Take a Bite out of Bullet Journaling

Take a Bite out of Bullet Journaling
#bujo

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2016

I like to write. I like to keep records. I like calendars. I like to plan. It is one of the best traits of genealogists and I've got it. I like to read. Keeping a journal is a very ancient pastime.  My ancestors kept journals. Think about it.

I prepared this photo to help my friends who have asked why I am working with paper journals. "It's so analog and you are so digital", they exclaim! It's true. I love technology. But, I love writing and coloring on paper. I love pens, pens and markers.

In case you are thinking about using bullet journaling as part of your genealogy, first, you have to try it to see if you like it. 

In this photo, I opened an inexpensive journal to two empty pages. That's called a spread. Each bullet journal entry is two pages that are related. More room to write and more room for thinking. Many people also draw or use calligraphy in their spreads. I can't draw but I can do calligraphy. But for this example, I kept it simple.

You need a journal. I buy most of mine marked down in office supply stores or at Walmart or Target. You can use a regular notebook. Make sure you can open it flat. I like squashing down the pages or having a journal, planner or notebook with a spiral.

1. Pens: Fine Tip Sharpie and Calligraphy pens
2. Stickers: Use for Headers or "bullets"
3. Journal Spread: Two pages of lined or "dotted" paper
4. Grid paper: for creating a to-do list, explaining abbreviations
5. Post it Planner Page: removable lists or planning sheets
6.  Banker's Clasps: for holding the journal open or for holding a book open
7. Planning Journal: my daily planner (separate from my bullet journal) It doesn't leave my house.
8. Template: for making lines and boxes to check off items
9. Journal Pencil Case and Gel Writing pens
10. Not marked with a number: Plastic Box to hold supplies

Bullet Journal Photos

Pinterest Page with Bullet Journal Ideas

Along for the Journey Project: Post 3

 Along for the Journey

Post #3

Yesterday and today, I completed three objectives in this project. 

I have cleaned up my Mayflower Notebook for now, worked on the page for what Mayflower men we have and put all of the items to be done on a task list. 

I began my day today by photocopying all the certificates, then I scanned them, archived them on my external drive and posted them to Flickr. The next job was to make sure I have all of the applications in one location in an archival bag. I put them in my office closet for now until I can find a archival safe flat box to store these and only these together. 

I used my Post-it Planner and Perforated List to help me with my genealogy bullet journal projects. Today,  I bought another set of 25 sheets at Staples and put them away for when the ones I am using are used up. They are too expensive ($9.29) for casual use and Amazon doesn't carry them. I suspect they are discontinued because of their price.

As I work on the next phase of this project, I will not report on it as it just includes photocopying and scanning the proved applications. Mayflower applications are legal sized documents and I am shrinking them on my photocopier down to letter size for scanning. I have four shrunk down and have two more to do tomorrow. This next week, I will scan them all and archive them. I have more time during the week to get this done.

Even if I had done this as I went along, I would not have them organized as I have changed how I do this process.

Along for the Journey Project: Post 2

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2011

Along for the Journey Project

Post 2

I learned so much about the process of genealogy research by deciding to join the Mayflower Society, that it changed how I did research from the first application I submitted. 

I took this photo (above) of the materials in proof packet which I mailed along with an application for my husband's Alden line in 2011. Hubs Soule and Alden lines shared some documents, so I included them in this packet, mailed them off and continued to work on his Soule application. 

Jay Lucas of the Massachusetts Mayflower Society worked closely with me. Even though I has done my own lines prior to this time, I learned a lot from him. 

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2016

For this project, I am starting with preparing to photocopy, scan and protect the certificates and the applications. I have a good head start on this, as last year, I bought archival envelopes and put all in my papers in an archival safe box. (previous project materials) I discovered that I had to purchase larger envelopes than I used for my photographs.

For my bullet journal (#bujo), I am going create a page which lists what Mayflower passengers we have as a family, and then make a task list of what I have to accomplish on another page.

Along for the Journey Project: Post 1

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2016 (link)

Along for The Journey Project
Post #2

Bullet Journaling is best used to record progress made with projects whose information and results don't fit neatly in your regular genealogy research journal. As a demonstration of how this can work for family historians and genealogists, I pulled out a journal that I bought some time ago. It was marked down because the spiral is a little bent. It is meant for recording your travels on a vacation. 

I opened it up and kept a few pages in the front for a table of contents. Armed with some discount coupons, I traveled to my local Michael's to buy fall themed stickers and washi tape. I plan to use the glittery tape for other projects too.

Fall and Family Bullet Journaling Purchases, 2016

As my husband and I are both descended from Mayflower Passengers, I decided that I need to organize the papers and certificates from the completed proof of the research that I did from 2005 to 2010 so that I can accomplish the following goals.

• Prepare the certificates for archiving
• Prepare the completed applications for archiving
• Write up the work so that my non-genealogy family can understand it.
• Prepare to enter the information into my genealogy software

Last year (2015) my older grandson and his father entered a contest about discovering the past and the company that hosted it made a video about the adventure called "Along for the Journey".

 You can  view that video here: Along for the Journey

Sentimental Sunday: Little Trinket Box

Grandmother Denison's Trinket Box, 1890

Carefully saved by my maternal grandmother, was this little wooden box that belonged to her husband, Evans Stewart. I think it might have been used for pocket change or cuff-links. 

