so....i'm not sure what to do next. need a little push/inspiration/advice. I am a little organizationally challenged - (distracted by shiny things, pretty colours, cool patterns, the sound of trains, storm clouds, drapes moving in the evening breeze) so maybe there are things I can do to re-organize information I have that might shed light on some thing that I haven't noticed. But I don't really know where to start. What are the most useful things to do with the information you have? I was thinking about maybe making a list of names that show up in my grandfather's letters. or a list of places. but then what? I kind of have that already. should i just make a pile of lists and hope that something will pop out? Am interested in hearing strategies that I can attempt to adopt to make sense of what I have. cheers! Myfanwy
An interesting dilemma! Without knowing the specific information you have I can only offer a generalized suggestion. Have you thought of going back through your material with a specific purpose in mind? (i.e. Writing a narrative about your grandfather's time in the service, trying to answer the biggest outstanding questions you have?, mapping his wartime travels). Good luck with whatever you choose.
Hi Myfanwy, It really does depend on what it is you want to achieve. But, in my experience revisiting data (names, places, dates etc.) always throws up new leads and directions in which to travel along. This is how I have managed to link up groups of men from Chindit 1 into platoons and small dispersal groups. Recently I put together a group of about 30 men, and all because of one date that kept re-occurring. This was something that I had missed first time around. Best wishes. Steve
Perhaps you've already made one but a golden tool, especially for researching individuals incapable of being in two places at once, is to create a timeline - best done in electronic form so you may insert events ad lib (that or maybe small Post-It notes). And keep the entries concise so as not to lose sight of the overall pattern. You can always flesh it out into a full-blown narrative once you're satisfied with its overall completeness but, prior to that, its main purpose would be to alert you to any gaps you may wish to fill. And seeding it with relevant historical events can provide a valuable context framework to help you spot them. Here's some random further reading on that c/o Google: * Timelines as Genealogical Research Tools * Investigating a Family Legend with Ancestor Timelines HTH, Steve Edit: inserted word to remove ambiguity
How about posting what you have gleaned so far about your grandfather's service in this linked forum? http://ww2talk.com/forums/forum/124-people-of-ww2-research-results/ I am sure you would then get some specific feedback as to new leads / approaches / possible re-organisation.
brilliant! That gives me a tangible goal. I will work on a timeline & narrative & post it to the link DBF gave. His letters have quite a bit of info in them, but I have other info and integrating it together will be a nice way to understand the information and also find spinoff places. Hope I can keep focused on the timeline. Tangents are fun but distracting. Sticky notes (likely digital ones for me) will help with that I guess - make a note of something to pursue later. The big questions - also a great suggestion. There are some big ones, and smaller ones. Some might never be answered. Might be awhile before I post it.. I think I will also leave out the North West Expeditionary Forces for the moment and focus on India/Burma. I did print out maps in very large format awhile back and my plan was to mark his route but I think I need the timeline first. Thanks!
Oh, and now that I"ve checked out Red Goblin's links to timelines, does anyone use any software other than say an office type of program with tables? Just wondering if anyone has a favourite open source timeline software? There seem to be a bunch out there.
Good old KiSS plain text suits me - only needing care to respect 80-character maximum line length for neat printing (sample print of my current Indian project = View attachment service record (plain text maintained in Notepad).pdf ) - but each to their own. I prefer DIY freedom for letting me do things like: * Omit date repetition (to visually cluster same-day events for greater clarity) * Customise bullet points (e.g. here '+' for context events & '?' for implied dates) * Adapt my customisation to suit individual projects Or there's Search Results for "timeline": SourceForge sorted by popularity - but beware much not designed for weighing evidence, but for alternate purposes like personal time organisation, and do make sure you can export all your hard work to Word or whatever you plan to use to produce your narrative ... Steve PS: Thinking forward - this, just up from Lisa A Alzo, may prove handy later: Legacy News: 3 Easy Steps to Rescue Your Stalled Family History Narrative
Goblin Steve, that IS very neat looking, the plain text service record. straight foward. What's the difference between the - and the + sections? oh wait, i just re-read. I don't even read in a linear way it would seem. Thanks for the feedback/help! Bamboo Steve - Thanks!
You write really well..it would be great to see a bit of what you have done already. Can you tell us where he was, which unit he was in etc? It is difficult to have loads of bits of information hanging about. I prefer to muse a bit about the side issues, but also like to see the soldiers writing in their own words. I struggle with what it is all for, but do think just being able to pass on some sort of record if only for the family, is important. But to find ones relatives name in someone else's account is brilliant.
Alright. I had posted it here but lost all the table formatting. So here it is so far as a PDF. I also deleted my preamble. ack. Anyway, I haven't got very far yet, but I was inspired by everyone's support and suggestions. After I have finished going through the letters which my father transcribed and organized I will go through his service record and other documents like war diaries and book entries and bulk it out to assist the narrative. What an awesome process!
Let it run... All I've done with errors is blank the section or ask (pretty please) for admin to delete what you can't... Nice and simply laid out, btw...
Thanks! I have quite a bit more of the letters to do before he gets to Burma. Hoping that I"ll have more time in the fall.
