Getting Ready for Jamboree

Only a week away.... I'm getting very excited about my trip to the SCGS annual Jamboree in Burbank, CA which starts next Friday, June 11.  I will be going a day early and staying a day longer to get some research time in at their library.   

I just want to say how much I love the Internet.  I have been able to check out the online library catalog, find the books I want to search, copy and paste those titles into a document, and print the document.  Time is always of the essence when I get research opportunities and knowing what books are available before hand saves so much time. 

I am also going to try a new approach in my note taking.  After reading numerous mail lists, APG and Transitional Genealogist especially, as well as the many knowledgeable geneabloggers, I realize I don't do a very good job of documenting my sources when I research.  I do "ok" if I find something interesting, but I completely drop the ball if I find nothing.  I mean, seriously, why should I go to all that trouble if I don't even find anything?  Well, duh, so I don't keep looking in the same sources and finding nothing.  So I have taken the basic book source from the Quick Check Model from EE, modified it some to include the fields from the QCM of chapter, multi-volumned, edited, reprint, etc and created a template in Word with four cards per regular size page.  Oh, I also included a place for a source # and a place for a brief description of what is found.  If I find nothing or just one or two lines I can record it right there with all the other information about the source.  If I find a lot I will record it in my notebook and reference the source number on the "source card". 

Since I have the list of the books I want to search, I sorted my list in alpha order by book title, then copy/pasted the title and author into the individual "source cards".  I went a step further and highlighted the books that are the most interesting so I can check them first as time allows.  

Here is a sample.

Now, when I'm at the library checking book by book (I have a very specific and narrow search parameter so will be checking the indexes for a specific surname) I won't have to write each of those book titles and authors. I will only have to jot down the other information, hopefully including the page number when I find something interesting....and I won't forget any piece of information for my source citation creation once I get home because it's all right there to remind me. 

This will be the first time I use this method so I'm sure it will have some glitches but it certainly can't be any worse than what I have done in the past.  I can also note on these cards whether I get a copy of the information and then on that copy I can put the source number to keep everything cross indexed. 

I have included a couple pages of blank source cards in case I find a source not on my list.  I am pretty optimistic about this method and hope to report back with my wonderful, fabulous and amazing results. 

After its trial run and any modifications I need to make I will be making the word document available for download to be used by my readers if you would like.  Also if this works as I hope, I will be creating some additional source cards for different types of sources genealogist would find while searching in a library or archives.

I'll be talking about the breakout sessions I'm excited about at Jamboree in my next post.  If any of my readers will be attending Jamboree, let me know, maybe we can meet at Geneablogger Central.