GENEALOGY CONTINUES TO BE AN INTEREST

After the amazing conference in June in Toronto with the OGS and over 800 participants, I have had some time to ground myself. So many ideas and links to explore, it was time to choose a family line to review, revise and rewrite. Too often information is obtained and after a time what is the source for that piece of information. So the Parkin-Keeler line- a paternal one- will be one family group to concentrate on getting all my information with cited sources. What happens is information hard to obtain 10 years ago can become more available as more family historians are putting their charts on the Internet or search sites like Find My Past keep adding more resources to their sites. I bought a membership to it rather than Ancestry.ca. More English and Irish resources that needed for not just this line but several maternal ones. For this family line the sources are Canadian and English so not too difficult to try to clean up some of the gaps. Of course in England, the Parkin family was from Derbyshire so there is a historical society and other sites to explore. Acquiring local information on the region's history and historical sites can be found by many different links.The Keeler family was from Norfolk County so again some sites to explore along with the regular Family Search.org. When I am ready to explore more of my husband's history there is an European one to search. Stopping and picking one line is difficult. It is easy to flit from line to line obtaining tidbits- the piles grow. So cleaning up my table beside the computer with just the binders and information for this line is done. Besides reviewing it, there is quite a lot accomplished. Writing a small family history story on the property on Ball Point. Mariposa Township on Lake Scugog has been an ongoing project. So this line is important to finishing that story. The Parkin-Keeler family lived there. Robert Parkin and his wife Hannah Keeler raised their children there. The Keeler family lived nearby in Manilla so there are lots of family lines and cousins to include. I want to finish this project so getting more of my information digital, scanned-bought a wonderful scanner for the job- and out there on the Internet as well as a format to share with other family members that takes less of my time. Photocopying and mailing was okay at one time but with the tremendous amount of information- easier to scan and make files that can be sent as information is needed. No one ever pays for the photocopying or the time spent! But a click and send so the recipient can do what he or she wants with the information is good enough. So with this Parkin-Keeler line there will be separate folders for each child of Robert and Hannah so if there is an interest just need to send one individually. One of the goals is to reduce the paper and the clutter of duplication. Photocopies of information can be scanned. Just keeping any pertinent originals is important but can be reduced as well. The problem is the emotional attachment to all the notes, letters and other correspondence with other genealogists. Time to purge too. One emphasis from the conference was to write up the family history- charts, stories and to share with others. Many presenters said their children were not interested in all their stuff and might just burn it. I have a similar fear so am busy making the information user friendly and interesting to them as well as other family members. So August will be Parkin-Keeler line- it is a big one with lots of cousin lines in there but a good focus! If you are not in this line, don't fear- two of my maternal lines have already been done by other family historians. Just need to scan and file those lines! Good to send as a completed document already!
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