Notes fields

[M Lancaster]

What are the categories or types of Note fields you find most effective for research?

[CONLEY Research]

I don't have an answer, but I've been wondering the same thing myself. Currently I just dump everything in the one notes field. This includes everything from fully done analyses with documented conclusions written up to snippets of stuff I've grabbed off the web and want to research. The advantage is that this makes it more compatible to share via GEDCOM with cousins, but it does end up a bit of a mess. From my standpoint, if I were to break them up it would be into things like:

- written bios and fully complete analyses
- transcriptions (quotes from books, obituaries, etc.)
- unsourced or unproven research that I want to follow up on

[Kim]

I use a lot of notes, some more effective than others. For example, I have a 'research note' for unanswered questions and things i want to research, and a 'to do' note with some overlap, but things I want to look for. I haven't added to these for years, as I have better ways of tracking this now, with Evernote, Trello, and Zotero.

I have other notes for things that are more detailed, or repeating. For example, I have 'property notes' that I record real estate transactions in. I have families that have been in the same county for about 175 years, and they bought and sold a lot of property. Rather than clutter my events with a list of dates, I create a property note. When I am looking through newspaper archives, when I come across a reported sale, I add it to the note in chronological order. I have a 'military' note which serves a similar purpose. Rather than record each transfer as an event, I add them to the military note. I can also keep more detailed info here.

I have a 'medical' note for detailed info a a person's medical history, and a 'private' note for other things I want to keep private for now, like my speculation on parentage. Neither of these ever get shared.

My most useful note is my 'other family' note. This is useful when I am working with an obituary. These can list a lot of people and usually add them all to my database. But sometimes when I am working with the obit of a 3rd cousin's wife's parents, I really don't care about the siblings or spouses. I want their names somewhere, just in case it turns out there is another relationship path. So I add these people to my 'other family' note as 'also survived by...'. This is also useful when grandchildren are listed, all with the same last name, but no indication which brother they descended from. They are tucked into the note as a 'tickler' if I ever decide to do more research on the person.

[Melinda Anderson]

You all are a lot more organized than I am! I write a bio for direct ancestors in the misc. notes field (maybe I should change that to Bio), random research notes dumped into Research (use excel for complicated research) and a DNA note for those ancestors or descendants I am tracking with DNA.