Tuesday’s Tip — New Job, Punctuation and New Perspective

After 4 years at Ancestry.com I’m working at a different job and therefor not paying as much attention to my blogging the last few days.  I’m now the product manager for Institutional and Library version of our product working with Kim Harrison.  I’m super excited about learning how we can best serve libraries and other organizations who use our products to assist their patrons with genealogy research.  It’s a different way to look at Ancestry.com and it has given me a new perspective on what we do.

When I haven’t been doing that, I’ve been working on cleaning up my sources.  Well, I’ve also been watching the Olympics and cleaning up my sources. I really thought that this was going to be tedious, but not so.  I’ve been working on them by source, and I’ve been noticing something when I’m done with a group, for instance 1840:

You can quickly tell who lived close and who did not, assuming of course that the records aren’t in semi alphabetical order, which should be in the source as well.

And by the time I get to 1850, I see families and their proximity to one another:

You just don’t see that in a family tree.  You see who your ancestors are, but you don’t see them in proximity.  This combined with Thomas MacEntee’s article: uencounter.me – A Way To Plot Cluster Genealogy Research makes me think what if I did genealogy for a week, and didn’t use a family tree.  What might I learn?

But first I have to finish my sources. I am on a mission. :-)

Oh, and punctuation.  I know where the colon goes in the piece of documentation that is: (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 Aug 2012), but I’ve been writing it as (http://www.ancestry.com accessed : 4 Aug 2012).  And I taught it in my livestream class that way.  No one is perfect, I suppose.

This weeks theme will be sourcing.  And I’m discovering the more I do it, the more I like it.  Who knew?

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6 thoughts on “Tuesday’s Tip — New Job, Punctuation and New Perspective

  1. wendylittrell August 7, 2012 at 5:36 am Reply

    so what are you using? Family Tree Maker? I think that’s the first time I’ve paid attention to how the sources look & how easy it is to see who all lived close together. Thanks!

    • Anne Gillespie Mitchell August 7, 2012 at 5:41 am Reply

      I use Family Tree Maker 2012. It is amazing what you see when you look at something in a different way. It surprised me. :-)

  2. Jana Last August 7, 2012 at 9:35 am Reply

    Congrats on your new job within Ancestry.com! Will you still be writing Ask Ancestry Anne?

    • Anne Gillespie Mitchell August 7, 2012 at 9:44 am Reply

      Oh yes. Ancestry Anne is one of my favorite things to do. I’d be sad to leave it behind.

  3. Jacqi August 7, 2012 at 2:57 pm Reply

    Anne, congratulations on your new position! Hope the shift goes smoothly for you. That library connection is so vital–and a great first impression to patrons being introduced to Ancestry.com. I know I was one who came to Ancestry through the library portal.

    Good point on tracking those sources and combining it with the cluster concept, by the way…although for people like me, prone to bunny trails, it can lead to all sorts of unrelated discoveries :)

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