Changes I Have Made in Analyzing my Data

These past few days, I have been asked what I am doing differently in my research that is different and bringing me results. Well, let me start with the lecture I attended at Dupage Genealogical Society, I learned a great deal about analyzing my evidence in a new way (new to me). You can read about this lecture here. If you have not heard Jennifer Holik speak I recommend that you do. She really opened my eyes on how I can be a better researcher. In the past, as I found records that pertained to my family I would add the information to my tree whether on line on ancestry or in my Reunion database. Sometimes if it was a family I was really working on, I might fill out a Family Group Sheet so that I can look everything over. This has worked for me to see the big picture, but it never really opened my eyes to the BIG picture of what I was missing and where I should be looking to find it. A few weeks ago, I started creating some worksheets on my computer so that I could type the information in and not have so many papers in a hard file. That helped some as well, but again no huge eye opening moments. Then I attended the above mentioned lecture and changed how I am looking at my information. I never thought to pull my families into spreadsheets to see what I am missing and try to figure out where I should be looking. For example, I am researching the Jonas family from Morton Grove, IL and I have many questions on the family:

1. Who is the unknown child that I cannot find reference to?
2. Are John and Ida (Vick) Jonas related to this family?
3. Is John the missing child?
4. Is this Jonas Family related to the Jonas family in Park Ridge, IL (the two towns are close)

So, I put together a spreadsheet with address information from the US Census records, please click jonas family in the census records to view spreadsheet. All of the green shaded areas are missing information. All of the grey shaded areas tell me not to look there, they were not alive at this time. I also made any notations at the bottom of the sheet.

Now obviously this only tells me what I am missing, not want I want to know. That is the next step. Jen talked about using One Note (for PC users) to keep your notes on this family and that this is what she uses to start formatting the books she is writing. Well, I am not a PC user and was upset as we went through this because it just made sense.

Luckily, sitting in front of me was Patricia Biallas of GeneaJourneys and her husband. While Jen was talking, Mr. Biallas was looking online to see if there was a substitute for the Mac and there was. The Mac alternate is Growly Notes and it is a free download, double score for the night.

Well, once I downloaded Growly notes and played with it some, I started a file for the Jonas family adding information I had from the records I have already collected. Once the information was listed, I would add the questions I had and where I needed to look for the answers. Turns out I had some of the answers, I just was not truly looking at all the information I had.

You see, this second Jonas family has thrown me for a loop. They are buried right by my family, lived close in proximity and supposedly came from the same town in Germany. I originally thought they might be brothers and then I as I looked at the dates, I thought maybe my Jonas could be a son of the Park Ridge Jonas. Anything is possible, right?

Well as I went through each hypothesis I had I was able to dismiss them based on the records I had or was able to find once I knew what I was looking for and what I should be looking for. Click on Wilhelm Jonas  to see some of my information.

Here are some of my Notes that helped me work through my questions on this family and here are my notes about the two Jonas men, Are John and William related? Please click on each of these links to read my thought processes and see how I worked through all of the information. I was not in favor of putting my information into a third database, but it is obvious that it is helping me answer my questions about these families.

So it is definitely worth the time and effort it takes to use these methods to analyze and make you reread all the records you have.

What are your thoughts? Have you been utilizing spreadsheets to look at your information? What works for you?

Changing Some of my Goals for 2012

In the beginning of the year many geneabloggers picked buddies to help keep them on track with their goals for this year and then proceeded to blog about said goals. Read my original goals here.  After almost a full month into the year, I know that what I have planned to accomplish as goals is far-reaching and not attainable this year. That would be the goal to research my Richmond line to verify if it is part of the Rogers Mayflower line. This is probably something that will take me a year or two to do and maybe a road trip to follow-up on some of those leads. This goal also plays into my writing goal, I want to be ale to write about the Richmond line. There are many brave men in this line with stories to tell, but I want all the facts before I can do that. So, with much thought I know I need to rewrite these two goals.

Research: This is the year that I plan to analyze my research (again), I have found a way that really helps me see the big picture and find what I am missing. While doing this, it also might make things easier to find in the 1940 Census once released. While analyzing the families I will be searching for the missing documents and making a list of what cannot be found and where I need to look next for said record.

Writing:

1) This still tends to be the hard one for me. My goal here is to blog more consistently. Which I have been able to do so far. I plan to use the bloggers editorial calendar to stay up to date (and maybe a little ahead).

2) I was asked to write a chapter in Jen Holik’s kids genealogy books on travel and researching your family, which I have sent in my first draft today.

3) I still would like to write a book about one of my families, right now I feel that will end up being my German family, the Jonas’. I seem to be drawn to this family currently and I would like to put everything I have learned about this family in writing.

Please stay with me as I move forward this year with these goals. If anything, I should prove to entertaining and hope to share what I learn along the way.

