Denise's Life in the Past Lane: 2012 Genealympics

Showing posts with label 2012 Genealympics. Show all posts

Sunday, August 12, 2012

2012 Genealympics - Events 7-10 and Final Medal Count

The 2012 Genealympics are coming to a close today. In this post, I’ll report on my final events and recap my medal count! Rather than re-post the event descriptions, I just included a link to the blog post in which it was described.

Event 7: Genealogy Book Collection

From the list of 15 books Randy posted for this challenge, I have the following:

Professional Genealogy, edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills
Evidence! Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills (print and PDF editions)
The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, any edition
Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, by Val Greenwood
BCG Genealogical Standards Manual

BRONZE MEDAL

Event 8: Go Back and Cite Your Sources!

For some time, I’ve been using different techniques to go back and find events that have no source citations. For this challenge, I ran a report in my genealogy software to show all direct-line ancestors that were missing source citations for any one of the following facts: name, birth, death, or marriage.

Using that report, I was able to write proper source citations for 134 events!

WOO HOO! PLATINUM MEDAL!

Event 9: Write, Write, Write!

I completed two parts of this challenge:

Prepare several posts in draft mode (if possible with your blog platform) and pre-publish.
Write a brief biographical sketch on one of your ancestors.

SILVER MEDAL!

Event 10: Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness!

I completed three areas of this challenge:

Comment on a new (to you) genea-blog.
Participate in an indexing project.
Join a genealogical, historical, heritage or lineage society.

GOLD MEDAL!

And my final MEDAL COUNT

for the 2012 GENEALYMPICS!

Bronze – 2

Silver – 4

Gold – 3

Platinum – 1

The Flag of Me

Saturday, August 4, 2012

2012 Genealympics - Events 5 and 6 - Genea-Blogs and Genea-Conferences!

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has posted additional events for the 2012 Genealympics here. I want to thank Randy for coming up with fun ways to look at what we are doing in genealogy. I've participated in two more events today:

The Genea-Blog Reader's Marathon: How many Genea-blogs do you read on a daily basis? Count them in your Reader or your Favorites/Bookmark list.
Medal Awards:
* Bronze: at least 50 genea-blogs
* Silver: at least 100 genea-blogs
* Gold: at least 200 genea-blogs
* Diamond: at least 400 genea-blogs
* Platinum: at least 800 genea-blogs

I currently subscribe to 148 blogs.

A SILVER MEDAL

The Genea-Conference Race: How many multi-day genealogy conferences have you attended over the past five years? These can be local, regional or national conferences, or even cruises!

Medal Awards:
* Bronze: at least 2 conferences
* Silver: at least 4 conferences
* Gold: at least 8 conferences
* Diamond: at least 16 conferences
* Platinum: at least 32 conferences

I've attended the following 7 multi-day events in the last five years:

2010 - National Genealogical Society (NGS) Conference - Salt Lake City, UT

2010 - Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Jamboree - Burbank, CA

2011 - Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy - Salt Lake City (where else would it be?)

2011 - NGS Conference - Charleston, SC

2011 - SCGS Jamboree - Burbank, CA

2012 - Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

2012 - SCGS Jamboree - Burbank, CA

ANOTHER SILVER MEDAL!

The Flag of Me

2012 Genealympics – Event 4 – Source Citation Vault

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has posted additional events for the 2012 Genealympics here. I want to thank Randy for coming up with fun ways to look at what we are doing in genealogy.

Next event for me: The Source Citation Vault: What is your ratio of source citations to persons in your genealogy software or online tree database? Tell us:

How many persons are in your database?
How many source citations are in your database?
Determine your source citation to persons ratio by dividing source citations by persons (e.g., 2,000 source citations divided by 3,000 persons gives a ratio of 0.667.)

Medal Awards:

Bronze: Ratio of 0.333 or more
Silver: Ratio of 0.667 or more
Gold: Ratio of 1.000 or more
Diamond: Ratio of 1.333 or more
Platinum: Ratio of 1.667 or more

I currently have

10,255 individuals and
10,198 source citations, resulting in a
ratio of 0.994.

SILVER MEDAL!

I was not really surprised to find that I have more individuals in my database than source citations. Like many others, I didn’t realize the importance of citations when I first started my research so I have lots of work to do before the 2016 Genealympics!

The Flag of Me

Monday, July 30, 2012

2012 Genealympics - Event 3 - Back Up Your Data!

On July 28^th, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings announced the opening of the 2012 SNGF (Saturday Night Genealogy Fun) Genealympics; see his post here for more info on this fun way to share the results of your genealogical research.

