We took a trip a few years back to a Civil War battlefield that several of my ancestors were involved in. I took pictures galore of the setting, the place, but also the buildings that were onsite, the markers. (Chickamauga battlefield near Chattanooga, TN.) They have excellent historical markers with information marking the location of various units through the course of the battle and I have good close up images of each. (With the resolution of the digital cameras historical markers like this can be VERY readable.) I also have some video footage giving the overall sense of the location.

Beyond that, of course is the idea of using the digital cameras to document the look and style of cemetery markers (not all markers are the same small concrete slab, some are imaginative and ornate.) Plus, you get the added benefit of maybe taking a “wide shot” with the camera to give an idea of the markers location in the cemetery for others that may want to visit and locate the marker.

Another good use for the digital cameras in genealogy is for close up pictures of older documents and books that may be too fragile for a trip to a copier. I guess this is where you get to play “mission impossible” and grab a few snaps of the precious document.

The last item I’d mention is pictures of the old homeplace! So what if they’ve added on and remodeled 10 times since Great-Grandpas family was there. (Of course, it might be nice to let the current residents know (and ask nicely) if possible.)

Cell phone cameras may cut it if you have a newer phone with a higher resolution photo capture, but the older 640*480 pixel camera phones are probably not going to capture quite enough detail for you to be happy with when it comes to getting text. 1024*728 and up resolution is probably what you’re going to want to be able to get readable text with the camera. (Also, optical zoom is best if you need to get longer distance shots.)

So… keep the digital cameras ready in your arsenal of genealogy “tools”. So they can capture the scene and save you 1000 words each.

With portable technology, here is all that you need: a laptop, a small flatbed scanner and maybe a digital camera (we’ll talk about that in a minute.) I remember very well going to my wife’s grandmothers house about 7 years ago with a laptop and a scanner. We spent a couple hours scanning pictures of her family and getting the descriptions for each, who they were so I could label them after the scanner copied the image. Today’s scanners are so much faster I bet we could have got twice as many scanned in the same amount of time.

Of course, some things might be a bit fragile for a flatbed scanner and for this things I suggest maybe using a high quality digital camera (3 megapixel or more) to try to capture the content. I know my 3megapixel Sony handycam has enough resolution to get a historical marker with readability from 500 feet, so I would think that a page from an old family bible should be fairly easy to accomplish. The key here is lighting, experiment with the right amount of flash and a good distance to keep things from being too washed out. (You might try having GOOD room lighting/sunlight and NO flash as well.)

Make sure in your session to document who is in the pictures and label your files appropriately, don’t trust it to notes to go back and label later, make sure to label as you go.

Another thing to keep in mind, just the same as when interviewing your relatives on your family history, try to keep from having a marathon session. You can always ask to come back and finish another time.

When you get home be sure to make copies of the treasure trove for backup and for your cousins!

I think I had it easy in many ways. About 3-8 years before I got into researching the family history, my older brother had started a brief ancestry chart. In talking to older relatives he had managed to rough in approximately to our 2nd great-grandparents. Now, this was just names. There were a few siblings of direct ancestors and hardly any birth dates to speak of.

Here’s what to do if you have absolutely nothing to start with:

On a piece of paper, list your name, your birthdate and birthplace. Now, move on to your parents. What were their full names? Do you know their birthdates and birth places? How about their marriage date? You see, these dates are important for a number of reasons, one: it gives us an idea of the historical context of a persons life – what times they saw. But the second reason is much more vital to our research. That is a verification of identity. If the dates match, you have a pretty good guess that you’re looking at the right person.

Let me see if I can put it another way. Let’s say your father’s name was Douglas Howard Smith b. Dec. 21, 1942 Okay, when you look at birth records, just matching the name of the child might be a bit difficult as the county birth register could cover from 1880- the present, but knowing a date will help narrow down your search. By doing this you can find out the name of the parents.

So, the idea is that you take what you know and use THAT to research and find out what you DON’T yet know. But, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

After you exhaust your own knowledge of parents and grandparents names (and uncles/aunts as well.) Then, start calling your relatives and work them for information. Be a good reporter. Who, What, When, Where…. the Why can be interesting information as well, but at least cover the first 4 items.

Where possible when talking with your relatives don’t rely just on taking notes. It’s hard to write and take part in a conversation at the same time. So take a tape recorder, or digital recorder like the Zoom H4 recorder or something else in it’s category. These devices record directly to either WAV or MP3 files. WAV files are typically used to make CD’s, MP3 files are great for sharing online (smaller file size/minute of content.) The advantage to recording these is… you get to preserve the persons story firsthand, you can go back and transcribe/retranscribe later, you can share the recordings with your relatives. “This is granny Smith talking about her parents”.

