Organizing Genealogy - But Why?

Recently I walked out the door and met myself coming in. That's how I felt two weeks ago when I realized I'd just looked through the same books at the library for the same information that I had already looked for last year. Uh-oh. Time to get organized.

I found a binder, bought some slide-in protectors, and filed what I had about Thomas Maness and that family line. Then I started plugging information into Reunion on my desktop computer — still a work in progress. I not only need to figure out what I've done to keep from doing it again, but putting the pieces of the puzzle I have together will help me figure out where to look next.

This past week, several genealogy bloggers have written about organization. One blogger mentioned a rented storage unit, environmentally controlled, full of ancestral research! (And my friends think I'm a genealogy nut.) These folks are ambitious. One is trying to scan every piece of paper he owns and has put hours and hours toward that goal. Another has rooms full of boxes and wants to organize everything in them, possibly including digitization, and has figured that it would take the rest of her life. Indeed. I say, if that's the goal, do it.

As for me, organization is not the prize, it's a stepping stone towards what I want. I'm on a mission to find my Maness ancestor, the mystery we've been trying to figure out for four generations. That's my goal. And I really want to find him while my uncle is still around, because he got me started on this search. So I only need to get the Maness family information organized and entered into the computer. For now. If I looked at all my genealogy research for the past 20 years and tried to do something with it, that would distract me from my mission and take valuable time. My other current genealogical project is my book about the English family, and I switch back and forth between the two.

Instead of looking at that mountain of everything you can possibly do with your research and getting overwhelmed, let me suggest some ways to sharpen your focus.

1. Do something for somebody. Last year my goal was to scan large-format negatives of the Lassiter family and make a photo book for my uncle's 80th birthday. He loved it! And real deadlines, like milestone birthdays and family reunions, push me to get things accomplished.

2. Do something for yourself. If there's a pile of research on the floor by your desk and you're tired of tripping over it, just organize that pile. Set a timer and file (or scan, if you wish) papers until the timer goes off. The next day, repeat.

3. Do something for the future. Why are these people "organizing" everything? Is it so somebody won't throw it away when they're gone? Maybe it's for the fun of it, especially if those files were inherited (we genealogists love to play with new information), but these folks just don't sound like they're having fun. Perhaps a better goal would be to label all the boxes and write up instructions for when we're gone (Yes, I need to listen to my own preachin' here). I've been thinking about that lately, since I work in the Friends Historical Collection and we inherit other people's research. I have several family members that wouldn't mind having my research - they're mildly interested in it - but they would never do anything with it. Like spread it around or publish it. And then what would happen after they are gone?

My computer is a backup, a tool, but it's volatile. I don't expect any successor to come along and dig through old hard drives to pick out the information. Whether I give someone a photo book that makes him feel special, (finally) publish my genealogical novel that tells about the hopes and trials my ancestors went through, or leave published (or at least documented) family tree information for the next addict that comes along, I want to leave something tangible behind to make all this research worthwhile.

Why do we do genealogy? Yes, it's addictive, and fun! But my current reasons are that I want to tell the stories that need to be told and connect with family members who are still alive.

What's your raison d'être? Where are you going with this genealogy obsession?

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun — "Heritage Pie" Chart

Tonight's challenge from Genea-Musings is to list your 16 great-great-grandparents, and where they came from, married, and died (I saw this meme on Tonia's Roots). Here are mine:

1. Ransom P. SAUNDERS b. ca 1818 in North Carolina, m. Delilah Beaver in March 1832, N.C., d. 1850 in N.C.

2. Delilah BEAVER b. ca 1810 in Caswell Co., North Carolina, d. before Dec. 1874, N.C.

3. John L. CARRELL b. 25 Oct. 1822, Rockingham Co., North Carolina, m. Julia Ann Young 22 Feb. 1845, Rockingham Co., N.C., d. 17 July 1895 (probably N.C.).

4. Julia Ann YOUNG b. 28 May 1817, North Carolina, d. 6 Jan. 1898.

5. Dempsey LASSITER b. ca 1823, Nansemond Co., Virginia, m. Elizabeth Jane --- before 1846, d. after 1910 (living in Nansemond Co., Virginia in 1910). Dempsey's son William Lassiter was one of my brick walls until a couple of years ago, when I finally found Dempsey and his family.

6. Elizabeth Jane --- b. ca 1825 in Nansemond Co., Virginia, d. before 1910.

7. Henry BAKER, m. Joan Weston before 1882

8. Joan WESTON, b. Nov. 1851

9. Thomas S. MANESS, b. ca 1849? (possibly Moore County, North Carolina), m. Sarah Pandora Wall 25 June 1874 in Guilford County, North Carolina, disappeared in 1875. Thomas is my current brick wall. He disappeared before my great-grandfather was born, and I am the fourth generation looking for him.

