I need your help

For those of you who do not know I am one year into a six-year doctoral degree in History and Genealogical Studies. My research involves multiple aspects of lineage organizations.

Examples of lineage/heritage organizations are:

• Sons / Daughters of the American Revolution
• Colonial Dames of America
• General Society of Mayflower Descendents
• and etc (there are nearly 500 organizations in the US!)

If you navigate to my page titled Ph.D. Research Questionaire you can read more about the project and find the link to the online survey.

I believe that perspectives from a wide audience would add important context and information to our study and would be a valuable resource for the present research and for any future researchers seeking to study the influence and historical significance of heritage organizations and lineage societies within the United States.

Participants must be over the age of 18 and are assigned a number by the survey program. They will be referred to by that number in the research. At the end of the survey participants will have the opportunity to give contact information if they would like to participate in the interview section of the study. This is optional, and not required to complete the survey.

For analysis purposes, the survey is broken into several sections. Everyone will take the sections covering general demographics, education, involvement in genealogy, impressions of applications for these organizations, uses of DNA with genealogy, and discrimination. After these sections, the participant will select from a group of descriptions that they feel best describes them.

These groups are:

• Historian, archivist, librarian, professional genealogist, or employed with a company that does genealogical work and interacts frequently with persons who perform genealogical research
• Member of a lineage or heritage organization
• Not a member of a lineage or heritage organization
• A paid staff member or volunteer for a heritage organization or lineage society who approves applications for membership or assists prospective members with their applications
• A genealogist/family history researcher (but not a professional) who researches for themselves, family, friends, or others for free

Each of the groups will have a set of questions pertaining to them to gather information on their impressions of heritage organizations and lineage societies. Participants can choose as many groups as possible that describe them.

Thank you for reading this far! I hope you will consider taking part and letting me know your thoughts on this type of research and these organizations.

Yes, I am still alive and here are the updates

 You know, I should stop making promises that I cannot keep. I have been writing, but it is for school and not here. Sigh, I really do miss you all and I have so many ideas that I would love to blog more about. Finding the time seems to be the real problem. Especially when I do have any downtime (per se) I want to relax like the snowman in this picture. Hot chocolate (with a kick), take me away!

So let me do a few updates.

Many of you know that my father lives with me. Officially, I am his primary care-giver. Family always comes first in my life, and he has had some health struggles over the past year. This cuts into a lot of my free time (I have kids at home too) for fun things like blogging. If you have ever been in this situation you know what I mean. But, we take it one day at a time and I do the best I can.

I am back in school. Working on my Ph.D. while in a pandemic has a few interesting problems. First, everything must be researched online. Thankfully archives and libraries are very understanding. More than one has sent me the material digitally I needed seeing I cannot get into repositories right now. I am also supposed to travel to Strathclyde every so often, but when the country will not let anyone fly in that is not going to happen. 

The worst part of 2020 was so many of my in-person lectures canceling. Understandable, but I wished many of them would have moved to virtual learning quicker. However, once again the pandemic has forced groups and people into technology that they were dragging their heels on. Nothing like money to make you move faster! Thankfully 2021 is picking up so I will "see" you all online more.

In case you did not know, this week is RootsTech Connect virtual conference. I am presenting five lectures, and there are hundreds of videos to choose from. Registration for the event gives you access to all of the videos for one year!! 

Oh, and an apology. It seems I am a dunce and had over 500 comments that were un-checked in my blogger account. While 80% were spam, there were some comments in there dating back 3 years! I have started to reply to them. However, if you all need me in a timely manner please feel free to email me through the website. 

Alright, updates are done. Off to get some work done!

Year 2, PGDip here I come

On Friday I start back to school for my 2nd year in the Strathclyde 3 year MSc program.  I have been on pins and needles waiting impatiently for it to start back up again.  So, yes this your warning...I am going to go dark for months on end as I tackle another year of graduate school.

That being said I still think that this was one of the better things I decided to do.  Yes, the first year was very hard for me.  Simply because I had to educate myself more on record sets that I did not grow up with.  Literally and in the genealogical world.  I studied hard, I read a lot, and I passed.

Over the last year people have asked me my thoughts on the whole program and I am always honest with them.  It is also not like any other genealogy course I have taken from anywhere on line.  I think those who struggle are not truly expecting a rigorous graduate level course.

As an online class I was very nervous about keeping up and really learning about the subjects I needed to learn.  If you don't know I am a bit of a distracted person.  It happens easily and for no reason.  Constant mind wandering to say the least.  If you are like this a strict schedule and routine for an online course is key.  Or at least it was for me.  I had weekly dates with the local library and my neighborhood coffee shop as my "class" time.  Just like I was attending classes in person.

I have heard that this 2nd year will try my patience and organization skills.  Guess I will find out on Friday!

Family Tree Firsts Post is up!

The next post at Family Tree is up. Hope you enjoy!

My time at Indiana University was wonderful, but don't get the wrong impression. I was not a brilliant A student. To say that I was an average student would be fair; I got my degree which means I was able to pass my courses for the most part. However, I am very stubborn and the worst thing you can tell me is that I am not able to do something (I can tell myself that all I want, but you can't). It was made clear to me by a professor the end of my freshman year that I wouldn’t last as a Biology major... I now had a clear goal in mind. There is a diploma on my wall stating that I have a Bachelor's of Science in Biology… that means I won.

There was not a separate degree for genetics; but there were a ton of classes in the field.  My advisor said I could concentrate in that by taking those classes to fulfill my requirements, and then when I went to graduate school I could put this as my “emphasis” on applications.    I took every last one of them too: General Genetics, Human Genetics, Microbial Genetics, and all the labs too.  It was not easy, in fact I thought at one point I was never going to make it out of college.  More than once people suggested I should take an easier major, or switch to a BA, but stubbornly I pressed on.  Gee, I wonder where my kids get it. 

Genealogy just flowed naturally right into all that; I have been doing pedigree charts for years!   I have a knack for retaining unusual and seemingly random bits of information.  This comes in handy for the research that I have been doing on my family; it wasn’t so handy in school.  Flow charts and doodles dot my notebooks as I trace lines and make marginalia commentary.  That would be the artistic genes of my parents showing through.  Side note: my mom has been known to draw the anatomical images for the medical papers she has written, as well as birds and still life.

I was more than a little disappointed, as I stated in the FTF posts, about having a completed sample for my dad.  He has had some health issues lately, and once we get all those sorted mom has said he wants to get this done.  Dad is just as curious about his family as I am, thank goodness.   So fingers crossed and all that!

*Image: some of my books and articles on genetics