Genealogy Research Log in Excel

Here are the links to the handouts from the Excel Research Log class yesterday.

Excel 2003
Handout
Sample Spreadsheet

Excel 2007/2010
Handout
Sample Spreadsheet

Hope you find this info helpful.

Posting Status

You may have noticed that I've been rather erratic with my posts. I've been buried in any number of other things...not the least being work. Of late, work has become more pressing and I've had to devote more than my usual energy to it. That circumstance seems to be ramping up rather than letting up. So I'm afraid that my posts will continue to be erratic until at least the beginning of May...when I'll either be a hero or unemployed!

That being said, I will post as I am able. For example, I have to put together the instructions for using Excel to create and use a research log for the March computer SIG meeting of my local society. When that doc is complete, I'll write about it here and post links to the instructions.

I also promised to create ebooks based on some of the series posts. I haven't forgotten. I just haven't gotten to it yet. So it remains an unfulfilled goal that I will pursue as I am able.

One of the things that took up my time in January was the February issue Florida Lines, the Florida State Genealogical Society newsletter. If you'd like to see what I do with a newsletter, click here. It's created using MS Word so that if something happens and I am no longer editor that it can be easily picked up by the next editor. So you can see that I use all of the skills I talk about in MS Word posts.

In the meantime, if you have a question, please email me at info@technology-tamers.com and I'll be happy to try to answer your questions.

Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 15 Research Logs

Click the graphic to see larger version, and then

press the Esc key to return to this post.

While watching the Republican National Convention, I've been tinkering with what I'd want in a research log. You can see the results above. My first decision revolved around information that I would want in a table or out of a table.

Information Out of the Table
I chose to place what I identified as unique information in running text.

• Name of Person: A Text form field with a limit of 40 characters for the name of the person for whom I'm chasing information.
• Information: A Drop-down form field with the following selections: Birth, Marriage, Death, Burial, Census. This list includes the type of information that I might be searching for. You might have other types of information to add to your list. 
• Source Citation: A Text form field with no character limit. After I've located the document, photograph, or whatever, I can write a citation for the item that I will use to prove my point. When I get ready to use the citation in an article or book, I can select it and copy and paste it into that document. To paste the citation as running text, I'm going to use Paste Special to paste without form field formatting. If you don't remember how to do that task, see Grabbing Text from the Net. This post talks about getting rid of HTML coding. What I don't mention in the post is that Paste Special will remove any hidden coding, including form field formatting.

Information In the Table
I chose to place what I identified as repeating information in a table.

• Date: A Text form field formatted as a date. This date is when I went looking for information. In this example, I added a date to show the format. 
• Repository Type: A Drop-down form field with the following selections: Archive, Library, Online, Oral History. I could have added Court House, Ancestry.com, Genealogy Society. 
• Repository Name: A Text form field with a limit of 40 characters. 
• Results: A Drop-down form field with the following selections: Found, Not Found, Bible Entry, Certificate, Newspaper Announcement, Obituary, Other, Pension (Military), Will. 
• Abstract: A Text form field with no character limit. Abstracts are short descriptions of the contents of a document. For a long article, an abstract can provide a reminder of why a document is important.
• Analysis: A Text form field with no character limit. This space is where I would evaluate the reliability of the information I've found. 

Table Formatting 
In the graphic above the table doesn't span the entire page. I've set the table up to expand based on the information entered in the table--the auto fit option. If you don't remember how to use this option, see Table It!...Part 2 for more information.

Doing It All Again
In the graphic above you'll also notice that the entire form (except for the words Research Log) repeats. I've assumed that I'm going to chase more than one piece of information (Birth, Marriage, Death, Burial, Census) for the same person. I can use the same research log to chase more than one piece of information. I just need to copy and paste the form block and complete it for each type information. I would have one file with all of my notes about information I'm chasing for the one person.

