A new perspective
I’m new at ProGenealogists® so I have an outsider’s perspective, although I have been a professional researcher for several years, and an adjunct professor at Salt Lake Community College teaching genealogy courses. Customer service and client care have always been important to me.
When I decided to join ProGenealogists® many aspects of the company appealed to me. One of those is the high standards this company sets to assist the client. At ProGenealogists®, I work with a team of educated and experienced research specialists in many areas around the world. They all work to help each other achieve success. The high standards of this company are reflected in the quality of work provided by the research team. Everyone is willing to assist the customer in their research process. Quality is not compromised. Speaking from personal experience, the high standards found at ProGenealogists® are not seen in many companies.
I look forward to working with and learning from some of the best professionals in the genealogy industry at ProGenealogists®. I also look forward to meeting many new clients and assisting them to achieve their family history goals.
Make 2010 a Milestone Year for your Family History
Starting a new year can be very exciting! It is often a time to review the events of the year that is past and to look forward to making the New Year all it can be. You can make 2010 a milestone year for your family history. You probably already gathered some new information from family over the holidays. You can begin by organizing that new data.
Here are some ideas for your genealogy New Year’s resolutions:
- Get in touch with a living relative.
- Take a class or learn a new research skill.
- Get organized.
- Network by joining a genealogical organization.
- Take time to learn about your ancestors; not just names and dates.
- Share your findings with others.
- Keep a journal of your own life story.
- Update your sources; make sure your research is documented.
- Prioritize your list of ancestors to research.
- Build a budget for your research.
Of History Detectives, Footnotes and Methodologies
One of my favorite things about being a genealogist is knowing how to find information. I’ve found that because of the variety of research tasks our clients present to us, I have learned how to find a lot more than just genealogical information. I don’t watch much TV, but one show that I have caught a few times and have thoroughly enjoyed is History Detectives on PBS. I love to watch this show not just because it is interesting and covers a wide variety of historical mysteries, but because I love to examine the methodologies the history detectives use.
In 2009 I read a handful of non-fiction historical books, and I often found myself spending almost as much time reading the footnotes as the texts of the books. I enjoy examining the facts and thinking about what sources I would have used to document that piece of information and then comparing my method to the one the author or history detectives used. Often the methods are not remotely similar, but sometimes they are. This makes me wonder if “my” method was originally tried unsuccessfully or if “my” method didn’t even cross the researcher’s mind. As I’ve examined the record sources that other researchers use, a few things have come to mind:
- There really are a lot of ways to solve a problem, or “skin a cat,” as my colleague, Linda, would say.
- Historical research and genealogical research can be quite similar, but they can also be quite different. I’m of the opinion that many historical research problems can be solved rather efficiently using genealogical research methods. (But maybe I’m biased by my own research experience.)
- Sometimes what seems like a simple problem, is actually much more complicated than it looks.
As I contemplate my own capabilities as a psued0-history detective, or even a regular-old-detective, I’m eager to learn more about how other people solve research problems and what alternative methodologies I can learn.
Trip Preparations
During college football season this year, I got to see the following commercial quite a lot.
And I always thought after it was over that the father and son should have hired us before embarking on a European journey to discover their ancestral lands.