Get Your Research in Order! Stop struggling to manage all your genealogy facts, files, and data--make a plan of attack to maximize your progress. Organize Your Genealogy will show you how to use tried-and-true methods and the latest tech tools and genealogy software to organize your research plan, workspace, and family-history finds. In this book, you'll learn how to organize your time and resources, including how to set goals and objectives, determine workable research questions, sort paper and digital documents, keep track of physical and online correspondence, prepare for a research trip, and follow a skill-building plan. With this comprehensive guide, you'll make the most of your research time and energy and put yourself on a road to genealogy success. Organize Your Genealogy features: • Secrets to developing organized habits that will maximize your research time and progress • Hints for setting up the right physical and online workspaces • Proven, useful systems for organizing paper and electronic documents • Tips for managing genealogy projects and goals • The best tools for organizing every aspect of your ancestry research • Easy-to-use checklists and worksheets to apply the book's strategies Whether you're a newbie seeking best practices to get started or a seasoned researcher looking for new and better ways of getting organized, this guide will help you manage every facet of your ancestry research.

Whether your family tree is partially filled out, mostly complete, or full with many LDS relatives, this step-by-step method will help you discover new relatives and reserve their temple ordinances. You will review the accuracy of your tree, analyze your pedigree, and make a list of ancestors to research. Those with many LDS relatives will locate research opportunities by diving deeper into tree analysis and listing ancestors who were not members of the LDS Church. Using descendancy research to find cousins will open doors for those will full family trees. Instead of selecting random ancestors, you will systematically view descendancy trees for each of the ancestors in your list. By evaluating each descendancy tree, you can determine which branches are most likely to contain candidates for further research likely to be found in available records. Once you have chosen a relative to focus on, you'll begin a research project. Research begins by choosing a research question. Next you will create a simple research plan and research log. When you have completed your searches, you will then record what you found in FamilySearch, including adding sources and new relatives to the tree, and then write a summary of your research. After merging duplicates you will be ready to reserve temple ordinances. After you've successfully found names for the temple, you can repeat the process by going back to your list of candidates for further research and begin again with a new research question. Now you won't run out of research opportunities! As you research each relative one by one, you will grow to love them and think of them as friends. As President Eyring said, "your heart will be bound to theirs forever."

Zotero offers genealogists a powerful and versatile citation manager, an endless file cabinet, go-anywhere access to research, a flexible organizational structure, and the ability to file one thing in many places. Developed by George Mason University and used by scholars worldwide, this robust product serves research in phenomenal ways. Best of all, for all its value, Zotero is free to download. An avid Zotero user since graduate school, author Donna Cox Baker proves it to be the perfect complement to genealogical research. Not only does it eliminate file cabinets, binders, and stacks of unfiled papers, it brings your voluminous research anywhere you have Internet access. Zotero for Genealogy teaches Zotero from installation to advance add-ons, using exercises and illustrations to enhance the learning experience. Baker teaches readers how to get the most out of Zotero and shares the various methods she has developed to maximize its value to genealogy. What Zotero can do for a genealogist ◆ Eliminate paper and physical filing, replacing every file cabinet, box, and paper stack you used to think you had to have. ◆ Eliminate thousands of keystrokes as Zotero creates citations for you with the click of a button. ◆ Access your citations and notes virtually anywhere you have Wi-Fi and a computing device. ◆ Extract the comments you have made and the passages you have highlighted in a PDF, drawing them into Zotero without retyping. ◆ Find anything you have stored, with lightning-fast smart searching-even things you stored away years ago and remember only vaguely if at all. ◆ Replace the standard genealogy research log with something much better and more powerful. ◆ Build a smart to-do list that eliminates repetitive data entry and is there whenever you need it. Table of Contents PART I: ZOTERO GENERAL OVERVIEW Getting started with Zotero Documenting your research Organizing research collections Managing your attachments Searching, sorting and finding your research PART II: ZOTERO ADD-ONS Zotero Connectors & instant data entry ZotFile & advanced PDF management Word processing & painless citation PART III: APPLYING ZOTERO TO GENEALOGY Organizing your filing system One source or many: a choice Working with Evidence Explained Creating your research to-do-list Efficient note-taking Zotero on research trips Collaborating with others

Your Guide to Online Genealogy The internet has made millions of records available to search any time, anywhere. Start finding your ancestors with just a few strokes of a keyboard using the detailed instruction in this book. Inside you'll find: • An overview of where and how to start your family history research • Detailed descriptions of the best online databases for family historians • Hundreds of helpful websites to further your research • Step-by-step search instructions to help you find exactly what you're looking for • Chapters dedicated to finding specific records, including birth, marriage and death; census; military; land; and immigration • Case studies that apply key concepts to real-life searches • Ideas for connecting with fellow researchers and distant relatives through social media, blogging and newsletters • Special resources for researching American Indian, African-American and Jewish ancestors • Plus access to bonus online video demonstrations If you're curious about who's hanging out in your family tree, there's never been a better time to find out. Get this book, get online and get started today!

Effective family history researchers know that organization is the key to productivity. Organize the Three Rs - Research, Results and Records - to work smarter, not longer, so you can check off more items on your genealogy to-do list.This book offers step-by-step instruction to help you: • Organize your genealogy research methods • Organize your family history source citations • Select the best software to make your genealogy research more effecient and effective • Connect with fellow researches online to help find answers to your genealogy brickwalls

Noted social scientist Eviatar Zerubavel casts a critical eye on how we trace our past-individually and collectively arguing that rather than simply find out who our ancestors are from genetics or history, we actually create the stories that make them our ancestors.