Saturday, May 28, 2011

Research Day Preparation

I'll be leaving shortly for a wonderful day of research at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. I can't wait! The focus for today is my Luttrell line from Knoxville, Tennessee. So last night I gathered together my essentials; notebook, research plan, my research log for this family, and family group sheets. However, there was one item I spent 20 frustrated minutes looking for and still can't find. My pencil case. That's right, my pencil case. It's a shiny blue cloth case that zippers, and apparently my 6 year old thinks it's pretty cool too. He was eyeing it fondly the other day and has since made off with it.

A couple weeks ago at the NGS conference in Charleston, I attended a lecture called Organizing Your Research: The Overlooked Step by Ann Carter Fleming. She had a lot of great ideas and suggestions to make organization more simple. I like simple, however the bottom line is, everybody has their own systems that work for them. I've heard about some fairly elaborate ones that involve numbered codes that I would never be able to figure out, let alone remember. I mostly use binders with page dividers, which so far has worked nicely for me. I am starting to branch out into file folders though, since receiving a 120 page civil war pension file that is too bulky for the binder. It is cross referenced in the binder with a page that says, "See hanging file folder for pension file." Simple. It works for me.

So how does trying to find a pencil case and attending a lecture on organization tie together? I've learned that sometimes it doesn't matter how organized you are, there can be larger forces working against you. Like a 6 year old.

Well, I'm off to the archives with my research papers in hand, and my pencils swimming around freely in my bag. Overall, a good start to the day.

9 comments:

  1. Welcome to Geneabloggers! It's nice to see another Tennesseean among the ranks!

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  2. Echoing Jenny's comments, and interested in Luttrell. Not my family, but an in-law line in Greene County that I've not tackled yet.

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  3. It's always good to welcome a new geneablogger, Cinnamon, and especially someone else who is researching her southern roots! Have you already found the Gunter family in SC, MS, and TX? There is also a small Texas town named Gunter, just north of Dallas.

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  4. Ooops...sorry, Cinamon...I just misspelled your name in the post above.

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  5. Welcome to the GeneaBlogger community. I see you live a couple of hours from Glasgow, KY, where one of my great grandmothers was born. I'm in Mass., and KY is as far south as my genealogy research gets.

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  6. Great post on organization and think you hit it right on the spot with everyone has their own system that works for them and there is always some greater force working against you. And welcome to Geneabloggers. I've been with the for a week and have already uncovered some great resources and ideas from the other bloggers.

    www.digginforfamily.blogspot.com

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  7. Welcome, your off to a great start, looking forward to reading more.

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  8. Cinamon - love the blog title and I look forward to following your posts!

    Cindy
    MySavages.blogspot.com
    GenerationsOfGermans.blogspot.com

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  9. Did you check his backpack? :-)
    From you follow up post it sounds like you had a very productive day at the library. It is such a great feeling to spend a day researching and find new clues.
    Cheers,
    Theresa (Tangled Trees)

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