The Flag of Me

Today's event - the "Back Up Your Data!" event from the 2008 Genea-Blogger Games:

Backup data to choice of formats (flash drives, CDs, DVDs, online) or storing hard copies properly (safety deposit box, safe, etc.).

A. Prepare a comprehensive backup plan for your digital research files and a security plan for your hard copies and photos
B. Secure your hard copies and photos in waterproof containers
C. Backup all your data using a flash drive, an external drive, CDs, DVDs, or an online resource
D. Have all your hard copies and photos scanned and secure them either in a fire-proof safe or offsite in a safety-deposit box/secure environment
E. All your data is backed up digitally and secured physically and you can recover from any disaster while losing only one month or less worth of research

Qualifications for "Back Up Your Data!":

Complete Task A - Bronze Medal
Complete Task B - Silver Medal
Complete Task C - Gold Medal
Complete Task D - Diamond Medal
Complete Task E - Platinum Medal

Having suffered the consequences of not having adequate back-ups for my genealogy data in the past, I opened a Dropbox account a couple years ago. But still there were important photos and some documents and folders that were not backed up there.

Today I went through the Documents and Picturies libraries on my hard drive and moved all the remaining genealogical documents, folders and photos to My Dropbox. Now I can say with confidence that all my digital data is secure! I just have to get it all organized. And work on a plan for the hard copies….

Task C Completed – Another GOLD medal!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

2012 Genealympics - Event 2 - Ancestors' Challenge

The Flag of Me

My second event is the ancestors’ challenge that Randy described as follows:

Pick one of your ancestral surnames, or one of your spouse's ancestral surnames. How many generations back from the last person with that surname in your ancestry have you researched, identified and accept as your ancestor? [Note: if you are doing your own surname, don't count yourself).

Medal Awards:
* Bronze: at least 4 generations
* Silver: at least 6 generations
* Gold: at least 8 generations
* Diamond: at least 10 generations
* Platinum: at least 12 generations

Because I used one of my paternal lines for the descendants’ challenge, I decided to use one of my maternal ancestral surnames for this one. I chose YAWMAN, my mother’s maiden name. My mom’s ancestral line is as follows:

Beaulah Belle Yawman, daughter of

William Lea Yawman, son of

Michael Heman Yawman, son of

Andrew Yawman, son of

Philip Jamann, son of

Jacques Jamann.

That’s FIVE generations back from my mom!

A BRONZE medal!

Saturday, July 28, 2012

2012 SNGF Genealympics - Event 1 - Descendants

Earlier today, Randy Seaver announced the opening of the 2012 SNGF (Saturday Night Genealogy Fun) Genealympics; see his post here for more info on this event.

The Flag of Me

My first event is the descendants' challenge that Randy described as follows:

Pick any one of your 16 great-great-grandparents, or one of your spouse's 16 great-great-grandparents. How many descendants of that person do you have in your family tree records or database? (Hint, a Descendants Report in your genealogy software should easily provide this number).

Medal Awards:
* Bronze: over 50 descendants
* Silver: over 100 descendants
* Gold: over 150 descendants
* Diamond: over 200 descendants
* Platinum: over 250 descendants

Since I was working on my paternal 2^nd great-grandfather James Forshee earlier today, I decided to use him for this event. Of his seven known children, three sons died during the Civil War without issue, so I was surprised to find that

I have 156 descendants of James Forshee in my database!

Woo hoo! A GOLD medal!

I really enjoy doing descendancy research, but have not spent too much time on this particular family line. Need to add that to the list of things to do!

2012 SNGF Genealympics - The Flag of Me

In the spirit of the 2012 Olympics just starting in London, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has announced the 2012 SNGF (Saturday Night Genealogy Fun) Genealympics! For more on the events, click here.

For my first event, I chose flag creation. Here is the Flag of Me!

I am proud to be an American and to display my home country's flag across the top; my most recent immigrant ancestor came to the United States in 1832 so this has been our home for a long time!

The country flags across the bottom represent my heritage, discovered either through research or through analysis of my DNA:

United Kingdom - original home of James Chilton, my Mayflower ancestor (maternal)
Ireland - a DNA clue, suspected to be from my paternal Caskey ancestors (paternal)
Finland - a DNA clue, suspected to be from the unidentified wife of Thomas Gandy, Jr. (maternal)
Iceland - a DNA clue, not sure about this one
Norway - another DNA clue, not sure about this one either
France - my most recent immigrant ancestor Andrew Yawman came from Alsace-Lorraine (maternal); although the family considered themselves German, when Andrew naturalized, he denounced his allegiance to the King of France
Wales - ancestral home of my Eaton ancestors (paternal)