Let’s do some genealogy! We’ll also suspend reality and pretend that it hasn’t been five years since I’ve written a blog post… Well, I have written a few in my head but was too busy being a caregiver to people in two separate households to get them posted. On the research side of things, there simply wasn’t enough time to spend long hours doing research over the last five years. I tried to quench1 my thirst for research in small bits. In the end, it didn’t do much to satisfy my need to research, fall down rabbit holes and chase after bright shiny objects. I’m afraid I didn’t do much real research at all. Then in 2017, there was the DNA testing that imploded my tree — a tree that I had spent 25 years researching! It left me with less than half of my original tree and only two surname notebooks. It’s still heart-wrenching to think about at times. A long story that I will save for another post. Let’s keep this upbeat, shall we?
In the last six months, I’ve been able to spend some quality time doing research. I soon realized that there was a need for a separate notebook just for research quandaries.2 My brand new surname notebook was quickly becoming quite messy. A quagmire3 was developing. I didn’t like it. And so, the Research Quandaries OneNote notebook was born. Now the question remains, how best to do screen shots? Screen shots using OneNote 2016 would be best because the Sections are shown across the top of the notebook and pages down the left-hand side making it easier to show how things are organized. However support for that version is going away later this year, leaving us with OneNote for Win10. Let me just say, it’s not my favorite version. Hmm, another quandary… (Side note: I just read in the MS blog that support for ON2016 is ongoing until October 2023 which solves my quandary.)
Too many “q” words for you? Sorry, it can’t be helped. One of my caregiver jobs was for a quilting friend who has a fondness for alliteration. It’s rubbed off on me over the last five years.
Hoping this link to the notebook on OneDrive works… READ THIS FIRST
View on OneDrive
Research Quandaries Notebook
I’ll use my research to explain how the Research Quandaries notebook is set up, and how I am using it for research before putting all the gathered sources and information into my Surname notebooks. Here is what is in the queue in the Research Quandaries notebook:
1) Zittel Zygology4: Helping two DNA cousin-matches (CousinB and CousinTD) connect their Zittel lines to mine.
2) Bamberg Bramble: The quagmire that has resulted in Ancestry trees because three John A. Bambergs emigrated from Bavaria to Buffalo, New York in 1847. Two of them had sons named John A. Bamberg. And, if I am remembering correctly, three had wives named Margaret. It’s enough to make you want to down a Bramble on the rocks!5 (Not that I’ve ever had one. Therefore, I really cannot attest to its effectiveness in calming the nerves or helping to reason out quandaries. However, I will mention that large quantities of alcohol are rarely a good solution to any problem. Just saying.)
3) Cuntz – A Closed Cold Case: How I managed to tumble down a brick wall for my 3rd-great-grandmother which resulted in a DNA cousin-match (CousinTS) contacting me with help carrying that line back generations. I’ll explain how I gathered together the information in my research notebook and then added it to my Buisch Surname notebook.
4) Dermeyer Debacle6: This one needs a picture to explain…
I’m afraid I can’t even wrap my head around what this ThruLines™ image implies. LOL It looks to me that ThruLines™ is suggesting one set of 4th-great-grandparents produced offspring that married, which resulted in the birth of one of my 2nd-great-grandparents. Uhm, no. Just no.
5) Jansen Jumble7: This one needs a table to explain…
If sources show Christina Jansen’s place of birth leaning strongly towards Prussia/Germany, why are Ancestry trees filling up with sources linked to a Christina Jansen born in the Netherlands?? I think this is a fire that needs to be quashed8 before it spreads much further.
Perhaps I should have opened with a quirky humor alert? Nah, that wouldn’t have been any fun. I am picturing the eye rolls and laughing to myself.
Until next time,
1 Quench: (verb) 1. satisfy (one’s thirst) by drinking. 2. extinguish (a fire).
2 Quandary: (noun) 1. a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation.
3 Quagmire: (noun) 1. a soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot. 2. an awkward, complex, or hazardous situation.
4 Zygology: (noun) 1. the science of fastening things together.
5 Bramble cocktail: Dry gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, crème de mûre, and crushed ice. Finish off the cocktail with fresh fruit, such as blackberries or cranberries and a slice of lemon.
