52 Weeks - Challenge 3 - Assess Yourself!

I'm participating in Amy Coffin's "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy" challenge. Having missed week 2 entirely, I'm now submitting the Week 3 challenge late.

Week 3: Assess yourself! You’re great at researching everyone else’s history, but how much of your own have you recorded? Do an assessment of your personal records and timeline events to ensure your own life is as well-documented as that of your ancestors. If you have a genealogy blog, write about the status of your own research and steps you may take to fill gaps and document your own life.

My first reaction to this challenge was to think that I haven't done too badly.

• My birth and marriage are listed in my database, with appropriate source citations. Hard copies of my birth and marriage certificates are in my genealogy file. 
• My education and employment history is listed in full, although not with source citations. I will have to at least write a note to put on file as a source. 
• The residence information in there is accurate, but again not sourced. I'll use the same solution for that - write a note for my file and use that as a source. It's really just a formalised way of saying the source is me, but at least there will be a piece of paper for someone someday, perhaps, to find even if they regard it as only a clue.
• I've not done quite so well on recording home ownership. I've recorded the purchase of my first house but not it's sale or the purchase of my current home.

A notable absence from the list is census returns. We have 5-yearly censuses here, the next one should be in 2011. I had good intentions to take copies of the census forms I filled out for the last few censuses, but never actually did it. That is definately something I will have to improve on in future.
 

Overall I think the basic information is mostly there, but it's a bit dull. If we were talking about one of my ancestors I would love to find photos, newpaper clippings, letters... anything that gives a glimpse of them as something more than an entry in a database. This I think should be my highest priority where my own life is concerned. It's the kind of information that you can't get (eventually) from public sources. The challenge, and I think it's a tough one, is deciding what is likely to be of any interest to anyone!!

52 Weeks - Challenge 1 - Local library

I'm not sure how many weeks I will manage, but I will at least make a start on Amy Coffin's '52 Weeks to Better Genealogy'. The first challenge was posted on facebook here. It is:

Week 1: Go to your local public library branch. Make a note of the genealogy books in the collection that may help you gain research knowledge. Don’t forget to check the shelves in both the non-fiction section and the reference section. If you do not already have a library card, take the time to get one. If you have a genealogy blog, write about what you find in your library’s genealogy collection.

Unfortunately this week I'm finding it hard to get to the library. I will do the challenge in a virtual sense using the library catalog, which is online. I often use the local library service that way, as I am able to request items from any branch and collect them from my local library. It's very convenient.

I started with a broad search of the catalog, entering the general keyword "genealogy". 512 titles were returned. Among the results were:

• general guidebooks - with "for dummies" and "on the internet" titles featuring prominently;
• more guidebooks - particularly those published by the local family history society;
  
• a few country guides, eg Scotland and Ireland. I will have to keep these in mind when my research next leads me there;
• "how to write" type guides;
• even more guidebooks again, focusing on specific subjects such as female ancestors, soldiers;
• some local family histories;
• newsletters and magazines from the local and some other Australian family history societies;
• local transcriptions and indexes;
• old copies of the Genealogy Research Directory;
• DVDs - "Who do you think you are?";
• DVD - "A video guide to handling and preserving records";
• Some of the "digger" CDs (early Victoria, Australia, BMD indexes). They appeared to be available to borrow, which was surprising;
• fiction titles.

There were a few books that I would like to borrow sometime. I must remember to take a closer look at some of the more specialised guides, in particular. The library provides Ancestry Library Edition onsite, but they have such a painfully slow internet connection that I would rather pay for a month subscription at home every so often as the need arises.

I also tried searching on some of the place names where my family lived hoping for some histories, with no luck. I didn't really expect to find anything as my family don't come from this area. For that sort of search I would normally go to the National Library of Australia (NLA). Publishers in Australia are legally obliged to provide both the NLA and the relevant State library with a copy of each book they publish. 

This challenge was a little nostalgic for me... when I first became interested in family history more than 20(!) years ago the first place I went was the local library, where I found a basic how-to book for Australia.