Look back at those folders for of records you sorted and scanned back in Step 2. Those need to be "attached" to the right people on your tree, as 'evidence' of their vital facts.
- Watch a few videos about sources and citations. It’s a big deal in the genealogical world and nobody wants to inherit your sloppy work. It’s somewhat time-consuming to cite, but it will keep you organised. Without organisation, the entire project gets messy very fast.
- Learn how to attach your media and files to your tree
- When your evidence is attached to all the people it should be, and information about the source/record has been saved in your app, print a family group chart and note what you have for everyone. This will highlight the gaps.
- Roots Magic can print Source Reports; a citation clipper like Zotero can clip webpages and catalogue entries of records which may have collected along the way, and Zotero Saved Searches can be turned into reports so that you get a list of all your records for a particular family (tip: use the “Extra” field in Zotero to tag a source as a family, eg. Comeau-Landon. Search for that value in that field and “Save” the search)
- Step back: what is missing? What events are not documented or proven. Create “Tasks” on your genealogical app or whatever To do system you are using. Ask a specific question that needs answering, and tackle these one at a time. Some people like to group tasks by location (e.g. public library tasks; city of burial tasks, etc.)
- Keep track of what you’ve used, what you found, what you didn’t. In RootsMagic, each source can have notes. So can Zotero. You should add Sources to your app even if they yielded no results, and make a note of that. Keep a running log for each "family" so you know what roads you've already gone down, and what came of it.
This is as far as I'm at on my journey. Looking forward to exploring more!
