When they say that genealogy requires organizational skills, they aren’t kidding!

I am always casually searching family records, saving anything and everything that interests me to my desktop…that I often later forget about! Seriously!

How I manage to do genealogy at all surprises me, because I seriously lack an organizational system. My version of organized, is a bunch of genealogy “SORT” folders on my desktop, that in total, contain 1,532 files of genealogy records, website links, screenshots, and maps. Half of them aren’t even labeled!

My workspace kind of has that 1950’s detective vibe, a dim lamp that flickers, papers scattered across the desk, scribbled notepads, fifty pens, a stack of resource books, numerous mugs of half-drunken stale cold coffee, chocolate wrappers, and instead of a bulky type-writer, an old hand-me-down laptop with low memory.

I think I can even relate to those moody detectives on tv…we’re cranky, because we store everything in our heads and there’s never enough coffee!

This week, I am organizing my genealogy folder of 1,532 files! It’s a treasure trove of information!

▪︎ Duplicates: I have an enormous amount of duplicate records and screenshots, which probably means they have some kind of important significance – I just can’t quite put my finger on it yet.

▪︎ Maps: I got maps for everything!
Because counties often changed, I have all kinds of state and county maps, which helps determine where records could potentially be stored (sometimes more than one county).

My favorite maps are the modern day streams and rivers topography maps, that I use with county maps. Early ancestors often lived near rivers and streams. If an early ancestor lived on a stream/river near the county border, there is a good chance, they’d have records in the neighboring county. While they may be a resident of one county, they might have done business or attended a church, in another, whatever was closest at the time.

Modern topography maps also reveal areas named after early families, that don’t appear on other maps.

However, the best maps, are the old community maps with the names of families listed along waterways, but those are so hard to find!

▪︎ Family Trees: Although I know not all family trees are accurate, they are useful for genetic genealogy. I also use them to look at neighbors of Vess families, to see if any neighboring families have a “Vess” on their family tree.

▪︎ Family Stories: I love family stories! I am a firm believer that every family story has some ounce of truth in it. Extracting the truth is the difficult part!

▪︎ Website Links: At some point, I started saving website links to odd-ball sources (archives, library, online books, family history sites, etc.). These websites are hidden deep in the Internet.

Some are professional websites that you’d never think for a million years would contain family records, others are poorly hosted family websites with fantastic information (even if a little glitchy and probably virus infested).

I discovered a really quirky website once, that locks out visitors who stayed too long, with a pop up accusing them of stealing their family research. It was a good website too, well-sourced, with detailed family tree information.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of family researchers out there, who are very strict gate-keepers of their family history, tree, records, and research.

Not here! Vess genealogy is for everyone! I am happy to share with you all my discoveries, because that’s what makes Vess genealogy so much fun – talking about it!

▪︎ DNA Info: I have a ton of sources regarding DNA, from DNA data to tutorials on how to do genetic genealogy.

▪︎ History: I am pretty sure you can do genealogy without having to know American or local histories, but I find it extremely useful and interesting.

History gives us clues as to where to find our earlier ancestors, by learning about court-house fires, county changes, migration patterns, wars, conflicts, as well as, identify specific areas settled by different groups.

But, also knowing the history of the areas they lived in, the struggles their community faced, and the victories they won, brings our early ancestors to life!

Our early ancestors, whether they were early pioneers, prominent wealthy landowners, farmers and laborers, or even immigrants through Ellis Island, all played a role in American history – and to me, I just think that is fascinating!

▪︎ Newspaper Articles: You’re not going to find too many early Vess ancestors in the newspaper, but you will find a lot of fascinating articles about their neighbors and some of their allied families. Sometimes, family histories were published in the newspaper, going back a couple of generations, which is always super helpful!

▪︎ Memes: Interestingly, I have an unhealthy stock pile of genealogy memes. Just saying.

▪︎ Traditional Genealogy Records: I have census, birth, death, military, probate, bastardy, court, and land records all over the place!

I have so much genealogy to share, I am not sure where to start! I guess that’s why I am spending all week organizing all these files.

Even though I just started going through all these records, I did notice something new….Jonathan Vess was called to court for the same case as Absalom Vess! I also found some more court-cases for Pryor Vess (he always in trouble). I saved a lot of unknown Vess families – that will be fun to go through. AND, I didn’t realize it, but I apparently found a bunch of John Vess (son of Peter Vess) records!

Who knows what other treasures I’ve found, saved, and forgotten!

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