Motivation Monday: January 2012 Week 1/23

I am a day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes. I had some internet issues yesterday and by the time we had them taken care of. I could not bring myself to go into my office. Anything I took care, was done via my phone. So here I am Tuesday afternoon, writing my post for yesterday. Do forgive me for being late to the game.

Since this is the last full week of the month I would like to recap my monthly goals and figure out what I need to finish up by next Monday which is when I will post goals for February.

My plans for the month of January were to organize all of my genealogy books/magazines in one spot. I have taken care of that, for the most part. I have a few items missing and I will be working on finding those soon (for some reason I fear they might have made it into my attic).

My goal for starting research on my Richmond line has hardly been touched at this point. I did purchase Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 and started a new tree to track my progress on this line. So I have the basics in the program so far, small steps right?

I plan to make some changes to my goals for the year, so stay tuned for a post about that. I have been giving this some thought and I know I need to make these adjustments now, otherwise, I will fail at what I have set out to do.

As for the few things I wanted to do over the month, I was able to go to IRAD with Jen and helped her do a bit of research. We had a good time, oh and I used a microfilm machine, that was a first that I have used any type of micro machine since maybe the 80′s.

I did not go hear Tim Pinnick speak, unfortunately he had a death in the family and it was cancelled.

Jen, Laura and I went to the Italian Cultural Center and heard a lecture about Anti Italianism, it was very interesting. Though I do not have any direct Italian ancestors, I do have Italian family and this made me really think about stereo types and how everyone is affected by it.

Finally, I went to the Dupage Genealogical Society’s January meeting and heard Jen speak about organizing your data, that really changed the way I am analyzing the information I already have. You can read about the lecture here.

Plus, if you have not heard, we started planning a Midwest Geneabloggers get-together, you can read about that here.

So you can see that even though, I missed on the research part of my goals, I really have done quite a bit with genealogy this month.

Thanks for sticking with me on this.

Amanuensis Monday: Obituary of Emma Felske

Chicago Tribune 17 Jul 1959

Felske – Emma Felske, age 72, July 15, 1959, beloved wife of the late Gustav; fond mother of Walter, Edward, Fred, and Florence Braun; loving grandmother of seven; great-grandmother of one; dear sister of Bertha Klopp, Margaret Voigtlander, Max and Ted Jonas. Services Saturday, 2:30 p. m. at chapel 3905-07 N. Lincoln avenue, interment Rosehill.

There is Always Something To Learn

When looking at the upcoming lectures for your local society, do you ever think that you have that information down and understand it fully? My advice to you is this…you can learning something new. Keep an open mind and go anyway.

On 19 Jan, I attended the Dupage Genealogical Society lecture, Visualizing your Genealogical Data: Excel, OneNote, Maps, Blogs by Jennifer Holik. To be honest, I went because Jen is a friend of mine and I wanted to be there to support her. Also, her discussion was based on Windows products and I am a Mac user. What was I really going to learn that would assist my research being a Mac user. The answer is simple, I learned a ton and had my aha moment.

I am definite believer that you need to analyze your research. Sometimes, you need to analyze everything again. One of my goals for this year is organization and it was more for my paper files and my office, I figured the rest could wait for 2013. After last night, I need to analyze me processes.

A large part of the discussion was based around using the information in your database and exporting the data into an excel and creating a spreadsheet. From here, you can actually visualize the wholes in your research and decide what would be your next logical step.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have utilized Numbers on my Mac to create a spreadsheet so that I could analyze some data. I subscribe to Michael John Neill’s Casefile Clues and he is a uses spreadsheets all the time. My aha moment was when Jen talked about picking the criteria in your database and then exporting it to your spreadsheet application. DUH, why did I not think of this before.

Another program Jen discussed was OneNote, it blew me away. OneNote is software for a pc and is not compatible with a Mac. The good news is that Growlybird.com offers Notes which looks like it will do the same thing, and it is a free download. I have downloaded it already and hope to start using it soon. Once I do, I will let you know what I think about it.

Thanks Jen, for sharing some truly great tips with the Dupage Genealogical Society. I learned a lot and will be implementing some new techniques into how I analyze my data.

If you are interested in hearing Jen lecture, she has a list of engagements here.

Midwest Geneablogger Get Together

We talked about it, we tweeted about it and it is finally planned.

The midwest area geneabloggers will be having a get together on 24 Mar 2012 and we hope you will be available to join us. For this get together, we will be meeting in Fort Wayne, IN. You can spend the day researching in the ACPL and the evening having fun with all your genea buddies!

The evenings festivities will be hosted in the home of Tina Lyons of Gen Wish List and her husband, the plan is a pizza party and I believe we agreed to a price of $5 per person to share the cost. If you would like to bring something to add to the party (dessert or drinks), that would be greatly appreciated as well.

