A-Z Challenge 2019 – O is for Organisation

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019OOn every intake of  the Pharos Introduction to One-Name Studies course one of the questions that is always asked, earlier than it appears in the course is how to keep and organise a study.

I have planned a series on that, giving some hints and tips to help researchers along the way. I can share how I do my study and how I keep it, but every researcher needs to find a way that works for them and is comfortable. Otherwise, the study will stop being enjoyable.

So here are a few considerations about organising your research and in particular your One-Name Study, some of which will be dependent on when you started your study

  • When did you start your study? Before the internet or after?
  • How do you keep your study? On paper, card index, spreadsheets or in a genealogical programme?
  • How do you want to keep your study? Go paperless?
  • What do you want to do with the study? Do you want to share it with the public and have a website?
  • How many others are assisting you on your study or are you working alone?
  • What is core data set that is your starting point for your study?
  • Do you have a back up of your research material?
  • Are you wanting to reconstruct families or collect data sets or a combination of the two?

However you answer those questions will influence the way in which you organise your study; and furthermore, there may be no quick win for processing the data. If you started 30 years ago and have reams of notes and certificates and now want to create a website then you will need to retype or at least spend time undertaking some data entry.

That is me and I do spend some time each week entering material into my genealogical programme as soon as the material is entered I discard the paper (unless it is an certificate or document). Over the next few days there is some overlapping of topics and I would always recommend that those undertaking a study & the course think about the questions above before making decisions.

Posted in #50Before50, A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies, Organisation & Structure | Leave a comment

A-Z Challenge 2019 – N is for Notes

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019NWhatever research you are working on, whether that be a school or college project, a genealogical one or a more specific genealogical project such as a One-Name or One-Place study you are going to take notes.

Notes are only as good as the value that they give to the person who has to read them.

We all start out with good intentions of writing nice and neatly and not using abbreviations and over time the writing becomes slopping, there are abbreviations creeping in and some time later when you look at the notes they are not clear or readable. I have done it too and as I became more familiar with research skills I began get better.

I am a prolific note taker and always have a notebook in my bag so I can capture thoughts and ideas. I have been known to scope out presentations and articles whilst sitting in a coffee shop.

So here are my tips:

  • Add the date to each page
  • Use page numbers and index the notebook
  • Record what the notes are about
  • Record where the records relate to

If I have a notebook which does not have an index at the front I leave a couple of pages and index as I go. If I am researching and trawling through Parish Registers for example I note the parish and the details as I see it. I do not abbreviate Thomas to Tho unless that is what the document says. I record the records office reference and the location. So it might read, Guildford, Surrey, England – Baptisms St Nicholas 1890 PR……..held at Surrey History Centre and accessed via Ancestry.

Even though I love pen and paper I also use Evernote and One-Note. I have become a little disillusioned with Evernote and I am reconsidering my options. I currently have a complete back up of my study material in Evernote. I also have two lots of archive material, so that is notes that were relevant once and not know – I don’t delete them, I have an archive file – I might do a post on that once the A-Z finishes.

However you keep your notes, be sure that you an easily read them and if you need to retrace your steps to the original source make sure to record where the material is located and what it is.

One of the things I do as each time the Pharos Introduction to One-Name Studies course runs is note down questions from students. I answer those questions of course, but some of them end up here as posts or even a series of posts. One question posed from a student I turned into an article for the Journal of One-Name Studies (in fact that became a series too, although that was not the intention at the beginning!)

If you want to read the background to my affair with notebooks you can read that HERE.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Evernote & One Note, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies, Stationery, Filofax, Journals & Notebooks | 8 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2019 – M is for Distribution Maps

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019MOne of the great things I love is maps, especially those that show the distribution of a surname over time and consider why that geographical spread occurred.

My favourite site, World Profiler is currently unavailable. For sometime it has been giving a security alert, although the site was quite safe. It seemed to be selective depending on what browser you were using – it did not like Chrome for example!

I wrote almost a year ago about the surname Magro Malosso and for that post I used both Public Profiler and Gens.info -you can read that post HERE

Distribution maps aid us to understand what the geographical spread of a surname might look like. I have shown the map for Orlando previously too, so thought that I would show the map results for the surname of Licata, which was the name of my paternal Grandmother. LicataLicata is a place in Sicily, so there is likely some link with the place, although very often foundlings were given the name of the place they were found it.

Eventually it was considered that it created a stigma for a child that had been abandoned, so towns and villages then started giving surnames that were not already present in the area, which of course, made it just as obvious as previously. Whether there was a foundling in my family I don’t know. Before I generated the map, I did not consider that it would be a popular surname, well it is although not as popular as Orlando! It is especially popular in my part of Sicily, and that is determined by the dark pink colour.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies | Leave a comment

A-Z Challenge 2019 – L is for Learning and Reading to assist a One-Name Study

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019LI am passionate about learning and understanding the strategy of a One-Name Study. The methodology is important to understand and to find a way that works for you.

