Welcome to this step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. I first ran this series in 2008. So many people have asked about it, I’m bringing it back in weekly segments.
Episode 7: Best Subscription Websites for Genealogy Research, Part 1
In our first segment, my guest is Lisa Alzo, popular genealogy lecturer and writer (now the author of nine books and online genealogy instructor at Family Tree University and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies). We talk about her reasons for researching her family history and what she’s learned in her genealogical journeys (which include international travel in Eastern Europe).
In the second half of the show, we tackle an essential topic: the best subscription sites for family history records. This is a two-part topic: in this episode I talk about the best genealogy websites that require payment to access their core content. In Episode 8, we’ll talk about the fantastic free websites that are out there.
Keep in mind that this episode was recorded a few years ago. As I mention in the show, the online records landscape is constantly changing. Here are a few updates:
The biggest powerhouse paid subscription website is still Ancestry: it’s just bigger and better than what I originally described. As of fall 2013, they host 11 billion historical records. Member-contributed items include over 50 million family trees and 160 million uploads of photographs, stories and scanned documents. They still have a free 14-day trial membership and multiple subscription options: check out current ones here.
WorldVitalRecords is still a great website, though it’s grown more slowly. At our republishing date, it boasts over 158 million digitized images, (including US and UK censuses); 300 million names from vital records; 75 million names from military records, over 100 million pages of newspapers dating from 1739; 1.5 million historical maps; 8000 yearbooks and over 30 million tombstone photos. WorldVitalRecords is now part of the MyHeritage.com family of websites. Click here for a free 3-day trial membership.
Findmypast now has two web storefronts: findmypast.com (recommended for folks in the U.S.) and FindMyPast.co.uk (which specializes in British and Irish roots and records). At last glance in fall 2013, findmypast hosts over 1.5 million family history records. It offers great search options and a budget-friendly pay-per-view model or a more traditional subscription.
RootsIreland is now home now to over 20 million Irish records.
Genline.com for Swedish research is still online, though it’s part of Ancestry.com now. It’s home to over 20 million church record images and more.
Scotland’s People is still your official home for online Scottish records, including an enormous collection of parish records with births and baptisms, banns and marriages and deaths and burials.
Many other sites support specific topics in genealogy research. An example on my side of the pond is Fold3 (formerly Footnote) for American military records. This site is home to over 400 million total records from the Revolutionary War era forward. Check with others who research families from the same location or ethnic background as your family to see what sites would be perfect for you.
My website mentioned in the podcast, GenealogyGems.tv, is now better known as www.genealogygems.com. The Genealogy Gems newsletter mentioned in the episode is now my blog, which you can find on my website.
We all need reminders now and then to work smart and stay focused. This week we’re going to revisit two early episodes of Elevenses with Lisa that will help you do just that. I’m bringing them out from behind the Premium Membership paywall and making them available for free this week. We’ll cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.
These will be presented back-to-back as Live Video Premieres on my Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. In part 1 we’ll cover what makes us vulnerable to getting distracted, and how a research plan can help. In part 2 we’ll talk about how to deal with BSOs (bright shiny objects!)
Watch Live: Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 11:00 am CT (calculate your time zone) Three ways to watch:1. Video Player (Live) – Watch live at the appointed time in the video player above. 2. Participate in the live chat by watching on YouTube (Live) – Click the Watch on YouTube button to watch live at the appointed time at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. Log into YouTube with your free Google account to participate in the live chat. 3. Video Player above (Replay) – Available immediately after the live premiere and chat.
How Alice the Genealogist Avoids the Rabbit Hole Part 1
Don’t let unexpected genealogical finds send you down a rabbit hole any longer. We’ll cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.
Vulnerability to Rabbit Holes
In order to improve in anything, you have to know your vulnerabilities. When it comes to falling down a genealogical rabbit hole I’ve identified 5 of the most common vulnerabilities:
Not having a crystal-clear research question
Not having your next steps mapped out
Not having a specific method for dealing with BSOs (bright shiny objects)
Not implementing that method consistently
No muscle to stick with your plan
We’re going to tackle 1, 2, and 3 above. With these in place I believe you’ll feel confident and take care of 4 & 5!
1. Write a Research Question
Before beginning your research, take a moment to write out your research question or statement. It will help guide you and keep you on task. Think about what you want to specifically accomplish. State your goal in specific terms: “Identify the village in Germany where Louise Nikolowski and her family were from so I can locate church records.”
