Friday Book Reviews and Recommendations
This is my first blog post of many that I hope to do in 2023 sharing my book recommendations and reviews. I am an avid reader of non-fiction history, biographies and genealogical books. I hope you enjoy what I share and I encouraged you to read more in 2023!
Since January is that month we all think about New Year's Resolutions and getting organized, I wanted to recommend a fantastic book to help you organize your genealogy research. The author, Drew Smith, has done an excellent job with this book that was originally published in 2016 but very relevant today.
Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies and
Solutions for Every Researcher. By
Drew Smith. Published by F & W Media, Inc., 10151 Carver Road, Suite 200,
Blue Ash, OH 45242; http://www.fwcommunity.com; 2016. ISBN 978-1-4403-4503-6. 239 pp. Appendix,
index
When I heard that Drew Smith had a new book out and it was on
organizing your genealogy, I was excited. As a certified archives manager, I am
asked all the time about how to organize records, photographs and other
ephemera since that is a big part of what I do on a daily basis. As a
professional genealogist, I teach classes and give presentations on organizing
your genealogy with an emphasis on records preservation.
When I first opened the book, I was struck by a few of the topics
listed in the Contents section. While
most of the chapter titles are what you would expect to find in a genealogy
organizational book, a couple of the titles were unique. Such topics as Organizing Your Communication, Organizing
Your Learning and Organizing Your Volunteering,
I thought were unique in genealogy organization.
Smith’s target audience for this book is to the beginning genealogist
to the professional genealogist and all levels in-between. I can attest to the
fact that everyone, no matter where you are in your genealogy journey, will
learn something from this book. Smith emphasizes the concept that genealogy
organization is a personal thing, individual to each person; there is no right
way or wrong way. Find what works for you and be consistent.
In Chapter One, Smith talks about Organizing
Yourself. He says: “Your mind is without a doubt your most important
genealogical tool”. Smith points out things like sleep, your diet, simplifying
your workspace, time management, using calendars, taking breaks and your stress
levels as important aspects of genealogy research and organizing yourself. He
also explains that establishing a genealogy research routine is part of the
genealogy organizational process.
Smith talks about Organizing Your
Space in Chapter Two. I appreciate and applaud Smith for suggesting the
work space needs to be hospitable for documents. Smith goes into great detail
about the space you use for your genealogy research and what you need to be
successful. He includes a workspace check list which includes everything right
down to the drink coaster.
In Chapter Three, Smith encourages us to Organize Your Goals. He says: “…choose a goal that has a realistic
and concrete result and allows you to track your progress and remain motivated
over time.” Smith does a great job of explaining how to set such goals, with
examples from his own genealogy research. He also explains the importance of
to-do lists and how to implement them either by using an app or using an actual
printed calendar.
Organizing Your Notes and Ideas is the subject of Chapter Four. Smith describes
several options to capture and organize a genealogist’s notes and ideas. Taking
those scraps of paper and sticky notes and turning them into a workable format.
The reader will get an extensive tutorial on Evernote in this chapter.
Misc. Documents, Houston County, Tennessee Archives & Museum
In Chapter Five, Smith gets to the meat of the subject of organizing
your genealogy with
Organizing Your Files.
Smith describes organizational methods to use with paper files and computer
files. The emphasis being that each person needs to find a system that works
for them. Everyone is different and gravitates to different organizational
methods. I particularly appreciated Smith’s emphasis on using archival
materials to preserve and safe guard genealogy documents. His description of preservation methods are right in line with archival methods used in any
professional archives setting. Smith’s explanation of how to set up computer
files is easy and straight forward. The added use of cloud technology will hopefully
insure genealogists will not lose their data.
The genealogy research process can be overwhelming to some
genealogists. Smith explains how to Organize
Your Research Process in Chapter Six. Smith says: “Having a well-organized,
purposeful, and methodical research process is the key to productive and
fruitful research”. Smith explains how
research logs, blogs and genealogy software programs can help the genealogist
organize their research process. He also provides a genealogy software
comparison worksheet at the end of the chapter, comparing all the current
genealogy software programs.
Genealogists wouldn’t get anywhere without communicating with other
researchers, libraries and archives just to name a few. In Chapter Seven, Smith
helps the genealogist Organize Your
Communication. Smith helps the genealogist organize their
correspondence. I was particularly glad to see Smith spend time on how to
organize emails since that form of correspondence can be daunting to deal with
and organize. His guidelines on how to work with mailing lists, message boards
and Facebook is well explained.
Old Letters, Houston County, Tennessee Archives & Museum
Online research is the way most genealogists look for their ancestors.
Smith helps with this subject in Chapter Eight with Organizing Your Online Research. Smith does very well guiding the
genealogist on how to organize their online research by navigating them through
the vast internet with its seemingly never ending genealogy websites. He uses
methods of planning your online research and organizing website bookmarks.
Many genealogists get opportunities to travel to do their genealogy
research. In Chapter Nine, Smith discusses Organizing
Your Research Trips. Smith gives the genealogist great advice on preparing
for a research trip and being organized once you get to the facility and what
to do when you return home after your genealogy research trip. I specifically
enjoyed his section entitled “Create a Mobile Research Office”.
Organizing Your Learning is the title of Chapter Ten. In this chapter, Smith
does a great job of emphasizing genealogy education goals, whether you’re a
beginning genealogist or an advanced researcher. Organizing your books,
periodicals, blogs, genealogy conferences, virtual webinars and other
educational opportunities is well addressed.
Lastly, Chapter Eleven is a great chapter on Organizing Your Volunteering. Many genealogists find that as they
become more and more involved in their genealogy, they decide to become more
active in their local genealogical society, historical society or other
volunteer positions. Smith has some great advice on how to keep the genealogists
volunteer activities organized so they don’t become overwhelmed.
Throughout the book there are Research
Tips that Smith offers. Also, at the end of each chapter there is a great
section entitled Drew’s To-Dos. Smith
also includes many different kinds of templates, forms and check lists at the
end of each chapter.
I would highly recommend Drew Smith’s book to any genealogist.
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Get more tips and help by watching my Legacy Family Tree Webinar:
The Home Archivist: Preserving Family Records Like a Pro!
http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=4729
