Tip 27: Supplement your discoveries. Part of “Genealogy Road Trip Tips: Take Your Loved Ones With You” — 30 posts in 30 days for NaBloPoMo 2016.
A great way to keep your Genealogy Road Trip momentum going when you return home is to supplement your discoveries with additional research.
By now you should have backed up your photos, duplicated your recording, filed your findings, typed up a your notes and trimmed your family tree with your genealogy road trip discoveries.
The new information gathered on your trip will likely point you in your next research direction. Not only will this keep the good vibes going from your trip, but it will move you ahead in compiling your family’s history.
Here are a few examples.
Follow up on clues. On a pre-Internet genealogy road trip with my dad, Norm Charboneau, we found a clue in the 1865 New York State census indicating that our ancestor Arthur Bull served in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. So when the trip was over, I went to the New York Public Library to supplement this discovery — and found the pension record number that allowed me to view and copy my ancestor’s file at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C. Today, you could do much of this online — but you get the idea.
Locate copies of key maps and documents. On a genealogy road trip with my mom to her home town (Gloversille Fulton County, New York), we saw a huge map on the wall at a local historical repository indicating land and houses owned by our mutual ancestors. The map was too big to copy or to reproduce with a photo. But when we supplemented our research, we found a smaller version of the map in the Onondaga County Public Library — where the staff was able to make a copy for us.
Search for historic photos and news clips. During your road trip, oral history interviews with relatives, friends, associates and neighbors of your ancestors may have revealed events, locations or buildings of significance to your family history. When you get home, supplement these discoveries by searching online newspaper databases for pertinent news articles — or checking out online photo repositories for pictures of the buildings or locations they mentioned.
Where and what you research will depend on the discoveries you and your travel partner made during your genealogy road trip.
But supplementing your discoveries with new research is a worthwhile next step because it will add to what you learned at your ancestral destination.
Your Genealogy Road Trip is over. It’s been a great ride, and now it’s time to kick back. Please stop back for Tip 28: Reward yourself.
© 2016 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