I kept it in a small drawer in my bureau until I came home from school one day and found it sitting on a folded newpaper, drying from being stained this brown color. It was unfinished prior to my mother deciding it was too boring and needed to be decorated. 

When she applied polyurethane to it and it was dry, I decided it needed to be hidden so I put it in my desk with items over it.

When I moved to my own home, I took all of the items that belonged to me from my parent's house and put them in mine. I set this on a small table in the hallway. One day, my toddler daughter opened it and scribbled on the piece of paper inside. I have erased the pencil marks, scanned it  and lightened it up so that I can read it and it says:

"Evans Stewart/Grandmother Denison/ July 22, 1890."

Today,  I decided to try to puzzle out if the date was of any significance. 

In 1890, my grandfather was three. His father, Charles E. Stewart was 31, his grandmother Eliza Fish Denison Stewart was 56. 1890 is the year Westerly Laundry was founded. 

Then, I found a matching exact date. 

This is the date, that Levina Fish Denison (1794-1890) died. She was my grandfather's great grandmother. She lived to be 95. Eliza Fish Denison must have inherited it from Levina who was her mother. Notice that it does not say "from", it simply says her name.

If it wasn't for blogging, I might have not realized who Grandmother Denison really was....

Find My Past Blogs About My Discovery

Find My Past Posted my Discovery in their Blog 

Read all About it!

Bullet Journal Project Page

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2016
Post #3

First entry in "Where Did They Come From?" Bullet Journal Page

Research for Bullet Journal Page

Ancestor of Capt. George Denison
(Where Did He Come From?)

 Find My Past Adventure
Bullet Journaling Project
Post #2

After finding this index and image record, I asked permission of Find My Past to blog about it. They kindly said I could. (re: Alexandra Edmondson Content Writer (US) aedmondson@findmypast.com)

The current Denison genealogy lists John Denyson as the "earliest known ancestor", with his son William (Capt. George's father). William and his wife and three youngest sons (Daniel, Edward and George came to America.) 

Where did he come from? Solved.

• Index does indeed say, Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, England (at St. Michael's)

Denison Genealogy, p. xxi

Screen Shot of Index Page (found at Find My Past)
search term: John Denyson)

Hertfordshire Burials Transcription found at Find My Past

 Parish Register Record at Find My Past

I put a blue arrow to show the line number of the burial of John Denyson. John Denyson was buried "unreadable" day of December (p). Notice the next line says "6 day of December".  

• index reads 4 December
• image next line says 6 December
• Does the "p" at the end of the line indicate it was a plague burial?

Examine the full image at Find My Past

This is a great find but still with unanswered questions.

Project Based Genealogy Using Bullet Journaling

Where Did They Come From?
Bullet Journal Spread (Shot #1)
Midge Frazel, 2016

Project Based Genealogy Using Bullet Journaling
Post #1

Some time ago, I introduced the concept of Project Based Genealogy. Since then, I have looked at my work in a different way. I took my research journal more seriously by developing several different kinds of methods for examining my research. Bullet Journaling is helping me record and examine information in ways I had not thought of before. 

I am learning Scrivener to write a personal family history and I quickly discovered that I didn't have all that I needed all in one place. Many genealogists are using this software, instead of Word, to write stories. 

As I am a Find My Past Ambassador, I'd like to spend more time recording and using "over the pond" records in my blog posts. Finding and proving information in my New England families is a lot harder than I first thought. My ancestors that came to America from England are well recorded once they came to New England but I still don't know, or don't believe information in many of the books I own. I have noticed that they "copied" and printed the same information from each other. That doesn't mean they were right.

I think bullet journaling (#bujo) will help me find and record this information so that I can put it in my family tree and be confident that I have researched, sourced and cited the information correctly.

Are you like me and your research journal is filled with questions to yourself? So, I bought a Boogle Board for writing down the information I have found before I enter it into my bullet research journal. 

In the photo above, (close up photo)  I have grouped together, the Boogie Board, the journal in progress and the history/genealogy book that I am using for some of my ancestors that came to New England. The book, by the way, is the History of Stonington, Connecticut by the late Richard Anson Wheeler which is now out of copyright. When I bought it some years ago, it helped me look at my ancestors by surname. These families lived closely together and are part of my FAN (friends, neighbors and associates). These families intermarried so much that I am descended from them in many ways.

In the past week, I have been thinking about my furthest most ancestor in my Denison line, John Dension. Now, of course, his name was probably Denyson. But, where do I start working on what I know about him and how do I record that? I need a table of contents page for my New England Ancestors called, "Where Did They Come From?" 

Bullet journaling is traditionally very "artsy". I want it to look nice but without a lot of clutter, so I am using simple journal stickers, my label maker and a blank lined journal to start recording the family name, the sources and where they came from. The findings will go in my research journal.

I have always known I was a Denison. My maternal grandparents are buried in the Denison plot in Elm Grove Cemetery. I've been to the land where Capt. George lived. John Denyson was his grandfather. According to the Denison genealogy and Wheeler's history, John Denyson was buried on 4 December 1582 and died of the plague. It says he's buried at Stortford. (What's creepy? My birthday is December 4)

This blog article helped me thinking about dying of the plague and I went seeking his burial record.