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February 7, 2011

Making a Choice - Go for the Challenge or the Easier Research

It's almost time for me to leave for Salt Lake City and RootsTech! I'm flying in a few days ahead of the conference which is Feb. 10-12. That will give me time to rest up from my long journey and to visit the Family History Library to do my own personal genealogy research.

I'm pretty excited. I've been to SLC before but not for about 5 years. Since it's almost impossible for me to obtain FHL microfilm where I live, I look forward to these trips to do the research I can't do here.

This trip I'm having trouble deciding on a research plan! I know from experience that I must have a plan, and lists of films and books I want to consult or my limited time in the Library is wasted.

I'm torn between researching my mother's English ancestry (SLC being the only place I can consult the records I need) or some of my more challenging Ontario Canada lines. I *want* to research my Canadian brick walls but I know that it is more efficient for me to do that English research. But it's more fun for me and much more of a challenge, to do the Ontario stuff.

I can get most of the Ontario records with a trip to the Archives of Ontario and a few other repositories so even though such a trip is not easy for me, the fact that it's "do-able" is weighing heavily in my decision.

So -- do I take the challenge where I have to really think and work to find any tidbit OR go the easier route where it is mostly robotic, not much thinking required....

I've given myself til the end of the day to decide. Tomorrow I have to hop to it and get the list of films that I need and figure out my plan of attack.

I may be kind of quiet over the next few days, but once RootsTech starts you'll be able to read my daily blog posts, follow my tweets on Twitter at @LorineMS and watch here for any videos I manage to create.

3 comments:

Tessa Keough said...

Looking forward to your comments on the RootsTech conference. I attended SLIG in January and had some great luck with my research at the FHL.

My vote is that you take the challenge, do the harder work and you will have a good time. Make use of the speciality consultants at the desks (be sure to ask for someone who specializes with the records you are interested in rather than "general help"). Also learn to the use the scanner on day 1 - you will be thrilled with the changes to the computer system and the microfilm "copy" system - I did hundreds of pages all on my flash drive! Also photograph from books - timesaving and you can use your photo viewer to make any changes. Have fun!!

Kathy Reed said...

Enjoy your trip. One of these days I hope I can got to this conference.

The Grandmother Here said...

I find Ontario easier than England because Ancestry.com has births, deaths, and marriages.