Mason County Genealogical Society P.O. Box 103 Shelton, WA 98584-0103 The Mason Log Volume 12 Issue 6 February 2015 February meeting • Thursday, February 5th • 7:00 p.m. Start time • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 12th & Connection • Membership dues - single: $15.00 Couple: $20.00 • Find us on the web at http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wamcgs/ The inside scoop • Narrative family histories • Computers & family letters • Members Corner - Pat • Genealogy Road show Narrative Family Histories I’d mentioned in the last newsletter that my Aunt Grace researched and documented the Curtis/Lamb family history and genealogy on my maternal line. I talked with her about her work and she recommended that I fill in the blanks that she had identified before trying to extend it back in time. That was just one of many tasks I had when I started doing genealogy. Aunt Grace’s family history is written in a narrative form. There is a discussion about each of the families within a generation and each family member has a unique number to identify it and the generation it comes from. There are a couple of pedigree charts that go back, but not forward, and they don’t cover or overlap timeframes. The heart of the history is the lists and narratives she wrote and complied. About a year after I started, I found it very trying to keep track of which generation I was working on. In five consecutive generations there were multiple Benjamin, Moses, Thomas, and James scattered across my Curtis family lines. In fact, there was at least one of each in every generation, and more often then not, there were a couple duplicates per generation. It was easy to mix the wrong James with the current Moses I was working with. What to do concerning these multiples of four names bouncing between generations creating confusion in my work? To solve and ease that burden, I filled in pedigree charts and family group sheets by hand, only to tear them up when the wrong family was used. (Genealogy is fun, so they were telling me.) I used my genealogy computer program, Reunion, as a record and recording tool, not a problem solver. When I had the necessary proof, I entered the name and source on the appropriate blanks in the program, and moved on to the next issue to be resolved. One day I entered some data that was wrong, not on purpose mind you, but Reunion thought so and brought it to my attention. I had entered the same birth date for two different people with the same name in two generations that were separated by a generation. Did that make sense? It didn’t to me either, till I charted it out. , OCR Text: Mason County Genealogical Society P.O. Box 103 Shelton, WA 98584-0103 The Mason Log Volume 12 Issue 6 February 2015 February meeting • Thursday, February 5th • 7:00 p.m. Start time • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 12th & Connection • Membership dues - single: $15.00 Couple: $20.00 • Find us on the web at http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wamcgs/ The inside scoop • Narrative family histories • Computers & family letters • Members Corner - Pat • Genealogy Road show Narrative Family Histories I’d mentioned in the last newsletter that my Aunt Grace researched and documented the Curtis/Lamb family history and genealogy on my maternal line. I talked with her about her work and she recommended that I fill in the blanks that she had identified before trying to extend it back in time. That was just one of many tasks I had when I started doing genealogy. Aunt Grace’s family history is written in a narrative form. There is a discussion about each of the families within a generation and each family member has a unique number to identify it and the generation it comes from. There are a couple of pedigree charts that go back, but not forward, and they don’t cover or overlap timeframes. The heart of the history is the lists and narratives she wrote and complied. About a year after I started, I found it very trying to keep track of which generation I was working on. In five consecutive generations there were multiple Benjamin, Moses, Thomas, and James scattered across my Curtis family lines. In fact, there was at least one of each in every generation, and more often then not, there were a couple duplicates per generation. It was easy to mix the wrong James with the current Moses I was working with. What to do concerning these multiples of four names bouncing between generations creating confusion in my work? To solve and ease that burden, I filled in pedigree charts and family group sheets by hand, only to tear them up when the wrong family was used. (Genealogy is fun, so they were telling me.) I used my genealogy computer program, Reunion, as a record and recording tool, not a problem solver. When I had the necessary proof, I entered the name and source on the appropriate blanks in the program, and moved on to the next issue to be resolved. One day I entered some data that was wrong, not on purpose mind you, but Reunion thought so and brought it to my attention. I had entered the same birth date for two different people with the same name in two generations that were separated by a generation. Did that make sense? It didn’t to me either, till I charted it out. , Mason County Genealogical Society,Mason Logs,Mason Logs,2015,V12 I6 MCGS Feb 2015 Newsletter.pdf,V12 I6 MCGS Feb 2015 Newsletter.pdf Page 1, V12 I6 MCGS Feb 2015 Newsletter.pdf Page 1