10. Sarah Pandora WALL, b. 29 Aug. 1859 in North Carolina, d. 30 July 1930, Randolph County, North Carolina.

11. Thomas Madison ENGLISH, b. 25 Aug. 1827, North Carolina, m. Armecia White after 1870, d. 3 June 1888, buried in Guilford County, North Carolina.

12. Cynthia Armecia WHITE, b. 9 Sept. 1849, North Carolina, d. 30 Dec. 1926 in Randolph County, North Carolina, buried in Guilford County.

13. William Gaston ROUTH,  m. Roxie Bryant. Their children were born in Randolph County, North Carolina.

14. Roxie BRYANT.

15. Jacob Shadrach KINDLEY, b. 26 Oct. 1852, Davidson County, North Carolina, m. Mary Adaline Copple 14 Dec. 1871, Davidson County, North Carolina, d. 30 Aug. 1917.

16. Mary Adaline COPPLE, b. 16 May 1851, Davidson County, North Carolina, d. 18 Oct. 1911.

I've been obsessed with a few of my family branches (like the English family, a portion listed at the top of this blog) and this list shows how I've neglected others. While I hope to fill in the details someday, my near term goals are to finish my English family novel and to break through my Maness family brick wall.

If I drew a pie chart of locations, most of the circle would be filled with Carolina blue, with a little wedge for Virginia. The family seems to go back to colonial days before they start branching out to other countries.

Ancestor Approved award

Thanks to Rootdigger for honoring Travels with Books with the Ancestor Approved award!

The Ancestor Approved Award asks that the recipient list ten things you have learned about any of your ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlightened you and pass the award along to ten other bloggers who you feel are doing their ancestors proud. Here are the 10 things I have learned from my ancestors.

1. Surprised to learn that my ancestor Joshua English had another brother, Thomas. Fellow researchers (and I) had thought Thomas died as a baby because of a confusion with his father Thomas' death.

2. I thought I would never learn why my distant aunt, Elizabeth, never married even though outnumbered by men in a colonial settlement. I was astounded to find out that she had run away and married at a very young age (about 15 in 1751) before immigrating; and humbled that she probably spent the rest of her life not knowing if her estranged husband were alive or dead.

3. Delighted to get a copy of a photograph of my great-great-grandmother, Armecia White English, wearing her Quaker bonnet. I'm just a couple of generations away from that traditional garb.

4. Both humbled and proud, if that makes any sense, that I grew up with Quaker heritage and in the English family, because the odds are against it. There was just one son (among daughters) who died at 34, who had one son who died at 40, and one of his sons immigrated to S.C., and only one of his sons (out of 4) did not leave the Quakers, and so on.

5. That son in S.C., Thomas English, kept his peace testimony through the Revolutionary War, even though all of his brothers decided to fight.

6. Humbled at how the women in our Maness family perservered all alone. At 16, my g-g-grandmother had her only child after her husband left forever. Her mother outlived two husbands. And her little sister was later widowed with nine children (she remarried). These women stuck together and survived and reared their children.

7. Humbled at how hard some people have it. A Wall cousin in Missouri lost his wife and baby within two months. He may have lost an earlier wife, but I'm not sure. He had a stroke later in life and died in a nursing home.

8. Happy to break through a brick wall when I finally found my g-g-grandfather William Lassiter's parents. Apparently he was so much older than my g-g-grandmother that nobody in the family knew enough about him to fill out his death certificate.

9. My family was surprised when I told them about Uncle Wiley Wall (1851-1942) and his family in Missouri. Apparently he had visited N.C. so often, probably by train, that they thought he had always lived here.

10. Humbled by how nice people are: like the librarians and archivists in Ireland who helped me with copies, the couple who picked me up and opened the library for an extra day's research, and the lady who let me see inside her house because my relatives once lived there.

Here are my ten picks for Ancestor Approved blogs:

Amy Coffin's We Tree
Tonia Kendrick's Tonia's Roots
Trent Briles' Briles Information Network
Tina Lyons' Gen Wish List
Jennifer Hudson Taylor's Carolina Scots-Irish Blog
Craig Manson's GeneaBlogie
Deborah Large Fox's Irish Family Research site
Julie Cahill Tarr's GenBlog

I don't know if these bloggers' will accept because of their format, but I really enjoy
Loretta and Susan's Two Nerdy History Girls
and Maureen A. Taylor's Photo Detective