Go-Over What You Know

Crompton Binder with Ellis Island Passenger Record
Photo by Midge Frazel, 2017. 

Go-Over What You Know

I staged this photo this morning to motivate me to work on this binder today, so that my research will be kept in order. Staying focused is my goal, no matter what this next week brings. As the weather improves, it will get harder to stay put it my office and get this project to a certain point.

Yesterday, I pulled out some worksheets and some information on immigration and naturalization to make my "go-over" process move along smoothly. The article, Passenger Lists, to the left of the binder was authored by my friend, Lisa Alzo. It will help me work on the printout on the right side of the binder from the Ellis Island Web site showing my subject's passage through Ellis Island. This is an important part of the story and I want to make sure I have it analyzed correctly, as this record was found before I kept a research log. I can find no transcription of this document, so I will have to do that first. These worksheets will help me. They are sold on CD by Family Tree Magazine. Many are forms you type into and keep in your research binder or in your computer folder in PDF. I write on them, first and then type them into the form to be kept electronically. I find that I read the documents more completely with this system. Then, I shred the handwritten forms.

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2017

The "Be Brave" card by Erin Condren, who created the notebook I am keeping my ancestor profile checklists in, is in this blog post, to remind me to tell you that when you find an immigrant ancestor that CHOSE to come to America, you should remember that they left behind family and friends and all they knew before. 

Could you do that? Put yourself inside their shoes. The passage to America was listed as $50 paid for my my relative's father. I have twice that in my own wallet today.