The Small To Do List - How to Stretch It

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

When I arrived in Salt Lake City I had two (2) to do lists, which, honestly, I thought were fairly pathetic.  I was pretty happy and surprised when I stretched them to last well over two weeks.  Of course, I went on a few research tangents, and ya, they took up some time.  I collected a number of digital images of documents on those tangents. YES!!

So, when I did have the lists down to about 2 or 3 items, I started snooping around the data base for additional little tidbits I would just LOVE to have.  And, I have been coming up with plenty, let me tell you.

How??

By going to other to do lists I have on my data base and reviewing them and determining what items can be done here in the research mecca.

See, in RootsMagic you can organize your to do lists by repositories.  I have done that, have repositories from Georgia to Oregon listed, just in case I ever get there.  Now for sure, there are some items on those to do lists that are only available in a specific repository, but, I am finding quite a few things that I can investigate here in Salt Lake City.

Many of the items in the left column can be done in Salt Lake, 
even if originally listed in another repository.

Another trick I have used is to list all events in a specific locality.  RootsMagic will list all events, births, marriages, deaths, burials, in a locality.  Look at what is on the list, can I grab any documents while here in the mecca?

Above:  Place list, lets have a lookie see at Adams County, Colorado.  Click and see:

Click on "Generate Report" and you will get something that looks sorta like this.  Sorta, cause if you notice the dates they are all more recent, and I cut out the names on this example for privacy purposes.

So, examine this list of events in Adams County Colorado, I ask myself, is it a documented date, do I have the certificate??  If not, will I be able to obtain it from the collection here in Salt Lake City??  This turned out to be a crummy example because I only have births in this county and the dates are all pretty recent.  But, other lists I have generated have resulted in a lot of new documents for my data base covering births, deaths, and marriages.

There are a couple of other little tricks I have used to take my 2 scrawny to do lists and fill my research time here in Salt Lake City, the research mecca.  And I never did get down to the European films floor. There were these German church records I wanted to try to get better images of - - I thought for sure by now I would have them - -

Who knew I could S-T-R-E-T-C-H two to do lists out for a month's research?  Not I.


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