Sunday, October 2, 2016

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. 

1 comment:

  1. Hello, I found your blog as I was looking for info on bullet journals for genealogy; then I saw that you are a Denison - and I've researched that family a bit - my gr-grandfather was adopted (we don't know who the mother was) about 1860, by an Elizabeth Breed & Joseph Baker. Elizabeth Breed has Denison & Wheeler & more in her family.
    ...I guess I better get back on track, but your writing is very interesting...
    : )

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