AncestorNews: New Year’s Musings

AncestorNews: New Year’s Musings I had a great holiday season. I used Legacy Family Tree (which I love as a genealogy program) to create family history books for each family member. I had them spiral bound at Kinkos. They looked great, even though I did catch several mistakes—one page was upside down! I’m interested in looking for some other software programs for generating a second edition. If you’ve used your software to put together a great-looking book, write and tell me what program you used.

Receiving mail from my loyal readers made the holiday season even more enjoyable. I’d like to thank Michael Wallace, who wrote me about a pioneer certificate available for Calhoun County, Mich., families that arrived in the area through 1900. Don Markley also sent a note about a First Families of Ohio certificate for anyone who can prove that his or her ancestors arrived in Ohio before 1821. Visit www.rootsweb.com/~micalhou/pioninst.htm and www.ogs.org/lineage.htm for more information.

Of course, along with celebrating the new year comes making resolutions. I think my resolutions always revolve around being more organized. This year, I’m concentrating on my paper files. If I can put family data on the computer or in my PDA, I can keep it organized. Paper files, however, are a problem. I’d love to hear how you organize your paper files. I can use all the help I can get! I searched online for suggestions about getting more organized, and here’s what I found:

•Free Forms from Family Tree Magazine
www.familytreemagazine.com/forms/download.html

•Sharon DeBartolo Carmack’s book Organizing Your Family History Search
www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70425

• Organizing Your Research
www.genealogy.com/genealogy/27_smith.html?Welcome=1041264396

•Organizing Your Family Records
www.arkansasresearch.com/g-organ.html

•Organizing Genealogy Clutter
www.uftree.com/bin/fg_auth?/GenealogyNewsstand/ShakingTree/Beginner/921015.html

Nancy Hendrickson is a contributing editor for Family Tree Magazine. She also is a family historian, freelance writer and the author of the upcoming book, Finding Your Roots Online, on sale May 2003. Her Web site is at www.ancestornews.com. E-mail her at stjoemo@pobox.com.