Webbing

I was able to locate most of my information from family members. When I was in high school, I had to put together a family tree. I still have that family tree that I drew (by hand), so I used it to gather the information for my family. My husband has also done a lot of research on his side of the family. Since I began this project, we have had ongoing conversations about his side of the family. Slowly, I am beginning to connect the pieces for his side.

I have used a variety of search tools to gather information. The main source of my investigation is coming from the interviews I am conducting with family members. I also conducted a basic Google search to find some reliable sites on creating genealogy or researching your genealogy. Our library also offers access to a couple of databases free of charge with our library card. Another awesome source that our library offers is an online index to the location of records at our county courthouse. You can see all of my sites I have visited so far by following this link to my Delicious social bookmarking site: http://www.delicious.com/krporter2005. (The sites I used for this project are tagged "Inquiry".

A family tree or genealogical research on a particular family can be as simple or as extensive as a person wants it to be. When I first began my research, I wasn't sure how in depth I wanted to go into my family's history. Since I am creating this for my two boys, I decided to narrow the research and keep it somewhat simple for now. I'm going to include our immediate family (moms/dads, brothers/sisters, grandparents, and parents of grandparents). When I create the e-scrapbook, I plan on creating it with the idea that it can be expanded in the future once further research is conducted into our ancestry.

With the research I have conducted thus far, I have used websites, some visuals, real people, interviews, and email conversations. I have sent a questionnaire out to family members asking for information about themselves. Once I receive their responses, I plan to analyze that information to see if any further interviews need to be conducted. I know I also want to try out the message board at www.genealogy.com to see what type of responses I get from it. However, I haven't decided exactly what I want to post on there. (I will make note of what I post on the message board later.)

This week while also working on the reading assignments, I have found a new meaning for what it means to be "literate." All the readings discuss how being literate no longer means just having the ability to read and write. In the "big blue book" we're reading, Callison writes: "...the term implies an interaction between social demands and individual competence." (p. 422) I have a greater understanding for this definition based upon the research I have conducted thus far. I understand that just gathering the information and reading it is not enough. After reading it, I need to interpret a rather large amount of data, such as the birth/death dates of family members and such. It is rather an interesting process to read and sort through data!

My project relies heavily on obtaining primary sources. It is important for me to verify information (such as birth/death dates, children, etc.) through historical documents, such as birth/death certificates, military records, etc. I can also obtain information from the census records by accessing the Heritage Quest database through my local library.

My thoughts on the process so far: I'm not really frustrated, and I don't anticipate being frustrated. I would say I'm more concerned about putting together the final product once my investigation is complete. I have an idea in my mind what I want it to look like, and I'm afraid it won't be as perfect as I plan on it being.