The Guild of One-Name Studies offers seminars, webinars and in 2012 wrote a publication, called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom to enable members and those starting out to find a method of research and produced some guidance.

Some members believe the book is very UK focused, and perhaps it is, but the method, learning and other factors are included in the book.

The Pharos course that I teach goes a step further and hopefully stretches participants to consider other elements of a study. You can read about the course and sign up for it here HERE.

The key thing to remember is that none of this learning is in a formal setting. The Guild and the Pharos course offers support to members starting off and fellow Guild members are very knowledgeable and always strive to help.

If you are new to the concept then please read the posts HERE consider a surname in your family and perhaps explore the various sites mentioned and consider how big the study is likely to be (for more information see J!)

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2018 - Surname Research Series, A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies | 4 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2019 – K is for Keeping Track

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019KKeeping track of your research is very important. I am a prolific note taker. I use typically the same note book and planner and record what research I have undertaken, where the research was – did I go to a records office or use Ancestry online at home.

I note what I was searching for and if I found it or not – so I record positive and negative searches. I also date the note.

Whilst I am writing what I have looked at and why I also build my to do list. If I locate someone in the Census, I then add them to the to do list and track them through the following census, locate their marriage and if had any children etc.

All of this sounds rather a lot, but it is not. By spending this time now, you won’t have to revisit the same information in the future. If you do need to, then look at the citation of the record and that will enable you to locate the records and information in the future, should you need to.

I wrote about research logs earlier in the year and you can read that post HERE.

Posted in A-Z Challenge, A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies | Leave a comment

The Angel of the North – #50Before50

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Julie Goucher

A month or so ago we visited The Angel of the North. By coincidence, it happened to be the Angel’s 21st birthday. At the bottom of the Angel is a sign providing details about it’s history and so forth. The cost of the Angel when it was first designed, made and then erected was £800,000; that is an astronomical amount. It is certainly an icon of the North East and it was nice to see it, especially so on a nice Spring day.

Posted in #50Before50, Up North! | 2 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2019 – J is for Just how big is my study going to be?

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019JOne of the key things with starting a One-Name Study is how big is it going to be?

Not all surnames are equal and understanding the frequency of the surname will be determining factor. The more frequency a surname appears, then the bigger the study is going to be and the more time it will take to collect, analyse and organise.

Whilst a large study is a challenge, they are, in the modern era very achievable. A fellow member of the Guild of One-Name Studies told me that it took him 10 years to collect all the instances of his surname from the General Registration Office (GRO) indexes. Now, thanks to sites like FreeBMD it is possible to download the data in a matter of minutes. That study has gone on to create a large database of about 77,000 instances of the surname. That study is the Featherstone One-Name Study which began in the 1990’s. Another large study is that of the Howes One-Name Study, which began about 10 years ago and has circa 130,000 individuals in reconstructed families.

For a moment, lets turn our attention to surnames whose origins are England and Wales. To determine the frequency of those names, we would look see how many instances of the name occur in the 1881 Census.

  • 1-30 Tiny study
  • 30-300 Small study
  • 300 – 3,000 Medium study
  • 3,000 – 30,000 Large study
  • 30,000 – 300,000 Extra large study
  • >300,000 are huge studies such as Jones Smith

For my Orlando One-Name Study, there are less than 300 in England and Wales, so that appears to be a small study, but the surname is an Italian one, with huge peaks of migration to other Countries – I have previously written about the Surname Profiler Map

For surnames in the United States turn to Ancestry and check the frequency of the surname there.

There are other considerations too, in the case of European surnames there will be peaks of mass migration caused by important aspects of European history.

There is a useful page on the Guild of One-Name Studies website about choosing a surname and about the size of a study. In fact you can see the numbers relating to the Orlando, Featherstone and Howes studies, so it is worth reading and you can do so here

Try out Tip – using the surnames of your four grandparents, would they be suitable as One-Name Studies? And if no, why not? – Go on, leave a comment or write about it on you own blog and leave the URL below.

More details and information is covered in the Pharos Introduction to One-Name Studies course.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies | Leave a comment

A-Z Challenge 2019 – I is for Indexes

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019IWhen I first joined the Guild of One-Name Studies back in 2002 I immediately registered my Orlando One-Name Study. As time passed the Guild began building up a set of indexes for the use of Guild members and I began to contribute. Other members contributed material from their own studies, marriage challenges and their own family history.

Fast forward to 2016 and the world of genealogy had changed. Now there were significant amounts of records online, not just with the Guild but also with the commercial based companies. Having registered the surname Butcher in 2016 I trawled the indexes held by the Guild to see if I could make additions to the Butcher marriages, the focus being that other members had likely submitted requests for their own study to the members who had volunteered to work on a marriage challenge. As there are more than 37,000 Butcher marriages in FreeBMD and that only includes dates up to 1983 it made sense that some of those requests from other members had spouses whose surname was Butcher. That meant that I could use the indexes to expand my England and Wales core data set, which was Butcher.

