Hi Missy!
The other tabs include things like this: Draft Records: which includes the name, address, age (then I calculate birth date in the next column), occupation, and life events. Last Names: So each surname I'm researching has their own tab (which is pictured above for White) with similar data. Transactions: This tab is dedicated to physical research in archives, land transfers, dates, who is buying, who is selling, or other deeds or wills. Census: I've actually digitized censuses of entire counties. I then use the names to cross reference birth dates, relatives living in the house, jobs, etc. Translations: I have an entire tab dedicated to document translations. Dates, names, and full document translation input as text. Over the years, I've found this to be incredibly useful. If someone is going to take the time to translate a document, might as well save it in a database instead of just an image...which can't be parsed for info. Who People Are: This is my most used tab. Everyone relative to my research is included on this page. Names, birth/death/marriage dates, occupations, spouse, children, age, military status, relatives, siblings, and notes on everything from who they purchased land from, and who they willed it to. Land Ownership: Another tab with names, dates, amounts of acreage, location, who deeded the land to them, notes, etc. Very helpful if you're researching counties with loss due to fire or some other destructive element. Biographies: short bios on people I'm focused on. Includes all other data on pages except it's able to be cross referenced on one sheet. As the data changes, I update their bio with the latest data. This keeps focus people in one location with verified data. Keeps me from searching around and saying, "where'd I see that before?" or "where did I get that info?" I use notes to help remember where the original data is located.
I also make sure to label all images or documents precisely in my folders. All images have year, names, locations, and perhaps an event. Same with censuses, gravestones, directory pages, newspaper clippings, deeds, certificates, draft cards, military docs, etc. All images can then be downloaded and turned into a text file. That file then becomes another tab, Images, to be referenced.
I run these side by side with other platforms while researching. If I see a relative in another person's tree, I double check with my sheet to see if their data fits what I have, then I check all their resources to validate if they know what their doing...or just guessing. It's pretty easy to spot the ones who know what they're doing versus the ones who don't.
I never rely on online databases. I download everything to my computer. Things disappear and change over years. Sometimes docs are available, and then, years later, they're gone, or the site goes down. When the internet is down, or I'm traveling, I take my data with me and I can do research, document translations, etc, while on a plane, in a car, or if I'm just plain bored.
