Top 5 Reasons to Use Sort Your Story in 2013
The year is almost over and as we look back to see what we have accomplished, where we have gone, who we have met, and what we meant to do, it is time to make goals for 2013. Why not start using Sort Your Story in 2013 to organize your photos and documents? I’ll give you 5 reasons why you should.
- It is time to become super organized in your genealogical research. Sort Your Story will help you organize materials for each individual in your tree!
- You need to begin planning your family history book projects for 2013. Sort Your Story can help you prepare these!
- Children and grandchildren can easily become engaged with genealogy. Do you need to brush up on some genealogical skills or Sort Your Story expertise? Check out our Companion Guides for Windows and Mac.
- Everyone has a story that should be told. Write them in Sort Your Story so you can easily create family history books.
- Scan in old photos that have not been identified. Save them to an Unknown Profile. You can easily show these photos to family when you get together. Having these unidentified photos in one place will make it easier to locate and identify them.
So what are you waiting for? Check out Sort Your Story today and start organizing!
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
Books Make Great Holiday Gifts
The Sort Your Story Companion Guides are now available for the MAC and PC! These books contain lessons on using Sort Your Story and learning about genealogical records using the Branching Out series of books.
With the aide of the Sort Your Story Companion Guide, for Windows or MAC, you’ll quickly be up and running, organizing all of your documents, putting the puzzle pieces of your family history together.
The Sort Your Story software is comprised of two main parts: the colorful Sort Your Story Category Folders, providing you with 36 folders for sorting and storing all of your records and documents; the Profiler, a database and mini–word processor in which you input all of your data which works seamlessly with the folders.
This companion guide will walk you step-by-step through the set-up and use of Sort Your Story, and will show you examples of how to use each of the categories.
By using Sort Your Story with the Sort Your Story Companion Guide, along with the genealogy textbook Branching Out: Genealogy Lessons for Adults, you will have a firm foundation of the basics of genealogical research and records.
Visit Amazon to purchase the Windows version and MAC version today. Then visit the Sort Your Story website to purchase and download the Sort Your Story software, if you haven’t already, and get started organizing your family memories.
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
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!
Creating a Research Plan with Sort Your Story
Working through genealogical research often requires us to stop and examine what we have, where it came from, and where we need to go from here. Sometimes the information creates a brick wall that we cannot seem to get around or over. At these times it is important to go step by step through our research and create a new plan. Sort Your Story can help you create a research plan for either an individual or a family.
What should be in a research plan?
- A summary of your research problem.
- The information you know and where it was obtained.
- A list of the information you would like to know.
- A list of where you might obtain that information.
Individual
Open the Sort Your Story Profiler and then the file for the individual for which you are having issues.
Add a category called Misc. Documents. Title this “Research Plan.”
Go to the notes section and create a research plan based on the information you have gathered for this individual and the information you wish to find. Save the file.
Family
Open the Sort Your Story Profiler and create a new file. Rather than putting in an individual, just enter a surname and then in the first name field, enter the names of both parents of this family.
Add a category called Misc. Documents. Title this “Research Plan.”
Go to the notes section and create a research plan based on the information you have gathered for this family and the information you wish to find. Save the file. To create a plan based on the family you will have to examine all the profiles you created for the individuals within that family. Or you can add the documents relating to that family in this profile.
Use Sort Your Story to create a research plan for you family. Let us know how it worked for you in the comment section.
© 2012 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413
