FINALLY Get Organized! Week of March 13-19

So I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I'm on a roll now, and will finish it up before the end of the month. The tasks given to us for the week of March 13:

1. "Consider the differences between sources, information, and evidence" - pretty straightforward, but I did a quick review of the provided articles before digging in to the rest of the assignment.
2. Organize your thoughts and write at least one paragraph for each parent-child-spouse relationship - I started tinkering with the software Evidentia for this, and while I like the program, I found it would take me too long to use it for this task. Tonight I decided to change direction, and I wrote an ascending narrative report, as described by the Board for Certification of Genealogists. I found Connie Lenzen's article especially helpful.¹ I started with my paternal line, and worked back to proving the parents of my great-grandfather, Arthur M. Beem. I wound up with a completely sourced, five page document using direct evidence and a mixture of primary and secondary sources to tell my family's story.
3. Start planning your summer vacation - Mine is already planned, and sadly,  I will not be anywhere near where my non-Florida lines lived. However, I've realized that I have neglected some research right in my own back yard, and plan to fix that this spring and summer.

Closing Thoughts

Once I decided on a format that works for me, I really enjoyed this assignment. I could have created a basic report in my family tree software, but typing the document myself in Word forced me to reconsider the sources, information, and evidence I used in the report.  I want to continue working on the narrative for the Beem family - flesh out a few more details, find more direct evidence and primary sources (especially for the siblings, where I have too much reliance on just the family Bible) - and add some stories.

I have promised my Price cousins some written family history at next year's family reunion, and I now have a good format to get started. So, up next...Russell and Maude Price (aka Grandpa and Grandma Price).

Citations

1. Lenzen, Connie. "The Maternal Line of Elizabeth (Niesz) Titus" (http://www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/titusnarrlineage.pdf: accessed 27 March 2016).