Learning Blog 5 – “Branching Out”

This week has been fun.  I finally got the chance to look at some microfilm downtown at the Family History Center!   

Nathan was kind enough to lend his skills to the cause. He thought the lights on the microfilm machines were the best part.  I told him we were looking for great grandpa and he went around the building asking "Where's grandpa?".  

When i got to the library they handed my microfilms over.  When they handed the boxes to me I got all excited and then realized that I had no idea what to do with them.  I asked someone for help and they taught me how to set up a microfilm. It's pretty cool to use.  

Each microfilm is on a little wheel.  You have to get an empty wheel to hook up on the other side so that as you roll through the film it fills up the other reel.  Then when you're done with a film you have to roll it all back up.  At first I thought that I had to go slow to find each section but then someone came and helped me and showed me how each section is purposely in a black area so that you can quickly scroll through and easily see the marks that split sections. I just wish that there would have been more time to look.  I only got to look for about an hour. 

 I decided that the easiest way to find Marlon's grandpa would be to look through the death records of Natagaima.  I finally scrolled through and found 1953.  The problem is that i went through the entire year and couldn't find his name! We have double checked with his father and he says that everything is right.  It makes me wonder if Natagaima is like us saying Sandy UT.  Maybe he was buried at a close by place?

I was disappointed that i couldn't find the record that i needed but I got some good advice from my trusty friend at work.  He said that when he first started doing genealogy he focused on one line and that was it, but the real trick is to branch out using other relatives.  Most of the time the branches will lead back to the trunk.  My next technique is going to be trying to find great grandma instead.  Maybe if I can find that connection I will be able to link back into the truck of the tree and find great grandpa :)

I also think that i'm going to retake the first class that I took on doing family history for South America.  I thought that I understood what it was talking about but I think that I will understand more if I take a second go at it. It really reminds me of our readings about experts.  

In one of the studies they found that experts were better at recognizing features and patterns than novices.  Experts can also pull out the major principle whereas novices focus on what a problem looks like.  I think that i'm still in the "looks like" phase.  The interesting thing is that when i started to look at the documents on the microfilm I was reminded of the first training that I did.  It really helped a lot to make some connections back to the training.  Hopefully I will get some more by repeating the information.  I guess you could say that repetition will be my "strategy" this week! I'm hoping to go back and spend some more time.  I want to double check 1952 and 1954.  I also want to see if maybe I can find a marriage record.  My new focus will be great grandmother to try and loop back.