6 Debacle: (noun) 1. a sudden and ignominious failure; a fiasco.
7 Jumble: (noun) 1. an untidy collection or pile of things. 2. mix up in a confused or untidy way.
8 Quashed: (verb) 1. reject or void, especially by legal procedure. 2. Put an end to; suppress.
Cite This Page:
Erin Williamson Klein, “Going a little quackers during the quarantine?” My Family History Files, 7 April 2020 (http://myfamilyhistoryfiles.com/onenote/going-a-little-quackers-during-the-quarantine/: [access date]).
Please do not copy without attribution and link back to this page.
Updated 6 February 2015: It appears my source of information about the Ancestry free access day was misinformed. The free access appears to be for records in the UK, not access to all Ancestry records. I edited the post to reflect this change.
This weekend Ancestry is offering free access to their UK records. I know quite a few of you are involved in the Genealogy Do-Over and the free access is a Bright Shiny Object (#BSO) that could suck away your weekend in no time. For me it is a BSO because I have given up my Ancestry membership temporarily while I work on getting my files in order and I will not be resisting the temptation of free access. I plan to take advantage of it. Fortunately I won’t have unlimited Internet access until Sunday afternoon so I cannot get sucked into a weekend-long, follow-every-rabbit-trail, download-until-I-am-cross-eyed marathon. I have taken advantage of the free access to UK and Canadian records in the past and used OneNote to aid me in the process.
This is a post about how I use OneNote when the free access to Ancestry’s records is offered without letting it becoming a Really Big and Beautiful BSO that sucks me in not only for the weekend but possibly even longer. I could enter the record images I am downloading onto a Research Log. However it takes time and thought to be sure I am putting information in the log correctly and on the correct log. (I have a separate one for each surname.) I also have a tendency to get sidetracked looking at people’s trees and using the search function to fall down rabbit holes. I want to keep as focused as I can and I want a quick and easy way to download the records and cite the sources. I will go back at a later date and analyze the records, record everything in my Research Plan and on my Research Log and then write up my written conclusion before I enter anything into my genealogy software—steps 8 through 13 of my workflow.
If you want to use my method for quickly capturing records, there are a couple of things you need to do before you start.
- Make a new folder on your hard drive just for the record images you are going to be downloading during the free access.
Because I am participating in the Genealogy Do-Over, all my files are in a HOLD folder. I created a new folder called Ancestry Free Day for this weekend’s downloads. You can see that I also have a folder for a Canada Free Day and a UK Ireland Free Day that were previously held.
- Be sure to install the Clip to OneNote app for your web browser. Here is the link for the OneNote Clipper: https://www.onenote.com/Clipper/OneNote
I use FireFox as my web browser so the OneNote Clipper app web page gives me the instructions on how to install the clipper for FireFox. The page should display whatever instructions you need to install the clipper in your web browser.
Now once the free access begins, you are going to start downloading record images to the folder you created. Some of the images you are going to know that, yes, this is my person and some you are not going to be sure. Download them anyway. Trust me. Just do it. If I find five Ray Williamsons in the the 1930 Rochester Census, I am going to download all the images. If I find three baptism records for William Williamson in Lancashire England, I am going to download all of them. You are going to download now and analyze their usefulness later. I figure if a record turns out to be useless or a duplicate, I can delete it later. It does help your focus if you have some research goals already in mind though! My focus for this free access weekend is going to be on my direct lines from England and the Isle of Man.
As you are downloading and naming the saved records, number them in chronological order. This will help you later with the Source Citations you are going to copy as well.
I number them 01, 02, 03, etc. with Surname_FirstName_Initial_b####_recordtype. The b#### is for a birth year—even if it is approximate—as it helps me distinguish between family members with the same name. Along with the record type, I may make personal observations like ‘most likely’ or a place name or something else pertinent to the record image.
