Got Records and Good Notes? Try these ideas to help.

A mark of a good genealogist is their attention to detail while researching records of the past. This means keeping good notes and being organized with your information.  Some techniques I have honed over the last 30+ years is to adapt different technologies to genealogy.

For example, if you are on a research trip, it helps to have several good maps, such as a: USGS topo map or BLM map, contemporary map from last 10 years and a period map for the era you are researching.    You can get most of these online or at the library for free. 

Lost Your Ancestors? Get an Old Map!

1872 - Illinois, Prophetstown Township

Maps are wonderful works of art and technology.  Imagine not having a map or GPS navigation system today. We would still be able to get around, but when we had to travel "long" distances, this would prove to be a challenge, if we had not been there before  (or were unable to stop and ask for directions, like most men have been stereotyped).

Having a map helped our ancestors get from the east coast to the west coast, but early on, before maps existed, people hired a guide".   These intrepid early explorers actually followed paths they had taken, but also along the footsteps of the native Americans, over terrain that had been used for hundreds of generations.