It's time for this week's Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree! Thanks to everyone who has sent in a Quick Tip. Please keep them coming so that we can keep this tradition going. You can send your tips to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your message.

Have a great day!
Juliana

Color-Coded Gedcom

Many of my living relatives who have helped me put together a family tree either do not have computers or wouldn't know a GEDCOM if they fell over one. In order to help them understand family relationships, I've typed up and printed out a simple descendancy chart, using a different color for each generation. Since our family is complicated with overlapping generations, this helps them see at a glance who are first cousins, second cousins, etc.

Dorothy Colwell

Neighbors' Origins Can Hold Clues

If you don't have any idea where your ancestors came from, look at their neighbors’ roots. If you can find where the neighbors came from, you may also find your ancestors’ origins. My great-grandfather was from Arnum, Germany, and the cemetery in Arnum showed a lot of families that immigrated to the same town my great-grandfather did.

Philip Jon Krueger

I have a terrible time keeping up with my research notes, especially when I'm “working the net.” I think I've finally solved it. Before I start a research session, or even after, I open a blank word processing document. I head up the page with the date I'm doing the search and then do a lot of copy and paste. Yesterday I was doing cemetery research. I copied the site (which included the state), the county and name of each cemetery in which I found names I wanted to check further and the pertinent names and information. Using my word processor I can insert comments if I wish.

At this point I don't worry a whole lot about how the document looks, I just need to be able to read it. Get those notes down. Get those notes….

When I'm through, I save the document into a “Research” folder on my desktop. When I'm ready to do further research I can print the whole document and go from there. Or, I can make copies of portions to go into the different family files. Another really neat thing about the copy and paste is that any links are copied into my document so I can go back to it any time I want. Open my document, be online, click on any links shown, and “wow!”

Happy “research noting!”
Stella

Door Tip

I read your suggestions that suggested using a door for a desktop. Several persons suggested buying a new door to rest on top of filing cabinets. I have done that, but I took an old door with the doorlock hole at the top. This way, I have a neat round hole for all of my computer and printer leads, etc.

Vic Boisseree