5 Reasons Kids Should Use Sort Your Story
There are many great things about the Sort Your Story software and many adults are using it to organize their genealogical research. Did you know it is an excellent program for kids? Here are 10 reasons why your child should be using Sort Your Story.
- Easy to use. Kids can create a profile on themselves or an ancestor in just a few clicks. This is a great first step using software as a child enters the world of genealogy.
- It is colorful. Sort Your Story is very visually appealing. Lots of colorful icons are available for all record types.
- It is printable. Once a profile is created and records and information have been added, you can print the information and share it.
- It will keep you organized. Sort Your Story has a folder for every record type you need. Images can be stored in these folders for easy retrieval.
- You can use it for school. Sort Your Story allows you to write notes to accompany each record you enter for an individual. You can transcribe records or write a story. All of this information can be copied from Sort Your Story and pasted into a Word document to write a report for school.
What do you think? Are you ready to share Sort Your Story with your child?
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
Newspaper Articles and Sort Your Story
Today I was working on a few sections of an upcoming Sort Your Story companion guide and one section was on newspaper articles.
Have you noticed how much information may be contained both in plain sight and “hidden” in newspaper articles? The article I was working with was about a couple of Army soldiers from 1952 who scored a perfect on a mental aptitude test. Reading that article without looking deeply for details you probably notice the nice picture of the men above the article. You may note their names and possibly the unit in which they served. But there are a few other details you might overlook such as their addresses being listed which allows you to put them in a specific place in 1952. It also lists their occupations, yet another way to identify them or search for additional information on these men.
Examine every piece of a newspaper article and make sure you source that article and if possible, photocopy or download a copy of it to your computer. Enter that information in Sort Your Story and note any special details that might lead to new research. Those often overlooked details may help you open up an entirely new research path.
Have fun reading the newspaper!
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
Sort Your Story as a Companion Genealogy Product
Have you thought about all the genealogical materials you have at home? How are they organized? Do you have paper records? Digital records? Books? Are they organized in a way that would allow future researchers to easily use the information?
Sort Your Story can be used in addition to genealogy database programs to organize your materials for individuals in one place. This gives you a quick “at a glance” idea of what information you have and what still needs to be located.
People wonder if they can they begin using Sort Your Story if necessary with ease of use. Yes. If your information is in Sort Your Story and someone else opened the profiler, they would be able to quickly get started with your research.
Here are some questions to ask about your current organizational system.
1 Will your family and your descendents take your years of research and keep them safe?
2 Can your children (your descendents) pickup where you left off using your family tree software?
3 Are your research records such as census, military and death records all organized and digitized?
4 What about those documents found or given to you from family, are they organized and digitized?
5 And your personal records and photos are they organized, scanned in and digitized?
If you cannot answer positively to those questions, consider using Sort Your Story to help organize your information and make it more accessible to future generations.
Wisdom Wednesday – Review Your Information
As the 1940 Census approaches, it seems like everyone is gearing up and counting down the days, hours, and minutes until the release. Are you counting down? Are you ready for the release? Have you taken some time recently to go back through your family’s information to make sure you are prepared?
Take an hour (or more) to go back through your documents and notes. Reviewing our research notes, plans, and records, from time to time, gives us a new perspective. We see facts with fresh eyes and often pick up on details we missed before or that didn’t seem to apply. How often have you gone back to an ancestor’s records and said to yourself, “wow I can’t believe I missed that detail when I first looked at this!” I think all of us have done that at some point.
You have about 18 days left to prepare. So what are you waiting for? Pull out those paper records, look at your digital records, examine your family tree and pull all that together in your Sort Your Story software. Let us know if you found something important you missed before in the comments below.
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
Related articles
- Tuesday’s Tip – Guest Post from Lorel Kapke of Sort Your Story (kidsgenealogy.generationsofstories.net)
