Methodology Monday: Is a good memory a method?

This morning Jill Morelli's excellent blog post reminded me of one of the six qualities Donald Lines Jacobus required of a good professional genealogist: "Ability to grasp and retain an infinite amount of detail."

The idea that a genealogist (or anyone) needs to know lots of facts was more fashionable 80 years ago than now, when we can always look things up on line. But the reason to have them in our heads is to be able to flag things as we see them and make the connection.

Some examples from a set of records recently viewed. What would you suspect about the parents, or the place, or the time of birth, if you found a child with one of these given names?

W. H. H.
Wilbur Orville
Byron Garfield (1880s)
James Blaine
Chester Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Raymond Roosevelt (1899)

The more we know, the more we can learn.

Do you have more obscure examples? Share them in the comments!



Harold Henderson, "Methodology Monday: Is a good memory a method?," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 30 June 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Unique. Pioneering. Exemplary. Did you know a future Hall of Famer?

The National Genealogical Society is looking for the 29th person to be inducted into the National Genealogy Hall of Fame, at its Richmond conference 7-10 May 2014. To be considered for this honor, the person must:

* be nominated by a genealogical society,

* have been active in genealogy for at least 10 years,

* have been deceased for at least 5 years, and

* have made "unique, pioneering, or exemplary" contributions to the field. Possible examples given by NGS (italics added by me) include having

• authored books or articles that added significantly to the body of published works, and/or that serve as models of genealogical research and writing;
• made genealogical source records more readily available to the public by preserving, transcribing, translating, abstracting, indexing, and/or publishing such records;
• shared with others knowledge of genealogical research methods and sources through teaching and lecturing and/or publication of educational materials; and
• contributed time, labor, and leadership to a genealogical organization or a genealogical periodical publication, thus enabling that organization or publication to make significant contributions to the field of genealogy in the United States.

The first member, elected in 1986, was the indefatigable Donald Lines Jacobus (above), who should need no introduction here; the most recent, elected in 2013, was Earl Gregg Swem, who among other things compiled the Virginia Genealogical Index.

For examples, see the names, pictures, and accomplishments of the 28 honorees to date. I was interested to learn that three Hall of Famers made their contributions from the Midwest: Michigan (Lucy Mary Kellogg 1899-1973), Illinois (Lowell M. Volkel 1936-1992), and Indiana (Willard Calvin Heiss 1921-1988).

Submissions are due January 31. See information on the nominating procedure, the call for nominations, and the nominating form.


Harold Henderson, "Unique. Pioneering. Exemplary. Did you know a future Hall of Famer?," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 9 November 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]