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2/17/2000
Get
It Together
-
by Liz Kelley Kerstens, CGRS
This
columns is posted on the Clooz.com Web site with
permission of
MyFamily.com. The
column was originally posted on the Ancestry.com
Web site.
Review of Managing a
Genealogical Project (Updated Edition)
William Dollarhide first
published his book Managing a Genealogical Project
in 1988, put out a revised and updated edition in 1991,
and in 1999 he put out another updated edition. The 1991
edition met the mission described in the subtitle "A
Complete Manual for the Management and Organization of
Genealogical Materials." The 1999 update, however,
does not go far enough to keep up with technology. The
book contains seven sections: Types of Genealogical
Projects; Collecting References; Retrieving Notes and
Compiling Family Sheets; Ahnentafel Numbering; Descendancy
Numbering; Using a Computer; and Presentation Techniques.
It also contains an appendix about Research Journals and
Logs, and some forms that readers can copy.
The chapters on Collecting
References and Retrieving Notes and Compiling Family
Sheets are the most useful chapters in the book.
Dollarhide does a good job of teaching readers how to
organize their notes and documents. His suggestions for
numbering are somewhat different than the methods that I
suggest, but the goal is the same: get your ancestral data
organized so the information can be retrieved again.
Since the book is aimed at
beginners, however, there appears to be an overemphasis on
paper forms and manual numbering systems, especially since
a majority of today’s beginners start using computer
genealogy programs early in their research. It is
important for all family historians to know the difference
between the Register, the Modified Register, and the Henry
numbering systems, but with the proliferation of genealogy
programs family historians don’t need to be preoccupied
with the numbering of people until they are ready to
produce a family history.
The chapter on Using a Computer
appears to be the only chapter that was updated
significantly in this edition. Dollarhide reviews four
popular genealogy programs on the market today, as well as
my software program,
Clooz,
which was a pleasant surprise. In the same chapter, he
discusses creating databases and word processing templates
for those who want to use the software they already have.
I found some of the instruction in this section rather
difficult to follow, even with my background in computers.
And again, there was a preoccupation with numbering
systems, such as Ahnentafels, that seems rather
unnecessary.
Considering that this book is
billed as an "Updated Edition," I was
disappointed that a few items were overlooked for
updating. One item was the discussion of the Preponderance
of the Evidence (POE) principal in Section 3, Retrieving
Notes and Compiling Family Sheets. This principal was
abandoned by the Board for Certification of Genealogists
several years ago because a POE argument does not require
the level of proof that sound genealogical research
methods require. This is discussed on BCG’s
Web site.
Additionally, in Section 6, Using
a Computer, Dollarhide states that the National
Genealogical Society/Computer Interest Group publishes a
quarterly newsletter that NGS members can receive by
indicating an interest in computers. The newsletter is
actually printed six times a year and is included within
each issue of the NGS Newsletter, whether the
member has an interest in computers and genealogy or not.
See NGS’ Web site.
Managing a Genealogical Project,
by William Dollarhide, is published by Genealogical
Publishing Company, Inc., 1001 N. Calvert Street,
Baltimore, MD 21202. The book sells for $14.95 and is
available from GPC’s
Web site.
Elizabeth Kelley
Kerstens, CGRS,
is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing,
editor of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’
newsletter OnBoard, the creator of Clooz—the
electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, and a
frequent contributor to Ancestry. She can be
reached via e-mail at liz@ancestordetective.com.
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