What's Your Weakest Skill Set in Genealogy?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Melissa Barker on July 27, 2009 at 2:36pm

Lisa,

My weekest link is military research, especially Civil War research. I know how to obtain Service Records and Pension recodrs but beyond that I get lost. Right now I am dealing with my husband's 3rd great grandfather who was in the Civil War and I am trying to find out what other records are available other than his Service Records that I have. He was a prisoner of war and lived to at least 1900.

So, yes if I could get step by step advice on this subject I would do that.

Melissa Barker

Permalink Reply by Anna-Karin Schander on July 27, 2009 at 3:06pm

My weekest link is to research systematically and know were I have researcht before. I suppose in some cases I have researched the same several times.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Palermo on July 29, 2009 at 10:35pm

Wow, do I have to pick just one! LOL. I would love to be more confident about searching in archives, the stuff that's not available online. It's a little intimidating.

Permalink Reply by Mary J. Lohr on July 31, 2009 at 2:00pm

My weakest link is working with wills and probate records.

Permalink Reply by Jenna on August 4, 2009 at 8:28pm

Extracting information from a document! I've had my father's discharge papers from the Army for 8 years now and I just noticed he put Amherst Nebraska as his permanent address. Why in the world did he do that?? I tend to pick out the information that jumps out at me rather than making a detailed review of the entire document. Time to slow down and read!

Permalink Reply by Victor G Carre on August 27, 2009 at 11:06am

I tend to jump around from ancestor to ancestor. With so much stuff available on-line, it is too easy to just type in name after name. I guess if I was more diligent keeping up my research log this would be OK but I don't always write every search down. This leads me to re-doing the search or forgeting what I was working on. Do others keep a research log?

As Melissa mentioned in a previous post, I too am pretty weak on Civil War research. I do not have any ancestors that fought in the Civil War (all arrived later) so I have not had the opportunity to dig in to the available information. However, I just came across my first Civil War veteran on my wife's side of the family. Now I wish I had paid more attention to all the Civil War talk on the various podcasts!

Permalink Reply by Heather Isbell Kramer on February 10, 2010 at 1:10pm

Mine would be ethnic research. Since my ancestry is anglo Western European, I have only dabbled in ethnic research when helping friends.

Permalink Reply by Susan Davis on June 12, 2011 at 8:37pm

While there is still lots for me to learn about records of all types, I would have to say most immediately being systematic about how I conduct my research would be my weakest link. A research log would be a good thing and staying focus on one task at a time couldn't hurt. I recently heard Louise St. Denis speaking at a conference in Montreal and she said to write down the task you want to focus on and stick to it. Keep a blank page open on the computer or in your notebook to park interesting but distracting sites or facts you come across as you research but to remain focused on the task at hand. Focus, systematic, research log... I've signed up for the first two methodology courses offered by the National Institute for Genealogy Studies hoping to become more disciplined about how I conduct research.