Last week I posted a geneameme called “Beyond the Internet”. I thought it would be interesting to see whether off-line resources are still being used by family historians and whether we still see value in them.
I was delighted to see people engaging with this geneameme…it was so interesting seeing people’s discoveries in the records. Some people plainly loved highlighting the records they’ve used in their research often to great effect. Others commented on it as an aide memoir for current or future research.
The jury is still out on whether old-fashioned documents still have a place in research: the sample here isn’t really large enough to know. But those who’ve used the records are in no doubt of their usefulness. An inbuilt bias to the questions perhaps? What records would you add?
Thanks very much to all those who participated. If I’ve omitted anyone please do let me know: I’ve had a google alert on this but I must be doing something wrong as they’re not all coming through.
Australian Genealogy Journeys (first off the post Aillin!)
From Helen V Smith’s keyboard – Helen
Genealogy Leftovers – Judy
Geniaus – Jill
My Family Puzzles -Alison
My Genealogy Adventure -Tanya
Shauna Hicks History Enterprises -Shauna
The Tree of Me – Sharon
Tracking down the family – Jennifer
Wandering Roots -Julia
A response from:
Family History Fun -Susan
And comments from
A Hundred Years Ago –Sheryl
Roots’n’Leaves -Joan
Family history across the seas 
I enjoyed reading everyone’s lists. I, too, have been having trouble with Google Alerts. They work fine for single words, but are not reliable for phrases. I don’t know why. I’ve modified my Alerts since the recent changes requiring quotes instead of + in Google searches.
You asked, ‘What records would you add?’ I would add ‘original Police Gazettes’. The ones that have been digitised and released on CD-ROM are not the same as the ones at Qld State Archives. Those have hand-written annotations, which can be very helpful sometimes.
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Thanks Judy for your reply and addition -an excellent one. I had forgotten them. When they were digitised I had fond hopes of finding my missing McSherry/McSharry ancestor (I think he did a runner) but no such luck. I did have a browse through the “real thing” at QSA a long time ago (on your recommendations) but of course it was like a needle in a haystack, even trying a short range of years…perhaps another to put on the “look again” list.
Thanks for the feedback on Google alerts…haven’t had great success even using just “cassmob” or “Dorfprozelten” let alone longer strings. Oh well Google searches help.
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It’s so hard to find the meme responses – I ask people to let me know but often they don’t. I do Google searches for the term as well and turn up a few that way.
This is a great resource – thanks for the time and effort you put into it.
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Thanks Jill, I”m glad to know it’s not just me and alerts…I’d get them days later and didn’t get all so I did Google searches as well. I enjoyed it and found it an interesting exercise. At the end of it I wondered whether the questions were too biased or if people really just aren’t interested in the offline resources…an interesting mystery to ponder.
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I am sorry I missed the earlier discussion, but have added some thoughts at
http://scotsue-familyhistoryfun.blogspot.com/2011/11/beyond-internet-some-late-thoughts.html
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Sorry you missed the original Susan but I really liked the detail in your post….shows just how much is “out there” off the internet. Oh to be in Scotland;-)
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