My Three "P's"

People, places, and purpose are items that I call my three "P's".  When all three come together at the same point [4th P...just couldn't resist...:-)] it will often provide the means to break down some of those brick walls.  For my own JONES family tree, this was 22 May 1650.  The following figure shows an example :

The surnames Williamson, Fauntleroy, Booth, Underwood, and Mosley are not what you would expect to be related to the surname JONES.  However, on 22 May 1650 a large group of folks arrived and patented land along the same river.  They also fled England together following the death of Charles I.  Evaluating this group under the "Three P's", the above was discovered.  One large family it was.  The Underwood group seem to have a lot of daughters who married a number of other surnames.  The red color shows the Underwood family, with the other colors connecting the various other surnames.  Understanding this cluster of related families proved to be a major pathway for connecting my own JONES family tree.

My Research Notebooks

Genealogy offers many ways to climb out the old family tree branches.  Now after some 55 years of climbing around my own family's tree branches, I thought it might be helpful to list how all these years of research have been collected and stored.  Very early, I began a single notebook which became my family tree as I knew it. [Started at age 9!]  This gradually expanded as my exploration became wider and more interesting to my mind.  Year after year, the number and quality of the work increased such that a collection of these notebooks began.   By 10 to 15 years into this tree climbing, I needed a way to organize and store the research.  Color coding was the way, by placing various dots on the notebook edges that matched the same subject or historical research.

Finally, by 250 notebooks, it became evident that I needed a way to find this research as the need was presented.  So, believe it or not, a blog was started on July 6, 2012 to code and summarize each notebook by its "number" and "subject matter".  The blog is:  tjgresearchnotebooks.blogspot.com.

You may check out this blog to identify my tree climbing research.  A way is available to search the blog using the "Search This Blog" line in the upper right of the blog page. Each numbered notebook has a central theme, and the content identified.  At present there are over 260 notebooks!  Feel free to climbing around a little yourself... no telling what you might find.

A Doodle a Day Keeps the Brick Walls Away

During childhood, doodling was one of those activities that kept my mind involved.  It is defined as an aimless scribble, design, or sketch.  I prefer the design or sketch definition, but to be honest it was probably the aimless scribble most of the time.  As things would have it, the concept of a "kinesthetic" learner  gave me an understanding of this process. [ Gr. kinesis = motion ]  Genealogy has given me the chance to apply these skills to tree climbing.  The following "sketches" show how one doodle can be used again, and again. (Only three of them are shown here.)

Sketch 1:

Well, it is actually a map sketched using tracing paper.  It outline the major water routes flowing into the Ohio River.  My JONES family came to Kentucky from Virginia, and my HENDERSON family came from North Carolina.

Sketch 2:

This takes sketch 1 and adds a little color to the picture. [Always liked to color!]  Additional information was placed in order to give my mind a visual picture of the geographic orientation.  The "New River" seemed to connect those from VA and NC.

Sketch 3:

A little more color, and a few mountain ranges doodled into the picture.  Physical barriers in place not letting those get to the families' land yet to come.  How did they do it?  A wonder indeed...brick walls...well, a doodle a day will help keep those brick walls away.

A Chronology Cluster

Putting together a family tree is one goal of the genealogy endeavor.  Brick walls often get in the way, and can be frustrating to the tree climber.  When trying to get around some brick walls, a chronology cluster may be helpful.  By this I mean placing your family tree into a chronology that outlines "dates" and "clusters" (groups) the family members into a single view.  The following figures show two methods.

The figure above is taken from my own research showing how one may go about designing such a cluster.  Starting with a blank sheet of graph paper (one of my favorite tools), the dates are placed along the outside margins, top to bottom upon the page.  You can use any sequence of dates, but I usually begin with "50 year" periods. [Assumes a generations is 20 - 40 years.]  Then I place the "known" family members  along the dates that "best fit" these folks. [Using squares and circles.]  Then I connect the family members along this "time line" (Chronology).  It helps to color code distinct family groups, so that a visual picture can be seen.  This also means that if you have an individual out of line, they should become evident.

The above figure takes a more "linear" approach with wider intervals for dates, and keeping the family members in straight lines.  This allows you to add more comments, facts, and information to the family tree as you are trying to put things together.  Again, color coding each family helps keep every group separate as the tree gets bigger and longer.

A chronology cluster I call it...shake some tree branches with it.

For a discussion of "squares" and "circles" see my blog -
              http://ge-ne-al-o-gy101.blogspot.com .