I appreciate the input and being given a look into these spreadsheets that have been mentioned. I may be missing something, but it seems their intent is for a different sort of research than I had in mind in the OP. For the most part, these sheets appear to be a tool for organizing and/or displaying the research findings, but not so much about the research and sources themselves.
Maybe an example would help... I have a female ancestor. I am pretty sure about her descendants, and think I can make a convincing case. However, I have nothing that directly ties her to who I believe is her son, and my gg-grandfather. I do have a direct tie from her to a different son, and that son in my gg-grandfathers home in a census where he's listed as a 1/2 brother. This lady's ancestry is an even bigger question. I have enough information that it would seem too much to be coincidence, but not enough to make a good case. I am trying to find the evidence to fit all the pieces together. What I have to work with is she came from Tennessee. If she is part of the family I suspect she is, then it would be from Cannon County. A couple experts at the local research center have warned me that Smith and Cannon Counties are hard places to research. That it seems people from there just don't want to be found. She came to Missouri with three children and no husband. It looks like she may have had a brother already in Missouri, and that her mother came with her as well. I'm speculating her father must have died in Tennessee and the family came to live with the son/brother in Missouri. She then marries a couple different times. Then family story says she died in Texas while visiting my gg-grandfather who was living there at that time. So what I'm looking for is a death and probate info. on her father in Tennessee. An obit on her brother in Missouri. Any marriage records for her in Tennessee. A newspaper announcement of her marriages in Missouri. A probate record on her in either Missouri or Texas. Death records for her in Texas. The hope being that one or more of these things, if I can ever find them, is that it will give me a relationship to my gg-grandfather, her brother, or her parents. (The brother is fairly well documented, so a tie to him is helpful). My current planning is to put together a list of periodicals to search looking for this information. My last trip to the library included 25 to scan through, mostly on the brother. Now I have a piece of paper, with 25 periodical citations on it where I found nothing. I am wondering how others use TODOs for this sort of research (or if they do), and your data entry method for best managing it. Does that help at all explain what I'm looking for at all? Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
