As much as I freaked out when the Family History Library announced that they would be discontinuing microfilm ordering, I now think I’m in heaven with access to all sorts of digital images! I still wish I knew more about the Family History Library’s schedule for digitizing and uploading to the internet; what are their priorities and limitations due to licensing? Last week I ventured into one of my local centers to see how viewing images at a center would be. I was optimistic and pleased when I left. I copied and uploaded about 100 images to my Google drive. The pain happened when I returned home to download the images. I had not taken the time to name the files so I spent too much organizing them later.

Today I arrived at the center with an organized plan. I spent a good portion of my genealogy time this last week working on a spreadsheet for one of my ancestors. He is featured in the first section of my Kinship-Determination project.  While his parents will provide fodder for my first proof argument in the narrative, he produced a wealth of documents during his lifetime. I am using this spreadsheet to construct a timeline as well as to catalog all the documents I have for him. By knowing exactly what I have, I will see what I do not have or where I may need to do further research. The timeline will also be helpful for when I sit down to begin writing the narrative.

Having a plan really optimized my time at the center today. I retrieved and saved about 80 images. Of that number at least 70 were on my list. I found everything on the list except two lands deeds. Either I copied the page numbers wrong from the index at home or the indexer made an error I need to track down. The rest were bonus and lucky happen-stance. I found a couple of documents that the index had missed; I did not even know to look for them but I still found them!

A compiled general land deed index

Over the next week, I may begin the laborious task of transcribing all the documents I just found! Stay tuned!

“Standard 53 (Chapter 4—Standards of Writing): Selection of appropriate options. Genealogists select the proof option appropriate for the proved conclusion’s context.” – Genealogy Standards, Board for Certification of Genealogist

The Kinship-Determination Project (KDP) requires the use of at least two proof summaries or arguments justifying kinship of two parent-child relationships in different generations. There are three options for writing a proof: proof statement, proof summary, and proof argument.

The BCG website blog has a series of posts called “Ten-Minute Methodologies.” In January 2015, Judy Keller Fox wrote a piece on proof arguments and summaries, explaining the differences between the two.

http://bcgcertification.org/blog/2015/01/ten-minute-methodology-proof-summaries-and-arguments-1/

©2017 Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2017/07/18/my-path-to-certification-2/