Transitioning from a Family Historian to a Genealogist

Over the years, I have collected quite a bit of information about my family's ancestors. In recent years, I have begun to move towards gathering proof of people, places, events, and dates. A major question to be answered by genealogists is how to organize their research and results. It's widely accepted that the best place to start is with yourself and work backward. As you work backward it is advisable to interview the oldest members of your family sooner, as they may not be available later.

Organizing your results/findings can be on paper or digital media, or some combination. Early on, I decided to use software to support organizing my research primarily on digital media. The software I use is TNG, and have been using it for about eight years, but mainly as a family historian. Over the next few years, I hope to gather information on the people featured in the five vignettes below. Participation in genealogy groups has helped me to learn how to locate and record evidence related to my family's ancestors.

Below are five vignettes of my family's ancestors and the sixth is an example of an ideal family history. The strategy is to interview older relatives (inquire) transcribe recordings, research vital statistics, understand the history of the times and places of my ancestors, learn about their friends, associates, and neighbors (FAN); and of course, organize and document everything on edwards-moore-family.net. Where to start? - I'm going to start with my father (he's vignette # 3).

These five vignettes are included to demonstrate the spectrum of individuals that most of us have in our lineage. I've drafted a research plan and will attempt to follow it until I can't go back any further with my father's family. At that point, I will resume work on vignette # 4 (my maternal side of the family). To give you an idea of what I hope to end up with, take a look at the sixth vignette, the winning entry in 2014 National Genealogical Society Quarterly Family History Writing Contest. Of course, my results may not match those of the contest winner, but my descendants will appreciate my effort.

Where to end? - As a Family Historian and as a Genealogist, the goal is to end with stories of our ancestors, to inspire us and our descendants; with proof that we are what we are, mostly great! Yes, Genealogists, I will have: Charts, Individual, Descendancy, Pedigree, Register, Descent Tracker, Ahnentafel, Surnames, Dates & Anniversaries, Places, Relationship Calculator, Timeline, Family Group, Photos, Histories, Cemeteries, Headstones, Sources, Notes, GEDCOM, and much much more.

Select a Vignette to learn more about my transition from family historian to genealogist...........