In conclusion - 10 - Not making a master copy and taking a duplicate with you. Again, a word of testimony. Many years ago I flew to KY and joined another Gorin family for a week long research trip thru KY and TN. We hit every courthouse in south central KY and headed down to Stewart Co TN to try to find the burial spot of the youngest Gorin brother. Miraculously, we found it - totally by accident. Upon leaving, 3 adults and two young boys loaded into the car to head back to Bowling Green - in super high spirits. We didn't notice the car behind us flashing his lights. When we got to the motel - we realized that Mr. Gorin had placed his notebook and camera on top of the car as we got in. ALL of his research, all of our findings and pictures of the graves gone. This had a happy ending, which many won't, when this fellow behind us pulled over, picked up all the notebooks and brief case, found an address in Greensburg, KY and drove all the way there to see if the man there was connected. He was, he was an uncle and the papers were retrieved. Never again. Never take your master copies with you as you go library researching, cemetery hunting. Make a duplicate you can scribble on. If you're visiting potential relatives, you can scan your photos to show them possibly leaving a copy with them if they are long lost cousins! And, I might add. If you take your computer with all your research with your files on it, dump your data to one or two flash drives or cd's and keep them in a separate place. If somehow you lose your computer (IPad or whatever), you have backup! 11 - Not organizing your records. Do I need to add anything here? Do we ever really get organized? 12 - Not paying attention to clues. If it's a clue, it's worth recording. If it doesn't pan out, fine. But you'll kick yourself from here to Sunday if there was a crumb and you let the birds get it! 13 - Assuming your surname is never spelled any other way. A big laugh follows here. Let me count the ways surnames could be and were spelled. Bowles - Boles - Bolls - Bowls. Dickerson, Dickinson, Dickson. Even the simplest names could be spelled. Gorin - Goran - Goren - Goring- Gorum- Goram - Gorham - Goin, etc. . I won't even tell you the ways my maiden name was spelled - Laughery. (or pronounced!) Clerks, doctors, lawyers ... they all spelled the name "the way they heard it". Some could barely spell themselves. Some wrote so poorly that it was up for grabs what the name was. Be creative in your web searches or index searches. Sometimes when a man saw his name in print, even though the spelling was incorrect - he thought the clerk (or whoever) must be right and started spelling his name that way. And, yes, there were family feuds! I had a late neighbor whose name was spelled unusually from others in the area. She said her husband changed the spelling on his name because when he was in WW II, the US Army spelled it wrong. He was told if he wanted to get paid, he would spell it that way. And, he did. I'm sure there are many other mistakes we've all made through the years; I could write a book just on that subject. Maybe some of these mistakes will stick with us and make us better researchers. Sandi --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com

On 05/02/2014 10:11 PM, Sandi Gorin wrote: > 10 - Not making a master copy and taking a duplicate with you. Most of us have a laptop or other portable device that we can take on research trips. I have two small "netbooks" as well as my full size laptop. I use PAF for my genealogy program [ yes I know it's old and outdated but it works and does what I want ]. I also use a program called Dropbox. I have it on all my computers. The PAF database is stored in "Dropbox". When I'm out and about with my portable machine and adding information it all goes into dropbox. As soon as I connect to the internet the data is synchronized on every other computer that is running. If the home computer is turned off while we are out of town or something, as soon as I get home and turn it on the new data is there. No hassle shuffling things between computers. It's cloud storage and file synchronization across computers. It will also allow you to share information with another person securely. > 12 - Not paying attention to clues. If it's a clue, it's worth > recording. If it doesn't pan out, fine. But you'll kick yourself from > here to Sunday if there was a crumb and you let the birds get it! Also keep track of old family stories. Most will not be accurate in all details but they often hold a small nugget of truth. You just have to find that nugget. -- I may be crazy, but crazy is better than stupid. _ _... ..._ _ _._ ._ ..... ._.. ... .._