Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – True Confessions about Genea-Assets

Here is this week’s challenge from Randy Seaver at GeneaMusings:

Hello there, genea-collectors - it's SATURDAY NIGHT, time for more GENEALOGY FUN. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

 

1)  Think about this:  Is all of your genealogical material, which you've gathered over the years, well organized?  Do you have papers, certificates, photographs and other ephemera squirreled away somewhere in your genealogy cave center?  Do you have forgotten digital files, including documents, photographs and notes hiding in your computer file folders?  It's Saturday night, do you know where ALL of your family history information is? 

 

2)  Give yourself a grade (from A to F) on how well you've done with your filing of tangible and digital genealogical assets (two grades, one for each).  Brag about your organizational prowess if you deserve it - you can be a good example to the rest of us.  Bemoan your situation if your files are like mine.

 

3)  Look through your tangible or digital genea-assets and find something you've "lost," forgotten or overlooked that might add to your knowledge about one or more families.  Tell us what you found, how will it help you, and will you commit to analyze it, source it, and use it?  

  

4)  Write a blog post of your own, make a comment on this blog post, or enter a Facebook Status or Google Plus Stream item concerning your "find" and what you're going to do about it.

 

 

What is the world coming to as geneabloggers resort to “True Confessions"? At least we are keeping it to genea-assets and not getting into more sensitive areas such as source citations and methods! Before I took up genealogy, I had the reputation of being the most organized family member, but my reputation has certainly been tarnished as I have collected stacks of books and papers and other stuff!

Part 1 

Recently, I started organizing my genealogy resources (books, magazines, etc.) and even recorded my holdings on LibraryThing. It’s not any where near complete. I have digital books that haven’t been included yet. I know I have books that must still be in boxes in the garage, having never been unpacked since the last move (3 years ago). But I’m working on it! 

My paper genea-assets (copies of book pages, computer printouts, etc.) are in numerous file folders and stacks. Last week I took a bunch of them and at least got them organized by surname so I can try to make sense of them and determine whether to keep or trash. The vital records copies are in family folders. 

My digital genea-assets are somewhat better organized into a series of folders based on type of records (birth, marriage, death, property, pictures, etc.). I use a numbering system for each document and the document number is included in the source citation detail in my database. For example, “BIRTH001” might be Mickey Mouse’s birth certificate and “DEATH001” might be Scrooge McDuck’s death certificate. I started using a numbering system because of multiple ancestors with the same name. I do have digital “stacks”—that is, computer folders with documents that have not yet been processed. Having lost digital materials in computer mishaps in the past, all of my digital genea-assets are in My Dropbox. 

Part 2 

• Tangible genea-assets grade: C-
• Digital genea-assets grade: C+ 

Part 3 

I sorted a 2” stack of tangible genea-assets and found two items related to my two favorite research subjects, Ambrose Martindale (my great-grandfather) and J. J. Spurlock (my grandfather). 

The first is a copy of a 2010 mailing list posting looking for 8x10 photos of the Past Masters of Greenville (MO) Lodge #107 of the Masons. Ambrose Martindale is one of the men listed. I don’t have an 8x10 photo of him, but I want to follow up with the writer of the post to see if he can give me any information about the dates of Ambrose’s membership in that particular Lodge. If a photo of another size or format is acceptable, I may be able to help after I visit my niece in November. 

The second item is a page from The Jewelers’ Circular, dated 27 August 1919, which carried the following statement under the heading “San Diego, Cal.”: 

J. J. Spurlock, formerly with J. Jessop & Sons, recently opened a school at 725 Broadway for teaching the watchmakers’ trade. 

I need to see what resources might be available to find out more about this school. Perhaps my geneablogger friends in the San Diego area can point me in the right direction!

© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research