Reviewing Hardcopy Documents

One of the first things I needed to do was review all the hardcopy information I have on the Ruch/Siegler line. I spent four or five hours all together on this task. Fortunately, all I had to do was pull out the folders for the individuals involved, the Ruch surname folder (which also contains Siegler info), the Alsace folder and, of course, the Ruch/Siegler working binder. All of these items were handily available either in the genealogy file cabinet or on the binder shelf. Once in hand, I methodically reviewed every scrap of paper.

Over the years, I’ve collected some extraneous data which needed to be weeded out - not thrown out - for my purposes. I found also that some of the documents haven’t been scanned and included in my genealogy software. Mind you, the sources have been cited but the images haven’t been added. I’ll need to get that done in the next few days so I can move on to reviewing all my sources for each individual.

Much of what I’ve collected more recently I’ve only kept in digital format as most of it I’ve found on the internet. Though I have many hardcopies of various census records, I won’t be scanning those; I’ll just look them up again and bring the digital copy into my files.

So, I guess it first to scanning, then to a review of all sources in my database. I need to be sure I have all available census records, possible war records, birth, marriage, and death records, etc. I’m hoping to get all my ducks in a row early on so I’ll know what additional research is needed. (I’ll be looking closest at the direct line and siblings, then others will be done later as or if needed.) I’ll get started on that as I begin to write the story.