52 Weeks to Better Genealogy : Week 11 Results

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (and hosted by Geneabloggers) presents "52 Weeks To Better Genealogy", a series of weekly genealogy prompts / suggestions / exercises that (hopefully) will help anyone to become a better researcher.

The challenge for week 11:

Read the back posts from the Transitional Genealogists Forum. This is a message board for genealogists who are taking the steps needed to become professional genealogists. Even if you aren’t interested in that goal, you will benefit from the questions and answers provided on this excellent discussion list. If you have a genealogy blog, write about a question or subject from this board that was helpful for you.

I found several things of interest, including...

The thread for [TGF] Source Citation Placement from 4 February 2008 for the placement (and discrepencies) of sources within a formal research report.  Of interest, especially if I ever get my butt in gear and write personal research reports, as I would like to (eventually) do...

The thread for Privacy Laws - Canada from 2 August 2008 is something I am sadly lacking in and need to become more aware of...

The post of Organizing and "Publishing" Personal Research (by Connie Sheets) from 8 March 2009 made me think about what I'm doing, how I'm going about it, and where I want my research to go (where my ancestors went is another issue! ;)

The thread for How Do You Track Time on Projects? 26 June 2009 : Since time (whether blogging, researching, or just being "genealogically nosy" (i.e. surfing), tends to drift away from me, I thought this conversation might be of some help...

The thread for Tips for citations in Word 13 August 2009 : Helpful, again, if I ever get to my plan of personal research reports...

The threads for personal research report or status update from 30 August 2009 and Organization of Client Reports from 6 December 2009 : I especially found the response from Elizabeth Shown Mills quite helpful in regarding a format for personal research reports (which I would eventually like to do for my own research...).

The thread for What to call a progenitor whose first name is unknown from 6 January 2010 : I found this conversation interesting since we all have "unknown's", whether progenitor's or not (even though the question itself was asked in conjection with a client research report).

The thread for Henrietta Lacks - example of an interesting research project from 1 February 2010 : This one jumped out at me solely because I have the book that came out of this research - waiting on my TBR shelf! :)

...as well as the numerous threads on various citation formats and discussions on BCG Standards and "Evidence Explained"! Even though I have no (current - I've thought about it though!) plans to "become" professional/certified (though informal "self-education" will always continue), I plan to subscribe to the list regardless.  It's quite a bundle of information! 

Please Note: This challenge was originally published the week of 13 March 2010. I'm continuing the series on my own after a lengthy (cough, cough) break from genealogy...