So, like I say, go and try to get information from your relatives. Realistically speaking, let the library or online “bookwork” wait. Start by getting all the information you can from your living relatives. Once you’ve done that and are ready, take stock of the information and try to make a list of open questions. Are you missing birth, marriage or death dates for individuals. That information can be found at the county courthouse where the event happened. If you’re looking for parents of an individual that can be found on many birth/death and marriage records.

Obituaries can be good clues to parents/family members, but sometimes not exact dates as well. Try to figure out what kind of information you seem to be needing the most of and plan your first research trip accordingly. One thing to keep in mind, much information IS available online. Take some time to look online and see when records are available from. I know here it’s hit or miss getting public records from before 1913, but that varies by location. Many of our counties here in NC where I live are “burned record” counties where the turmoil of the Civil War and more recent activities have destroyed many such records.

Good luck and happy researching.

when you’re looking for help with a “brick wall” you really want as MANY ways to get the question presented as possible. Isn’t that true? We want to be able to put our question in front of the few people out there that may have the answer. It’s kind of like when a pet is lost we’ll see signs up on every light post in the neighborhood.

So, let me encourage you to take advantage of the free forum posting here, yes we require you to sign up. You will be emailed a confirmation of your registration with the forum. One of the neat things is that you will be notified of response to your post as well. So, if the traffic volume there is light now and three years down the road you’ve forgotten you even asked about old great-great grandma Smith… you may wake up with an email from a long lost cousin saying, “I saw your post at southcarolinagenealogy.org….”

In some ways it’s like sowing seeds – something that many of us think about this time of year, each seed may bear fruit long after it’s planted.

Visit the free South Carolina Genealogy Forums and post or search the Queries.

Historic Brattonsville hosts living history Saturdays from March through November, the theme varies by week. But costumed interpreters portray life from the 18th and 19th centuries highlighting certain aspects of day to day living. In the Christmas season candlelight tours are offered.

The Revolutionary War battle of Huck’s defeat took place at Brattonsville and more information on that battle is available there as well.

They also have an exhibit on remedies of the early 1800s which looks at medical practices of that period.

Did I mention 8 miles of hiking/walking/horseback riding/bicycle trails? Historic Brattonsville is near McConnels in York County, South Carolina.

I suppose in some ways this early approach worked because I was able to make some steady progress on the genealogy. Since then though, I’ve found that I can’t take the “shotgun” approach any more because there’s just too much information in the tree, there are too many questions I have in each branch. I wind up being paralyzed spending my time looking through my printouts and old notes to figure out just what I’m going to try and discover new.

I’ve done a number of things since that time that help in the organization area. One of these is to separate your printouts and old research copies into separate folders for each surname. More recently I’ve taken to putting in a printout of my “census summary” in each families folder. Here’s how I try to handle it. I create a simple text file on the computer and go through chronologically each census year and go through my notes and record ANY entries for members of that family. So, if I’ve done it right I should have a record for each surname of their progress through each census year. For some families that have been well researched I now have several good pages of this information. At the beginning of each census entry I note the County, State as well as book and page number so that another researcher can check my transcription if I’ve misinterpreted a name or age from an original copy. This also helps if I’m working from a transcription which may have had difficulty reading the original, so I can go back and doublecheck if need be. I also use this document to insert open questions. Let’s say I don’t have any records of the Parker family in the 1840 census year. Under 1840 census I might post a question such as “Where were they?” and start to list counties or states that I’ve looked and found no match. Later this can be filled in when you find “possible matches” as well.

All of what I’ve said is really just about organizing last times research so you can be prepared for next times research. When I’m getting ready for a research expedition, either online or in a library, I try to plan my “attack”. I sit down and browse through the folders and try to decide which questions I have the best chance of filling in some information for. Let’s take the above example. Let’s assume I don’t have any census findings for the Parker family in 1840. Okay, the place I’m going has a statewide census index so they’re added to my target list. I’ve even started going to the extreme of making a research to-do list for each outing.

These tips seem like a bit much especially to the beginner at genealogy research, but over the years I’ve found that if I don’t plan my research session I don’t meet with the same success. Good planning can help set you up for good results. Those results aren’t always an answer to the question, but in genealogy, as in many things. progress towards a goal is a very good thing. With many of the branches of my family, if I feel as though I’ve eliminated a few possibilities I think I’m making good progress towards finding where they actually had migrated from. The main question to ask yourself is how do you expect to find something if you don’t know what you’re looking for to start with?

The house site has been restored and furnished as it would have been in the Revolutionary period. On the grounds there are a variety of interesting exhibits. The house sits on 107 acres which includes the original townsite of Camden. There are two cabins dating from the early 1800s on the grounds as well as military fortifications which have been reconstructed and a partially rebuilt house dating to 1795, the McCaa house. Additionally, there is a blacksmith exhibit, 2 walking trails (.6 mile and 3.5 mile), a Quaker Cemetery dating back to 1758, headquarters for Lord Cornwallis and other points of interest dating from the early history of Camden.