I am going to digress here a bit to explain why it is helpful to download records that come up in searches or shaky leaf hints other than those that you know for certain are for your specific ancestor. My great-great grandfather, Wm Henry Williamson was born about 1825 in England. The birth year is guesstimated from a ship’s manifest, censuses and cemetery interment records. His parents are Thomas and Margaret Williamson both born about 1803 in England. There are at least three different Thomas and Margaret Williamson couples that have been linked as possible parents in baptism records to my great-great grandfather on Ancestry and FamilySearch. One Thomas is a farmer in Cheshire, another is a weaver in Lancashire and the third is a tollgate keeper also from Lancashire. So which one is the right couple? Or are any of the linked baptism records the right one for my great-great grandfather?
If I am applying the Genealogical Proof Standard to my research, I should have copies of as many baptisms of the children from these couples as I can find to prove or disprove my written conclusion on whether the farmer, the weaver or the tollgate keeper is Wm Henry Williamson’s father and that a particular baptism record is indeed the correct record for him, right? So I am going to download pretty much every baptism record I can find for any child with parents Thomas and Margaret Williamson in Cheshire and Lancashire.
There are three ways to get the source citation information from Ancestry into OneNote. I realize that the source citation information from Ancestry might not always be in the correct format as outlined by Elizabeth Shown Mills in Evidence Explained nor contain all the information you need to properly cite a source in your genealogy software. Three things I try to consistently do as I am copying citations from Ancestry is to (1)Identify the source citation in such a way that it is clear which record image the citation belongs to (the chronological numbering), (2)Provide myself with the date I accessed the record online and (3)Add the page link in case I need to go back to the record later.
The simplest way to capture the source information for a record image you have downloaded is to use the Clip to OneNote app for your web browser. Anything you clip from the web with the app goes to the Quick Notes Section of the first notebook that was created when you installed OneNote. Even if you renamed that section, your clips from the web should end up there. It takes a few seconds for the record to show up in the Quick Notes Section; but as soon as it does, I add the chronological number in front of the title so this source matches my downloaded record image.
Two things to note—At the bottom of this image is the link to the web page that the image was clipped from. It is inserted automatically on my OneNote page but I didn’t want to make the graphic even smaller to show it. You’ll also note that all my source citation pages that were created during the UK Ireland free access day have been moved from the Quick Notes Section to the Inbox of my Williamson Notebook. That is the drawback to using the Clip to OneNote app—you cannot tell it where to put the clip so you have to go back later and move them.
The second way to capture the source information is to use the Screen Clipping Tool in the Send to OneNote app.
You can clip just the portion of the web page that is relevant to the record image you downloaded. After you have clipped the source citation information, you are asked where you want to send the clip. I send it to the Inbox of the appropriate Surname Notebook.
When the clip gets to your Surname Notebook Inbox, you will have to add the title. I use the same number and file name I used when I saved the record image. The drawback to this method is that the web link is not automatically added at the bottom of the page so you have to remember to go back and add it.
The third method involves a bit more copying and pasting but in the long run it sets you up nicely for inputting information into your Research Log when the time comes to start working with the records and analyzing what you have saved. In your Quick Notes Section or the Inbox of one of your Surname Notebooks, create a new page. Because the folder I created to hold the record images is called Ancestry Free Day, I named the new page Ancestry Free Day Citations.
At the top right of OneNote, there is a little icon that looks like a split screen. When you click it, your blank page should shrink and dock itself to the right side of your computer screen. If Quick Notes doesn’t dock to the right of your screen, click on the down arrow under the linked chains and choose Linked Note Options. Under Display, be sure the box next to Dock new Quick Note windows to the side of the desktop is checked. Now you can have your web browser opened and the Quick Notes window at the same time. (You can smoosh the Quick Notes window up a bit if you want to make your browser window just a bit wider.)
The first record I saved is a marriage record for my 4th great grandmother. In Quick Notes, I have copied and pasted the name I used for the downloaded record image, the information about the record image from Ancestry and I have copied but not yet pasted the source citation information. A link back to this web page will also be inserted into Quick Notes. After I am done with that record, I will move on to the Suggested Records links that Ancestry shows me on the current record page (if there are any) and repeat the process.
To undock the Quick Notes window, click on the arrow icon. My Ancestry Free Day Citations page will look something like this after I have added all my record image citations. You can see how copying the source citation information this way will lend itself to easy copying and pasting directly into a Research Plan or Record Log at a later date.