If you are looking to stay the night or even the weekend, I have secured some rooms at Hampton Inn – Dupont Road, from 23 Mar – 25 Mar. Right now, the rooms secured are all 2 queen size beds, that will sleep up to 4 adults. Pricing is $87.12, tax not included, per night. For two nights, including tax, it would be $198.63. If you share the room with 3 other adults, the room would be $49.66 each. Not bad! With the room, there is free wifi (woo hoo, we can blog, tweet and check facebook) and free breakfast.

If you are not interested in both nights, that is ok. To book a room, call me at 773-589-0198 or you can also email me at toconnell@cruiseplanners.com. A credit card is needed to hold the room.

To get the room at this great rate, we must have you booked by 29 Feb, otherwise we lose the price. Also, when calling to book, it would be helpful to know if you have a group that will be staying with you and who will be a part of that group.

I hope that you will be able to join us, it’s never a dull moment when you get a bunch of genealogists together.

A special thanks to Tina for opening her home to this group, we greatly appreciate it.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment on this post, email me at above email address or you can email Tina at genwishlist@gmail.com.

Tuesday’s Tip: Getting Organized in Research

I have never been an organized researcher. I go from one clue to the next with no rhyme or reason. I go where ever the clues lead and I do not track my searches. Aghhh! How can I be so unorganized when it comes to something so important to me.

If you knew me, really knew me, it makes complete sense. When I managed in the retail field, I had an associate tell me that I must be so organized at home, because I kept our back room (which was office and product storage) so organized. And, if I had to be completely honest, it was more of the product storage. I planned time each week to organize the desk/office area. After the holiday season, we would go straight into sale and that is always the best time to clean up the back room. I worked for Bath & Body Works and let me tell you the mess that shower gel can make on a cement floor. Especially, if it was someplace that you did not notice and had to clean it up at a much later date. Anyhow, I loved sale time! It was time to get rid of the dust as the shelves emptied out and before all the new product came in.  I had a good laugh at this associate because, I am so not like that. I have never been organized at home, not really. I grew up in a house where the dining room table was the catch all for my father, though he always blamed us. When I moved out on my own, I had a chair that was my catch all. It held the baby bag, coats, gloves and my purse. How do I stop this madness?

Well, I am starting with my genealogy this year. I am going to be going through my files, reorganizing them, pulling out magazines and adding them to my library and finally trying to get a little ahead of the game with tracking my research.

I have started making forms on my computer so that I can try to really think about what I plan to do in my research. I let some of my family lines get ahead of me because I do not think about what I want to do, I just do. I am hoping to stop that with my forms.

Research Planning Worksheet on John and William Jonas

I have utilized this form for a few of my research problems and the next step will be researching the documents listed. Maybe I might start using a research log as well. Only time can tell.

So that’s my tip for today, get organized. In the end it can only help you out.

Motivation Monday – January Goals, Week of 1/16

I put together this great list of plans and on follow up Friday after the first week I posted that I had started towards the organizational part of my goals. I was excited to get everything moved back into the office. Heck, I typing from there now.

Unfortunately, last week was a rough week. I chatted with my genea buddy, Steph and we laid out our plans for last week. I, however, did not do so well. And, I have 101 excuses as to why I did not do so well. I also know that an excuse is just that, its an excuse as to why I did not haul my rear into my office and try to get some work done.

Let me give you my two best ones, last week was the last of my son’s winter break from college and we spent some time getting him ready to go back. My daughter also turned 23 and we had family time for that and it was followed up by a larger family party over the weekend. (Excuses, excuses!)

I also started looking at my travel business and what I need to get that moving. Since this is a franchise business, I got in touch with a friend and we are going to buddy up on this and assist each other in the same way that I am doing with Steph and genealogy.

Plus, last week we got word from ProGen that our class starts in February, so I have been getting ready for that as well. Filling out the few forms and sending them in.

This is going to be a busy year and I need to get on it. I need to really schedule my time throughout the day to do everything I need to get done. As it is, I have tons to do tonight and I am just getting started on it. Had errands this morning and my MIL visited briefly this afternoon.

I am thankful the house is quiet and I have this time to work in peace.

And, did I mention that I got a new tool for both genealogy and travel…a new comfy chair. I so needed this. My backaches were terrible from the other one, which of course is my last excuse for last week. Ok, I am done with my rant, I was terrible last week and I am now moving on. Steph, forgive me for being a lump last week. I am playing catch up today!

Amanuensis Monday: Obituary of Charles Klopp

Chicago Tribune  30 Aug 1944

Charles Henry Klopp of 3509 Belden avenue, beloved husband of Bertha, nee Jonas; dear father of Norine and Robert C. Klopp. Services Friday at 2 p. m.,  at funeral home, 3301 Fullerton avenue. Interment Town of Maine cemetery.

Wordless Wednesday: O’Connell Children

1951ish, Chicago, IL

O’Connell children, digital copy, original held by T. Foote ©2012