I'm disappointed that I've not written as many blog posts as I'd planned to over the first half of this year. However, it is because I've spent more time researching. This spring I wrote an article about one set of my paternal great grandparents, James Jakes & Annie Frizzell and their descendants. I just scratched the surface in it but ended up with about 15 pages with footnotes. I've started to gather my research to do the same thing with the other paternal great grandparents, William Green Cook & Jane Bell King and their descendants.
Over the last 32 years of research I've accumulated information in the form of research notes, pictures, copies of documents(both certified and photo copies), family ephemera, etc. It's a struggle to sort thru everything. I'm trying to digitize anything that I want to share and keep the originals or a copy of the more personal papers. Condensing and downsizing has me thinking about my research and what will become of it when I am no longer around.
Maybe you have asked yourself the same questions:
- Once you are gone will your people take the time to open your family research program and preserve your research?
- Do they know the passwords to even get to your files?
- What You Know and How You Know It
- What You Would like to Know and what it will take to get that info
- Questions that you have
- Future Research Projects.
Some of these topics overlap but you get the point. Writing or publishing your research is the best way to make sure that it's not lost especially if you are submitting your articles to Historical or Genealogical Quarterly magazines. Writing about your research will help you to see where there is room for further research. Which will lead you to more things to write about. See where I'm going?
