My Family Tree is Full of Nuts

I just wanted to post something while it was on my mind.  I started researching my family lines 23 years ago and I still have a great love for it.

When I was working on the research I for whatever reason copied everything I could find with the name I was working on whether I thought it was going to pertain to me or not was not important at the time. I just copied it and filed it away for later use. 

I have found over the years the more I research the more it DOES PERTAIN to me and I can use the information and a lot of times when I could not use it  I would be able to give it to someone that could use it.  I never for the life of me could go back and find it again so I am glad I have it. Plus I always tried to write where and when I got the article, just a regular reference to it so I could go back years later if I needed to.

I kept a log of correspondence. Names, addresses, phone numbers, letters and such. I know a lot of people that I contacted are no longer with us but maybe some of their children are carrying on the tradition.

Today I cleaned out my genealogy closet here at home. I am amazed at the tons of boxes full of information and pictures. I am greatful for every piece of paper and photo I have.

It is all fitting in to the puzzle called my family!

When I first started doing research on my family over 20 years ago, the first thing I was told was to document where you got everything somewhere on the paper incase you had to go back to that for a reference. I thought pretty good idea. I did not do it always but it made a lot of sense in case you had to prove something.

Then I took upon myself if I were in a particular area I would copy everything from that area with the name I was researching whether I needed it or not. I have found over the years that YES I NEEDED IT to put the puzzle together or someone else did.  I am glad I did that.

Also another point  of interest I was told. Back long time ago the first male child was named after the Father’s father and the first female child was usually named after the Mother’s mother. That has helped me alot in my research.  Sometimes this has proved true and sometimes not. But this

These are just some tidbits from me. I don’t know if these still hold true today but this is how I work.