So there you have it. Go, play and download lots of record images to save for a rainy day.
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Post edited 23 April 2020 to update links to the Genealogy Do-Over.
Cite This Page:
Erin Williamson Klein, “Downloading record images to save for a rainy day.” My Family History Files, 5 February 2015 (http://myfamilyhistoryfiles.com/organization/downloading-record-images-to-save-for-a-rainy-day : [access date]).
Please do not copy without attribution and link back to this page.
Margaret Hausauer and her first husband, Henry Buisch are my great great grandparents. They are the parents of Henry George Buisch [52 Ancestors #1] according to his death certificate. The were both complete brick walls for me back when searching was more difficult and required waiting for microfilm to be ordered, delivered and then searched at the local Family History Library. Now with online indexes and records, searching is so much easier! And it helped me finally find Margaret. [Margaret’s life with Henry is still a bit of a mystery but I’ll detail that in a later post.]
Other Hausauer researchers on Ancestry.com that connected to the line that I suspected my Margaret was part of had no additional information on her other than her place and year of birth. What little I knew about Margaret when I began searching in earnest recently was what I had been able to gather from online trees and records at Ancestry. It included when and where she was born, when she arrived in America, her parents names, two places of residence for her parents and two places of residence for Henry Buisch’s possible parents. I took that information and did some creative searching.
- Margaret Hausauer, born 1826
- Parents: Michael Hausauer and Margaret Zittel
- Immigration: 1833 from Alsace, France
- Parents’ residences: Sheldon, Wyoming, New York [1840] and Wales Center, Erie, New York [1860]
- Henry’s parents: George Buisch and Barbara LNU
- Immigration: 1834 from Alsace, France
- Henry’s parents’ residences: Sheldon, Wyoming, New York [1840] and Buffalo, Erie, New York [1850]
My preference for searching is at FamilySearch.org although I do use the search feature at Ancestry.com in tandem with what I uncover at FamilySearch.org. I just prefer the interface there over the one at Ancestry. Here is how I searched and found Margaret step-by-step.
FamilySearch.org Search Page
On the main search page at FamilySearch.org [shown above] I left the Name fields blank. [Yes, you can do that.] I restricted records to United States and New York because my direct lines never left New York. [Or if they did leave, they returned later.] Then I put Birthplace > France and Birth Year (Range) > 1825 – 1827 and clicked Search. The number of records found was 17,735. Time to drill down the results into something more manageable.
FamilySearch.org Search Results 1
As shown above, in the search parameters on the left I added Search with a life event > Residence Place > Erie County, New York. That narrowed the search down to 3,769 people. Still a little high.
Further down in the search parameters there is a filter for gender. I used the gender filter for female and narrowed down the search results to 1,678. Then I went back up to the top and added Refine your search > First Name > Margaret. [shown below]
FamilySearch.org Search Final Results
That narrowed down the results to 127. Much more to my liking. Oh, and look, there’s Margaret (Hausauer) Buisch Bamberg in the #1 search result. Voila! And genealogy happy-dancing commenced. [In my head anyway.] In a later post, I will explain how I knew this was my Margaret and what else I have been able to find out about her since then.
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The following Ancestry.com Desktop Education videos were very helpful to me in learning how to do more effective searches at both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. Maybe you will find them helpful as well.
Notes:
- This post was last updated/edited on 14 March 2014.
- If you have questions about or corrections to anything posted here, please post a comment or contact me using the form on my Contact Me page.
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Cite This Page:
Erin Williamson Klein, “52 Ancestors #4 How I Finally Found Margaret (Margaret Hausauer Buisch Bamberg).” My Family History Files, 26 February 2014 (http://myfamilyhistoryfiles.com/buisch/hausauer/52-ancestors-4-how-i-finally-found-margaret/: [access date]).
Please do not copy without attribution and link back to this page.
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Erin Williamson Klein
New York to Nevada
Started my research in 1993
November 2020 NanoWriMo
50,404 of 50,000 words written about my ancestors.
Society for One-Place Studies
