Do you know what your ancestral home looks like ?

     When you do research on all your families as you crawl back in time, do you wanderlust about the places they lived in? Of course, as we go further back, our wish list of "travel ancestral home visits" gets bigger!

    Last spring, I had a client and she was traveling to her ancestral village to solve more mysteries. She asked me where my family lived in Abauj- Torna. I mentioned that they were 1/2 mile from the border of Slovakia. One day, I opened my mail, lo and behold, there were pictures of my ancestral village, Jablonca ! And not only of Jablonca but my Grandfather's family ancestral homestead in Hungary ! Still standing and obviously, in beautiful condition and surroundings.  Thank you, Cathy!

  In Hungarian records research, house numbers are noted quite frequently in church and census records so I knew that my Nagy family lived in Jablonca No. 9 [3]  for many generations. Eventually, the only remaining child that lived on, with descendants, immigrated to America and a paternal Aunt lived on at No. 9 Jablonca.

Here is my family from Jablonca No. 9:

István NAGY  Born 15 Jan 1842  Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary  [1]

Christened 16 Jan 1842 Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary   [2] 

married Susanna SEBÖ,  ( b. 16 Jan 1838, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary ) They married on 15 Apr 1863 in
Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary  [2] (witnesses at their wedding: Pal Zeman & Istvan Lorintz)

Children: 

1. István NAGY,   b. 25 May 1864, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary, d. 25 Sep 1864, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary
2. István NAGY,   b. 1 Nov 1865, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary,   d. 10 Feb 1875, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary
3. Lajos NAGY,   b. 3 Feb 1869, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary,   d. 19 Jun 1896, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary
4. Maria NAGY,   b. 13 Oct 1871, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary, d. 23 Aug 1873, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary
5. Joseph NAGY,   b. 19 Jul 1874, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary,   d. 18 Aug 1953, Toledo, Wood, Ohio,
6. István NAGY,   b. 3 Feb 1877, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary,   d. 3 Feb 1877, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary
7. Maria NAGY,   b. 3 Feb 1877, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary,   d. 5 Feb 1877, Jablonca, Abauj, Hungary

1) Church Records: Jablonca, Abauj-Torna,Hungary, Magyarországi Református Egyház, (Microfilm ,Genealogical Society of Utah), FHL 1924854., Rec# 2.

2)Church Records: Jablonca, Abauj-Torna,Hungary, Magyarországi Református Egyház, (Microfilm ,Genealogical Society of Utah), FHL 1924854., Other Entries.

3)Népszámlálás 1869 (Hungarian 1869 Census) .Author: Magyar Statisztikai Hivatal .(Manuscript/Manuscript on Film,Salt Lake City, Utah.Genealogical Society of Utah, 1998-1999)

Zen & the Art of Genealogical Maintenance

Apply to your genealogical matters :

"You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge".

"The pencil is mightier than the pen.”

“For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. ”

“The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed.”

― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

How many years have you been doing genealogy? What do you have to show for all your hard research, encased in your gedcoms programs on your computers ? Are they bundled in file boxes of notebooks and if you found time, you patiently printed out pages of your work ? This is not an article about genealogical organization; there are plenty of them out there.  I was recently inspired by Valerie Elkins Brown when ROOTSTECH 2013  live-streamed  her "gen-organization"  talk. Her motto was to give yourself a break and do it your way.

Three things that strikes me these days when I look at my genealogical life  :

1) Less is more

2) Don't be a genealogical hoarder

3)  Keep it simple.

I have been doing it various ways, for many years, rotating different methods through desktop genealogy software. Life got busy and there were more challenges in getting the research out there which became more stressful. Then I read this inspiring article written by Lianne LaVoie of "Stories of a Canadian Family": http://www.wikitree.com/blog/using-wikitree-to-organize-your-genealogy/

Like Lianne, I use Wikitree all the time. I research with one tab open and make a profile in the other tab in WikiTree. Sometimes I categorize the profiles by locations. Sometimes I edit, write some biography or post a follow-through on the sources I have accessed. WikiTree is a great genealogy cloud if your hardware at home fails. I am not big on uploading gedcoms to public trees so I enter my findings one-by-one manually as I work which helps me analyze my research deeper. It's extremely convenient to access wherever I am located. It works great on my Kindle Fire when I am traveling.There are many "widgets" to view your input. I like the privacy settings, the geocoding and the printing capabilities. I can also upload images of documentation (like a free cloud). I did not mention the side benefit of other family collaborators that found me on WikiTree.

My family research is still lodged on my computer software and I will always have my spreadsheets but it's very liberating to use WikiTree to share your research. I am not going to say anymore on how WikiTree can help you but it's working for me. You can become a guest at www.wikitree.com to see if the WikiTree way works for you and then, join, for free.