Early in this Blog, I mentioned a term I used when I taught in high school and middle school. The term was “current level of awareness.” It was from a resource I used by Bob Moawad and referred to the fact that we make decisions based on what we currently know. As we learn more about a topic or a strategy, our knowledge level changes, and we might change our thinking or our way of working. Pretty basic concept but one I forget to apply to my own work. Do you apply it to yours? How and how often?

As I have been working on my family history throughout the process of this blog, one of my tasks has been to review and clean-up my files and the details in them. I ran across one recently, that always intrigued me. My 4^th and 5^thx GG seemed to have the same names as everyone around them. Kids were named the same as their parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters and even children with the same name in the same family with different birthdates. Talk about “who’s who”?

At one point I wrote to the genealogy society in the area they were from. They had, lucky for me, been researching the same family. I shared with them, they with me, case closed. Right?

Here is where the current awareness comes in. What do I know now that I wasn’t fully aware of then? The answer, when you get materials, especially large documents like entire books or sections from them, don’t just say “how cool, I’ll look at it tomorrow.” Don’t get overwhelmed thinking it will take too long and not be worth the time. READ THEM and then TRANSCRIBE THEM. In doing that, you may pick out details you missed, even contradictions. You can then research what you need to possibly clean up the contradictions and possibly solve your problems. It also slows you down. Something else we have talked about.

I ended up spending one morning transcribing all the details from the documents and putting them on my new timeline, which is based on my, you guessed it, current level of awareness, and at least got myself back to the parents where I can do the same to confirm things from that end.

I was lucky that the documents were consistent with each other and well documented. Because of their role in their communities, there was much to be read in the history of their locations. Finding, reading the details, and writing the facts, led me to some interesting stories and understanding of this line of my family.  Oh, and those kids with the same name in the same family, they were the next child of the same gender born after a young child had died. I also may have found another French connection (not the movie), maybe French Canadian. There may even be NARA implications as there could be veterans in this generation and line. This could be fun! Isn’t it always?

What new understandings are you finding that make you stop and rethink your history? I have asked before, have you tried a new website, database or workflow? Have you tried the FAN club?  Have you had a new “aha” moment?

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com