One of the best ways to become more efficient at genealogical research is to learn something new on a regular basis. Learn about sources you were not aware of. Learn about inheritance law in the state where your ancestor lived. Read the act under which your relative applied for a pension. Learn something about your ancestor’s ethnic group. There is a lot to learn. Regularly learning was one of the “tightwad genealogy” skills I discussed recently in that presentation–but it certainly was not the only one. I even suggested keeping a “learning diary” of what genealogical items you’d learned. That would help you remember them and remind you of when the last time was your grew your genealogy brain.
Yesterday’s tip was about “baking the genealogy cake.” If that seems like too large of a task, try making genealogy cupcakes instead: write about one ancestor or one family–not all their descendants organize what you have on one relative go through one family’s pictures etc. It’s not necessary to do it all at once, and something is better than nothing. A great way to get started is to put the documents of one ancestor in chronological order and summarize what they say about that one ancestor. It’s not the most literary approach, but it is better than nothing.
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