In addition, I've left the Name of Person field in place so that when a block moves to a new page, the name goes with it. I could also add a footer or header with page numbering. You include these types of elements for a log you plan to print.

In actual use, I can see myself enabling and disabling protection as I need to copy and paste new rows or entire form blocks as I chase new pieces of information.

Getting a Copy of the Research Log
If you like the looks of the log I've created and you want a copy, please email me and I'll send it to you. Please just remember to tell me what version of Word you are using. Write to me at info@technology-tamers.com.

Democratic National Convention
I'm sure to be parked in front of the TV watching this one too. Perhaps it will inspire me to create another form. We'll see what I can come up with.

As always, please post comments and questions.

Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 14 Research Logs

Sorry for disappearing. I've been working on a huge project at work and the whole thing came to a crescendo last week. I made the date to produce my Help file and printed Workbook with three days to spare. The work is actually due tomorrow. This particular project was more stress filled than most. For my part it came complete with a full blown anxiety attack...something I have not had happen to me in 30 plus years. The aftermath of this project was that I spent most of Thursday and Friday in a post-project fog and Saturday and today sleeping. I'm still not 100% but I do feel a need to post and move the research log form along.

In my last post, I said that I'd want my form to be landscaped. To set orientation, you need to be on the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog.

To set up the form:

1. Open Word. The default Normal template displays automatically. Remember that this template is the lowest level template with just a few styles...the starting point for lots of documents.
2. Select File, Save As, and name the document Research Log.
3. Display the Page Setup dialog.
   --Word 2003: Select File, and then Page Setup.
   --Word 2007/2010: Select the Page Layout tab and locate the Page Setup group. Click the small arrow in the lower right of the group (group launch button).
   The dialog appears with the Margins tab displaying by default.
4. In the Margins group, enter .5 for the top, bottom, left, and right margins. Since this document is a form, you are going to want to use as much of the surface area of the page as possible.
5. In the Orientation group, select Landscaped.
6. Click OK, and then save your document.

 

Next post, we add a table that includes a column (field) for each piece of information that we want to collect.

 

b.t.w. I live in the Tampa-Bay area. We're grateful to have dodged Isaac. My 81 year old mother lives in New Orleans and she has an evacuation plan in place. 

Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 13 Research Logs

As a general rule of thumb, I don't use research logs. I use a user-defined column with coding along with notes made in my genealogy software. However, I have perused the research logs of friends...sometimes offering sympathy because their efforts have yielded so few results...other times offering unsolicited advice!

The web is littered with lots of examples of logs. The logs I find are usually portrait oriented. My first question is why portrait? I would landscape it without a second thought because I would want more space for each entry. If I really consider it, I'd make it an Excel spreadsheet but we won't go there in this post.

In looking at the logs that other people have created, I can see that the next planning item to tackle is to decide on the information I want to track in a log. Am I going to use a document numbering system? Will I use the log as my citation source? Will I want to include an evaluation of what I've found? Each of these questions and lots more need to be answered before I can put fingers to keys and begin to design a form.

If I think seriously about the information I'd want to collect, here are the types of column I'd include:

• Document Number: Will I use it?
• Date: When did I look for it?
• Repository: Where did I look for it? Is it an online link?
• Results: Did I find it or not?
• Abstract: Can I describe it in a few words?
• Analysis: How reliable do I think it is? What did I deduce from it?
• Source: What fields do I need to write a proper citation? Can I use my genealogy software to design these fields?

If you've been reading these post regularly, bells and whistles should be going off as you relate the information you're trying to collect in the log with the three types of fields you can add to a form. For example, you might consider splitting Repository and adding a type drop-down list that includes entries like Library, Archive, Online, Court House, and so forth. You select the type in the first field and enter the name of the repository in the second field...or is a type important to know?

I'll stop for the moment and let you ponder what you are going to want to put in your form. I'm sure you can already see that this is going to be another series of posts as I figure out what I want to include in my form.