Wisdom Wednesday – How To Tell A Story Without Writing
Walter Kapke. Photo courtesy Lorel Kapke.
Not everyone is a writer. Are you shocked to hear this? Well, it’s true. Not everyone is a writer. Some people communicate better through visual means such as photographs, creating collages, building folders of materials, painting, and drawing. So if you are not a writer does this mean you cannot create a family history? No!
This message is to those of us who know they will not write a story but WILL compile research records, notes, photo images, sketches, and various tidbits and data to create a book! Sort Your Story founder Lorel Kapke picked up her drawing pencil after 30 years and sketched a portrait of her grandfather.
Sketch of Walter Kapke, courtesy Lorel Kapke.
He appears to be a “bit aged and not an exact replica”, yet it was her way to reach her grandfather through the ages… to ”talk to Walter” or get to know him on another level. Lorel found a way to achieve some intimacy by drawing Walter from a photo.
What can Lorel do with this sketch? She can show it to family members when they get together. Looking at a photograph or sketch may begin a conversation within the family. Lorel may find information on things that are “sort of” accurate and things that are not. It is a good idea to compare notes with family members! You never know what piece of the puzzle you are missing until you do.
Lorel can also write brief tidbits of information about her grandfather and compile them with her sketch to create a larger photo or collage of sorts. She is lucky to have been able to have many conversations with her father who mentioned tidbits about his father via their phone conversations 3000 miles away.
Whether you are a writer or more visual person, everyone has something to contribute to a family history. Talk to family members. Perhaps you will be the illustrator of a family history and someone else will be the writer. Collaborating you may produce an even more incredible history than either of you could have done alone.
© 2013, Sort Your Story, Sonoma, CA
Searching in the Census with a Surname
This post was written by Lorel Kapke about her personal research.
Searching in the Census with a Surname; can’t find ‘em but you KNOW they are there!
Searching the census for my great grandfather and family by surname in a small town would prove to be challenging. They are listed in the 1905 State Census and the 1920 Unites States Census. But where were they listed in the 1910 Census? I know they did not move viewing surrounding census records and other documents. Referring back to the (SYS folders) censuses (see attachment) I quickly referred to previous and future censuses for the street names and neighbors who lived nearby. Paging through one or two census pages I found something I never thought existed, a census included “location, relation, personal description, nativity, citizenship, occupation, education, ownership of home, but did not include names at all! Written on the left side of the census page was the following message:
“Sheet made from cards already punched by order of Mr. Hunt- Feb 9 -11, Original sheet lost after cards were punched”.
Fortunately, they did offer enough information to peace the puzzle together.
I found thre
e people living in the correct location, ages, birth year, place, race, gender, marital status, father and mothers birth place all added up to a match that is difficult to ignore.
Don’t let surnames get in the way, if you have your files in order, a simple review of an organized data can guide you through your brick wall!
Follow Friday – September 28, 2012
Here are a few blog posts and website articles we found interesting this week. Please let us know what you think.
We Are Family – Ancestry.com Can Prove It
The In-Depth Genealogists’s The Joy of FaceBook
The In-Depth Genealogist’s State Resources Page
Adventures in Genealogical Education’s New Book – Becoming an Excellent Genealogist: Essays on Professional Research Skills
GeneaPress’ Announcing Call For Papers – 2013 Genealogy Jamboree
And, for those who homeschool their children, check out Mascot Manor’s Travel Tuesday: State Study- Georgia and New Jersey Did you know Sort Your Story software is great for families and public schools to help teach genealogy and genealogy organization?
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
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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.
