I visited an uncle of mine last December and we had a wonderful time talking about genealogy and simply spending time together. As he showed me his extensive research of our tree, one thing that was made very clear to me: You can’t use computer alone….you must have paper.
Now this is true, for sure, in the area of research. The number of records that are not digitized are incredible—and I don’t believe we will ever get them all digitized; that is simply a fact of life. We should never depend solely on digitized records for our research.
But, in our records—can we keep all of our records digitally?
I have found the answer to be NO.
When I started out, only several years ago, looking at my family tree, I had the impression that it all could be kept on a hard drive somewhere and that would be sufficient. I have found that this simply isn’t the case. What I have found that one must still have hard paper copies of the records to assist in the research process.
To me, it is the same way as with navigation. Yes, we have many different forms of navigation technology—GPS, MAPQuest, Google Maps, among the hundreds of options. But all of that navigational information is based on the fact that you know where you are going. If you don’t have a clear idea of where you are going you are going to need a map. That is where, for genealogy, a family pedigree and family reference sheet comes into play. These have the data that you need to find your way as you uncover your personal mystery.
Paper can be used in many different ways in addition to providing a road map; it can be used as another form of back-up, as a mode for distribution to family members, and for being able to quickly record research notes.
What ways do you use paper in your genealogical research? I’d love to hear new ideas to use paper to enhance the research your ancestors!