I was working on the family of a second cousin of my great-grandfather who was born around 1860 and died around 1940. The dates really do not matter for this post, but what does matter is what I was reminded of.
Even if you are adding information to your tree (complete with images and citations), I prefer to jot a few things down as I go. The cousin apparently divorced his wife. She married again. He did not. Her second husband died a few years after their marriage. Her name is on that man’s tombstone, but she’s not buried with him. She’s buried with her son in a separate location. Her third husband had children with his first wife. That man’s obituary mentions some of his step-children, but not all of them.
All this was documented as I found it, but I also wrote out bits and pieces of it as I found it–so I could see it all in one place. It was all in my database, but keeping it straight in my head was imperative to not getting mixed up. I jotted down names, key dates, and relationships as I found them. This kept me from having to jump around in my database all the time.
Sometimes paper and pencil can be helpful.
No responses yet