however, those sources proved that a different…
Mightier Acorns 