Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!

You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. This can be done by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section. You may also put a link to a blog post.

                                                                 

My Happy Dance This Week:
 After a few extensions due to family emergencies, I finally completed the American Genealogy Home Study Class from the National Genealogy Society!  Getting my certificate of completion in the mail had me dancing for joy! 

NGS American Genealogy Homestudy
Certificate of Completion

                                                                                           Share your discovery!

                                                                                   Let the dancing commence!

Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,

Extreme Makeover-Source Citation Edition

                                                   

One of my goals this year is to complete the NGS Home Study Class. The first assignment- send in a sourced Family Group Sheet. “No prob!” was my first reaction. After all I have been filling these out for years and I thought all I had to do was pick a family and hit print. Boy was I wrong!!

 For this assignment I decided to choose the William A. McManus family of Sumter, SC since I had recently been working on this line. I figured I could complete the homework for the class and research my family at the same time.

 When I printed out the Family Group sheet I noticed that my sources, especially those that I had added as long as 15 years ago, were not very good. They were put into my data base long before I understood the importance of documentation and before the source templates were added to my genealogy program. It’s not that they weren't sourced, it s just that several were not complete. I needed an “Extreme Source Citation Makeover”  -does Ty do genealogy?!?

Ty Pennington- Picture Courtesy Wikipedia

   I pulled out my handy copy of Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills and went to work. I checked each piece of information for all of William McManus’ family members. From Census Records, Directories, Cemeteries and Family Bibles I double checked and made sure each was cited in a way that would help anyone, including me, find the record again if needed.   

 Now, a week later I feel that I have a well sourced Family Group Sheet. My first assignment is ready to turn in! 

Did I learn anything from this experience?  A lot! Not only did I get a crash course in citing sources, but I saw how far I have come from those early days of just adding to my data base whatever I found on my ancestors. Today I try to analyze each piece of information and cite sources as correctly as I can.  With the help of technology it is now so much easier to do.

 I am sure there are still sources recorded in my data base that need an “Extreme Makeover”.I will work on them one family at a time.

 As for my William McManus family, there's one more thing to say - “Welcome Home Source Citations, Welcome Home!”