As Summer Approaches - Some Genealogy Tips for Your Tuesday

Tuesday's Tip for June 9th at the Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community

The weather is warm, no it is downright hot (it's in the 90s in the Pacific Northwest and it is early June!). The Portland Rose Festival usually gets a bit of rain or drizzle, but this year everyone was told to hydrate and wear sunscreen as they were out and about for the parade and all the citywide activities. Our family spent the better part of the last few weeks with graduations, weddings, and family get-togethers. On the East Coast  of the USA, genealogists and celebrity watchers were part of what was billed as the largest family reunion. And those who could not make it to New York held satellite family reunions at family history facilities throughout the world. I didn't keep up with the whole "we are cousins" thing (I have plenty of cousins, sometimes too many), but it appeared to generate lots of media interest. I wonder if it will generate an interest in actual genealogy research. What do you think?

Since I was away from the online genealogy world for the past two weeks, I spent part of the weekend playing catch-up (thanks Google+ - I simply scroll through my stream and check out any of the blogs, images, websites or articles that catch my eye). Because these posts were so interesting and helpful, I decided to blog about them, share their links, and also provide a few reminders for our Tuesday's Tip in the Legacy Virtual User's Group Community on Google+. So let's get started!

• Review, Review, Review by Karen Ansley Krugman of Genealogy Frame of Mind reminded me of a very important task to use with our genealogy research. Karen writes that she dates her genealogy file folder with the last time she worked on it and what she was doing. When she pulls the file she quickly knows where she left off (and where she needs to pick up). We all know we should do this (both with our online and offline files), but do we? I know that in business, law and medicine - it is common (perhaps mandatory) to make this type of notation. What a great idea - if you are not doing it already, perhaps it is time to start. Be sure to read Karen's post and give this idea some thought. 
• Did you miss SCGS Jamboree? So did I! But Randy Seaver blogged about Jamboree at least once a day (I don't know how he does it) and he pulled together a compendium of all the blog entries about Jamboree (SCGS Jamboree Blog Compendium). As you click through to read the posts, you almost feel like you were there. If you haven't attended this conference, why not check out the posts and the photos - as well as the recordings of talks that were live-streamed - and then plan on attending Jamboree in 2016.
• Are you planning to take any research trips this summer? Perhaps you are going to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or another research facility (local libraries, state archives, land records, NARA centers, cemeteries, or historical or genealogical society facilities). Be sure to check out Getting Started in the Family History Library, Part 1 and Part 2 by Jenny Lanctot at The In-Depth Genealogist. These tips are very helpful for the FHL but many apply to any research facility. I am going to add many of these tips to my checklist for visiting research facilities.  
• I know we are "encouraged" to backup our genealogy files on a regular basis and certainly at least once a month (thanks Thomas MacEntee). And we all know the importance of doing so. You only need to lose your work once (and have to do it over again) to become religious about back-ups. Something I do in addition to monthly backups is a mid-year and end-of-year backup (for me June 15th and December 15th - I don't know about you but the last two weeks in December are never a time when I get to genealogy or any of my regularly scheduled tasks). These backups serve as a "this is where I was at during the year" timeline (I have kept these since I started doing genealogy in 2005). I also take a screen capture of my genealogy database statistics - just because I am nerdy that way. Whether you do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and/or semi-annual backups (it really depends on how often you add to your genealogy database) - just do them! And don't forget to backup all your genealogy files (those images, documents, spreadsheets, research reports, etc.) so you have all your work saved.
• This week there are two webinars through Legacy Family Tree Webinars. On Wednesday, June 10th - Tips for Planning a Successful Seminar with Jana Sloan Broglin and on Friday, June 12th -10 Tips for Using Legacy with Specialized Studies with the Legacy Family Tree Panel and Tessa Keough (that would be me!). If you do any work with the education arm of genealogy associations or historical societies, Tips for Planning a Successful Seminar will prove very useful (I certainly plan to attend this one!). And whether you use Legacy (or some other software) only for your own genealogy or you use it for additional projects, the 10 Tips for Using Legacy will provide practical how-tos on using Legacy features. The Legacy Panel should be able to not only answer our questions but also show us a few extra tips. Please post questions you have in the comments section below and I will try to include them for the Legacy Panel (let's get our questions answered before they all head off on their Caribbean cruise!).