I touched on the practice of logging genealogical research efforts in my recent article, Documenting Unknown Dates. I kept that article mostly computer platform agnostic so it could be as universal as the topic is for genealogists. A side effect of that generality is that I got questions about how to keep a research log. I already had an article series planned, of which this is the first on the subject. I’ll be doing a series on keeping genealogy tasks lists as well, so look for that in the future.
I plan a series of articles because there are myriad ways of keeping research journals. In fact, if you have a favorite you’d like to share, leave a comment so others can benefit from your knowledge and experience. Since most of you are Reunion users, I’ll start there. I’ll cover the other genealogy software in future articles and videos as well as other Mac based software to get this important job done with a minimum amount of fuss.
The genealogy software, Reunion 9 for Mac, has a logging function built-in. Logging in Reunion can be used to log research, correspondence, or whatever else. In this video from the MacGenealogist Archives, Keeping Logs in the Mac Genealogy Software, Reunion for Macintosh, I show you how logging works and point out the pitfalls of using Reunion for this purpose.
Ben,
What’s the difference between using “logs” and utilising the “notes” fileds. The Notes have the advantage of being tied to a particular person so you can avoid the complex naming conventions needed to keep multiple log entries unique.
Also you mentioned in your video that you use another program for your log files. Would you mind telling me what that is?
Regards
Keith