The Guild indexes are one of my favourite member benefits and they really advocate the ethos of members helping members.

There are two indexes that are available to non-members, the first, an newspaper obituary index was donated by myself in memory of my late Mum and the other is a new index, Marriages of the World and already that over 100,000 entries contained therein. Currently I have not added many marriages from my own study and that is something that I plan to do over the course of the next year. You can access those indexes HERE.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Place Studies | 2 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2019 – H is for History & Origins of a Surname

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019HI have written a lot previously about One-Name Studies (If you are new here, welcome! – you can read all the posts about researching surnames HERE).

One of the fascinating things about a Surname Study that I love is the history and origins of a surname.

Understanding the history of surnames is important and they do vary depending on which country you are researching in. In some cases, such as Ireland the introduction of surnames goes back to the 10th Century, yet Turkey only introduced surnames as late as 1934. In Iceland names are organised by first name.

In England surnames were introduced by the Normans from 1066. By 1250, landed families had surnames and by 1450 most families had surnames, but it was adopted around 100 years later in the north of the country.

In Scotland, from about 1300 landed families had surnames and from 1500’s the Scots residing in the lowlands took surnames. By the mid 1700 surnames were fixed in the Highlands and by 19th Century they were adopted by the Northern Isles.

In Wales, surnames were adopted after the Acts of Union in 1536 and 1543. They developed a Patronymic system which was still in use during the 19th century in rural areas. From 1837 we begin to see surnames being systematically used and much more stable following the introduction of Civil Registration.

Second names are also of importance and can give us as research vital clues as to the origins of the family. Second names are typically dependent on both the culture and geography. In the highlands of Scotland, second names were not recognised or used until the 17th century yet in Ireland the process began in the 10th Century.

In Italy many surnames are variations of the root names and ending in either ini, inu, etti, etto and illo all meaning little, or ucci meaning a descendant of di as a prefix meaning of or from. Broadly speaking those that end in O come from the south and those ending in I come from the north.

There is also the fascinating of something called a Detto, which is a second surname. This is added to distinguish one branch of the family from another and this moves down the generations. I have the fascinating surname in my own family of Magro Malosso. I wrote a bit about this surname HERE

As with much of Europe, women retain their maiden name after marriage and one thing to remember is that surnames can change overtime, through being written incorrectly and people not knowing that something was spelt incorrectly, accents caused the name to be written incorrectly and in parts of our history those who were of descent that they felt was problematic sought to “anglicanise” their surname in order to fit in and be less foreign.

The history of our surnames is, in essence the foundations of a surname study.

Try out Tip

  • What does your surname mean?
  • What are the Origins?
  • Does it reflect your heritage?

 

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), Italian Surname Series, One-Name Studies | 8 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2019 – G is for Genealogical Proof Standard

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Julie Goucher

AtoZ2019GI have written a lot previously about One-Name Studies (If you are new here, welcome! – you can read all the posts about researching surnames HERE)

The genealogical proof standard has essentially five elements to it –

a) Reasonably exhaustive research has been conducted.
b) Each statement of fact has a complete and accurate source citation.
c) The evidence is reliable and has been skill-fully correlated and interpreted.
d) Any contradictory evidence has been resolved.
e) The conclusion has been soundly reasoned and coherently written

It is much easier to follow this standard if undertaking reconstruction of families. I follow the same process as my personal genealogy as I do with my One-Name Studies, only entering material into my database when I am sure that the facts are pertaining to the specific individual.

I hand draw out trees, just on scrap paper or in my notebook, it helps me think and I always date the tree and always note if this is because I have material to confirm the tree or if the tree is based upon a hypothetical basis. At the same time as drawing a tree I am able to construct my to do list, identifying what information I need to locate.

Ultimately, the purpose of the genealogical proof standard is a way of confirming if the evidence we have relating to a particular person, is indeed correct and can you justify your thinking and conclusion with evidence.

I have already shared several examples when primary source material can be incorrect – here and here.

References for Genealogical Proof Standard:

  • Genealogical Proof Standard by Thomas W. Jones
  • Genealogical Standards (50th Anniversary edition) by Board for Certification of Genealogists
  • Webinars by the Board of Certification of Genealogists, hosted by Legacy Webinars (you may need to have access to a subscription)
  • Genealogy: Essential Research Methods by Helen Osborn
  • Mastering Genealogical Documentation by Thomas Jones
  • Standards & Good Practice – Society of Genealogists (London England)
  • National Genealogical Society (NGS), US organisation – NGS Guidelines

All the books listed above, with the exception of the one by Helen Osborn are written from a US perspective, but that should not dissuade you from considering to purchase. I own the two by Jones in Kindle format and the Osborn book in both Kindle and hardback. The Society of Genealogists and NGS have some material available freely accessible.

Disclaimer – I have not financially benefited from naming nor recommending these books. I purchased the books myself and all comments and opinions are my own.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2019 - Tips, Tools & Starting Surname Research Series, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies | 3 Comments