Effective Research Questions
(Per the Board of Certification of Genealogists) Genealogy Standards #10: “Questions underlying research plans concern aspects of identity, relationship, events, and situations. The questions are sufficiently broad to be answerable with evidence from relevant places and times. They are sufficiently focused to yield answers that may be tested and shown to meet or not meet the Genealogical Proof Standard.” Genealogical-research questions:
clearly describe a unique person, group, or event as the focus of the question
clearly state what kind of information that you’re hoping to discover, such as an identity, relationship, event, or biographical detail.
Keep this research question in front of you by:
printing it out and setting it in front of your monitor
putting it on a “sticky” note on your computer’s desktop (virtually or physically!)
writing it at the top of your physical or virtual notebook.
2. Map Your Next Moves
Break your primary research question down into smaller, individual research questions. According to Elizabeth Shown Mills, after analyzing the existing data: “we prepare a research plan that defines:
the resources to be explored
the strategies to be applied
the individuals who are to be included in that search
any special circumstances that will affect the project.”
Example Question: Where is the birthplace of Gustav Sporowski (father of Alfreda) who resided in Gillespie, Illinois in 1910-1918?
Actionable Steps
Here are examples of questions to be answered that support the research question: Question 1 – Did he apply for citizenship? If so, what is listed? Question 2 – Find passenger list: what place of origin is listed? Question 3 – What was listed for other passengers accompanying him? (If any) Question 4 – Where are other Sporowskis from that are listed in passenger lists? For each question above, make a list of the resources (records) you need to find to answer these questions, and where you plan to look for them. Track the outcome. “we prepare a research plan that defines:
the resources to be explored
the strategies to be applied
the individuals who are to be included in that search
any special circumstances that will affect the project.”
Part 2 Video and Show Notes
Don’t let unexpected genealogical finds send you down a rabbit hole any longer. In this episode I cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.
Identify BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects)
You can’t avoid danger (to your current research plan) if you don’t know what it looks like! My test will help you determine if what has caught your eye while researching online is a BSO.
How Alice identifies a BSO
Take the BSO Test:
Does this get me closer to answering my research question?
On a scale of 1 – 10 how potentially critical is this to my research?
Am I willing to give up finding the answer to my research question to pursue this?
Once you’ve identified BSOs, it’s time to implement a process for dealing with them so you can stay focused on our research question, as well as return to the BSO to explore its potential.
5 Ways to Capture & Return to BSOs
1. Use a Cloud Note-taking Service
Get yourself a free Cloud note-taking tool (Evernote, OneNote, Google Docs, etc.) and use it consistently. Use the website, software, and/or app to capture unexpected finds while researching. I happen to use Evernote. If you’re new to Evernote, here’s a quick video that will help explain it to you. Here’s an example of how I use Evernote to capture BSOs:
Create a tag in Evernote called BSO.
Each time you come across something that tempts you to deviate from your current focus, clip it and tag it with the BSO tag. This will allow you to move on with your research plan with confidence, knowing that it will be easy to locate and pursue the BSO later.
Add additional tags if desired to help you remember what it was about or why it interested you, such as a surname tag.
Evernote notes can have multiple tags, so use them.
Annotate the note to provide additional information as to why the BSO caught your eye, and what you plan to follow up on later.
Evernote will attach a link to the page where you clipped the item to the note. This means with one click you can return to the original source.
Notes tagged in Evernote
The benefit of using a Cloud-based note-taking tool is that your notes will be available to you on all your devices (depending on whether you have a free or subscription plan.) You can add additional information to your notes, and work with them anytime, anywhere.
Use Snagit to do Your Screen Clipping
You can also use Snagit to do your screen clipping and annotations. Automatically send the completed image to Evernote via the Share feature, or Copy and Paste it into a new note. Learn more about this powerful screen clipping tool: Elevenses with Lisaepisode 61– How to use Snagit for genealogy Elevenses with Lisa episode 67– Advance clipping techniques with Snagit. Get Snagit with our affiliate link and get a discount for a limited time. (thanks for supporting our free content!)
Don’t worry if it initially shows as Euros in the cart. When you enter your address including country, it will convert the currency appropriately.
2. Schedule BSO Time One of the main reasons we get side-tracked by BSOs while working online is that we are afraid if we don’t look at it right now we’ll lost it or never go back to it. By scheduling time specifically for working on tagged BSOs, you will feel more confident about letting them go while you are working on a research plan. I schedule my time in the free Google calendar. You can have several different calendars (i.e. categories of types of things you schedule.) Create a “BSO” calendar and color code it so it’s easy to spot. Schedule BSO time and follow up items as future events on your calendar. Set Notifications and Email Reminders for each item.
Create a “BSO” calendar
Scheduling BSO times means you can mentally let them go for now!
Originally published Fall 2008
