LESSON 7 Well, we're into the 7th month of our "FINALLY GET ORGANIZED!" campaign. We are more than halfway there! Close to independence! Ha......I just got back from a huge research trip in MAY and I haven't done a thing with all my photocopies and pictures! <giggle> I guess I'd "better get crackin' " as they say down south! I realize this month marks the beginning of travel for many of us, so our genealogy activities are then changed from the usual home front to "on the road" activities. This month's ideas revolve around that theme. WEEK ONE: FIND OUT HOW TO SIGN ON TO YOUR COMPUTER SERVICE WHILE ON THE ROAD. Most of my readers are on AOL, but many other services also provide some variety of out-of-town access numbers. The ones that don't include local internet service providers. However, if your service is national in scope, you'll have options much the same as we do here on America Online. To my AOL readers, here are the easy guidelines to follow before signing on under your usual screen name in a new town: -click the down arrow by your screen name -choose NEW NUMBER from the list -click SIGN ON -your computer will then sign on to an 800# -enter the NEW area code when prompted -choose the closest city on the list by clicking on it -make your second choice for access from the list when prompted -your computer will ask if you want to save or swap these phone numbers before saving those choices -you will then be automatically signed off the 800# phone access inquiry number once you click OK (Your computer now has only the numbers for the new locality in its memory. Go through this procedure for each town you visit, and of course, one more time when you return home!) Neat! WEEK TWO: 1. PLAN TO TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES ON THE ROAD... pictures of important family sights including the old homes, schools, churches, and pictures of old pictures. Keep a steno pad on hand & number each exposure and describe WHAT you have taken a picture of. This is important for several reasons. First, if the picture fails to develop, you KNOW what you'll have to go back for! Secondly, you'll need to identify EVERYONE in the picture, so have each sign the steno pad in order of their appearance in the photo. With pictures of old pictures, ask everyone to play WHO'S WHO to identify the images! Be more specific than "great-grandma Dolly" Get the full name, including the maiden such as: Dolly (Yockey) Weiser The maiden name is in parenthesis. 2. USE YOUR HAND-HELD TAPE RECORDER. My readers will remember that my generous husband Harold bought me a GREAT hand-held tape recorder before our trip south last fall. Luckily it takes the regular size cassette tapes, so they are easy and cheap to find. Anyway, I find that during photo shoots, and WHO'S WHO, people share little bits and pieces of anecdotal history....and it helps just to pick 'em up on tape. 3. WRITE YOUR IMPRESSIONS ON YOUR STENO PAD. Seeing the old homestead, and walking through church cemeteries seems to get my memories flowing. When Harold takes his turn driving, I use this travel time to jot down my recollections. Someday I can transcribe them, but if I died tomorrow, these little notations provide little glimpses of the past not found in my current family history notebooks. WEEK THREE: PREPARE FOR THE FAMILY REUNION WITH COMPUTER PRINTOUTS. One fantastic new genealogy product I saw at the NGS Conference in May was a program called GENMATE (and PAFMATE) which can take GEDCOM files (or PAF FILES) and make huge pedigree charts with SIBLINGS listed. This would be great for your next family reunion! That way everyone can see their name on the pedigree chart! There is a service to have a wall sized chart printed commercially by this same firm. WEEK FOUR: TRANSCRIBE YOU TRIP NOTES TO COMPUTER. You'll want these ready to insert as notes in your genealogy program, or as entire chapters in your future family history book. If you handwriting is anything like my dad's, you and you alone can decipher them. You might even find that the process of transcription will trigger even more recollections. Use the lazy days of summer to computerize these anecdotes bit by bit. No pressure, no worries. Just ENJOY!