How do you path your way through this jungle of sources?

Question

I haven't spent much effort on my genealogy yet, but I'm already drowning in information. To save myself I started organising it in a small wiki (TiddlyWiki).

I wonder how you co-genealogists handle that challenge. What is your strategie?

Answer 1

I have two space pages here on Wikitree that I keep information on

One page is for sources that I use with a lot of frequency.

The other is a list of miscellaneous formatting information, graphics, helpful hints, etc.

I have another space for long term research, that I can't do from my office chair, things like cemeteries I want to visit, or things that I want to research at the Connecticut Library.

You can also use your scratch pad to make notes and I pretty generally have a document open on my desktop, to put notes and reminders on

Comments

Genius!

Answer 2

The way that works best for me is when I am confident of at least the name and one of the required dates I go ahead and create a profile. After that when I find a source that applies to that profile I add it and it now has a place on here for me to work with. Eventually I have enough information on the profile to write a short biography and with the sources already on the profile I can just copy and paste them into inline sources (footnotes). That just seems easier than trying to put the information on another web site and move it here later, I try and work smarter, not harder. Nobody will complain if your work is not perfect right out of the gate, in fact after being on WikiTree for almost 3 years I will say I am still learning how to do things here.

Comments

Hello Dale,

what I meant was the information that goes along with working on profiles: source links, templates, guidelines etc. that I reuse from profile to profile.

Also, while working on a profile I bump into information that is not in line of the profile I'm working on, but may be valueable for another path in the tree. Within a few weeks I've already created a universe of links, sources and cross references that is hard to handle.

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Ronnie, If you click on your "Navigation Page", in the drop down menu for My WikiTree, and scroll down the page you will see a scratch pad area where you can save all sorts of information. Another option is to create a free space profile to hold your stuff.

Answer 3

Well, I keep copies of all my information in Family TreeMaker trees.  They link directly to Ancestry.com which I subscribe to so I can get a lot of material directly.  I just cut an paste most of the actual material.  Eventually I may transition to not saving copies of sources on familyTreeMaker but for now I'm still doing it that way.  That way I always have a backup and I can compare my WikiTree priofiles with my private trees to see what's new and what needs looking into further.