Cataloging the Family Archives

I've decided on a genealogy project for the year: cataloging the items in my very own family archive. I have been ignoring every scrap of paper, every photograph, every card, letter, and newspaper clipping.  See, I don't know where to start on the piles of possible information I have.  Not knowing has lead to pretending that information isn't just inches away.

This year, however, I have a plan.  I'm cataloging it.  See, I'm a librarian. I'm also just nerdy enough to get a kick out of cataloging a personal collection -- I do it for my books, why not the family archive?

Here's the stumper.  How much metadata is too much?  Is there such a thing? What is important metadata? Should I have a schema that I follow? If you haven't noticed, this is the librarian in me.

I've decided on the Dublin Core schema.  Wikipedia states, "The Dublin Core Schema is a small set of vocabulary terms that can be used to describe web resources (video, images, web pages, etc.), as well as physical resources such as books or CDs, and objects like artworks." Originally, Dublin Core had 15 elements -- it has since expanded for refinement.

Original 15 Dublin Core Elements

Title	Contributor	Source
Creator	Date	Language
Subject	Type	Relation
Description	Format	Coverage
Publisher	Identifier	Rights

I picked Dublin Core because it's simple, there's a set vocabulary for some of the elements (e.g. Type or Format), and I'm willing to learn this for personal and professional reasons.  Next, I will be using LibraryThing for the actual cataloging.  This is what I already use for my books.  It's flexible enough to handle a family archive for genealogy.  The plan is to stick to the fields that LibraryThing already uses (e.g. Title, Creator, etc) and supplement the remaining elements in the Tags field.

Something I haven't decided on is scanning the items.  Ideally, I could skip the scanning until there was a need for a digital copy of an item.  Then again, some items may need scanning because they are fragile.  I think the scanning will probably be done on an "as needed" basis.

My goal for this project is to ultimately know what I have in my collection of items I pulled after my grandmother's death.  Hopefully, this cataloging can continue on to the rest of the genealogy items I have gotten from family.

#52Ancestors: WK 1: Fresh Start: The Adams Family

** cross posted to Lass Chronicles **
Ok. I admit it. I snap my fingers when I research the Adams Family branch of my tree. Yes, I am adorkable.

I've decided to participate in the 52 Ancestors challenge by Amy Johnson Crow as a means of maybe moving forward in my genealogy research. If nothing else, this challenge will give me a fresh start on years and years of research that doesn't seem to go anywhere.  Impulsively, I decided to focus my attention on the Adams branch.  There are a grand total of 44 people with the surname "Adams" in my tree. Oops. That's ok, though. Really, I'm focusing on the people that my grandmother came from.

I'm glad I picked this branch. There are two very big brick walls in this branch:  Sallie Lou Green and Mary Frances Cornstubble. Maybe with a focused study, I can finally break through these walls.

It's funny. Just looking at the tree on Ancestry, to remind myself of the people in this branch, shows me there are a lot more hints (hello, little shaking leaves!) than there use to be. I have to rein in my tendency to start wherever looks the most interesting.  This is another fresh start.  I need to learn to be a little more methodical in my research.  Time will tell!  No matter what, I'm sure I'll have lots of geeky fun!

52 Ancestors in 2015

There is an internet meme-ish thing going around in the genealogy community: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2015 Edition.  Simply put, you focus each week on a new ancestor.  The person(s) that started the challenge post a theme for each week.  January's themes are:

Week 1, Fresh start — Seems appropriate for the beginning of the year. What ancestor had a fresh start? What ancestor has been so confusing to research that you’d like to have a fresh start?

Week 2, King — January 8 is Elvis’ birthday. January 15 is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Do either of these “Kings” remind you of an ancestor? Or, taken another way, do you have a connection to royalty? Did you ancestor flee from an oppressive king?

Week 3, Tough woman — Who is a tough, strong woman in your family tree? Or what woman has been tough to research?

Week 4, Closest to your birthday — Not too much to think about here. What ancestor has the birthday closest to yours? (I mean in terms of month and day, not the year)

Week 5, Plowing through — We will likely be plowing through a lot of snow by this time. What ancestor had a lot of struggles to plow through? Or take it more literally… It’s up to you.

Of course, the challenge is about learning more about our ancestors, not following a theme perfectly.

How about it Adams Family? Want to conquer the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge?