January 2023 is almost history. time seems to fly by faster every day. It’s time for the last Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge for this month.
Here is Randy Seaver’s challenge to us this week:
1) What genealogy resources are you currently using? Books, periodicals, manuscripts, ephemera, websites, software, or ???
I am hard at work cleaning up my family tree in RootsMagic 7 before I take the plunge and move to RootsMagic 8.
That means I’m not doing much original research, but I have had to go looking for a few names, dates and places as I enter my Word file on the descendants of Loyalist John Adams.
My recent update stretched the document from about 50 pages to 298 pages, currently, so that is a ton of data to enter.
I’m currently using:
1. RootsMagic 7 because I don’t want this much data to enter in the updated and changed RootsMagic 8 when there is somewhat of a learning curve involved – so I’ve heard.
2. I use Word for my lengthy family studies and that’s what I’ve abstracting now and entering information into RM7.
3. The FamilySearch family tree has been my starting point to expanding many of the families in my Word doc.
4. Ancestry record databases AND online trees supplement missing facts.
5. AmericanAncestors has been an excellent resource, too, since many Canadians and Mainers headed to Massachusetts for more robust economic opportunities.
6. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick has excellent online resources for newspaper abstracts and vital records to fill in data on my Canadian cousins.
When I need a break from data entry, I’ve accessed the following for genealogical news, education and people contact:
1. Genealogy blog posts, like Genea-Musings and many others!
2. Online genealogy meetings, like Pima County Genealogy Society, Chula Vista Genealogical Society and Legacy FamilyTree Webinars, which have excellent programs. Legacy just started a members-only series with Elizabeth Shown Mills. Yesterday’s talk was excellent!
3. The American Genealogist and The Register (from NEHGS) are two of my favorite professional periodicals.
4. Feedly enables me to keep track of blog posts.
5. Zoom and GoToWebinar provide my access to online activities.
That covers it for now. When I finish the software cleanup, there will be much more use of books, periodicals and online databases for factual information related to new research projects.
Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge.
I wished I hadn’t upgraded to RM8. I really liked 7 and was pretty proficient in it. Good that you are making sure all is in order before jumping up into a new version.
Lisa, I’m still on the fence about RM8. I’ve heard some negative comments about 8 and might either stay with RM7 or switch to Family Historian.