I chose to use RootsMagic Essentials which is a free genealogical research organizing software. For how good (and for how free) it is I was surprised at how versatile the program is. I really like this program. The screen shot below is what information I have gathered so far for my family tree. Even though I'm searching primarily for the Koehler side of my family, I was able to fill in as much information for my maternal ancestors as I could for my father's. I like having this tree available to look at because it motivates me in two ways. On the one hand, it lets me know how much work still needs to be done. On the other hand, it reminds me of what I have already and it's a good feeling.
One thing I immediately noticed when I started work on this project was the amount of scattered notes I had made. It made keeping track of my data and sources difficult to say the least. Now I would have been happy with the RootsMagic system if I only had the family tree feature but simply double-clicking on a family member's name launches a pop-up where you can input an amazing array of data. I like that I can double-click on my great-grandmother's name and in one screen can view all her birthday, anniversary, and other personal information.
This is not to mention that I can also keep track of where I found out about this information. The system has pre-built source templates to store where you found the information. In other words, this system is pretty bad-ass for free! I highly recommend it for anyone starting out.
If anyone knows of any other systems they'd like to share or prefer to use, please feel free to let me know. I'm pretty sold on the RootsMagic system and I've started using it already but I'm always open to suggestions.
I have also had some pretty good success this week in terms of research! I have a list of birthdays and anniversaries from my grandma Koehler that has proved absolutely invaluable. It has the anniversary date for my great-grandparents wedding and my great-grandmother Florence's birthday in 1899 (strangely, she did not include my great-grandpa George Koehler and I have no idea why). Using the birth date from my grandmother's list as a cross-reference, I was able to locate the Social Security death certificate for Florence Koehler in New York! That's the first public document I found proving she even existed so I am super happy. Genealogical research is measured in very bite-size progress, so no matter how small the morsel I'll take it!
My next step is to try to find ANY information on my great-grandfather George Koehler which sounds easier that it has been. He has proved rather elusive in my research - I cannot find anything on him at all. Aside from his name and marriage anniversary to Florence in 1919 (at least according to my grandma's anniversary list), I know nothing about the man. This makes it impossible to confirm that any of the George Koehler's I've found in census records are him.
Even more annoying to me is that I can't find any instances of a George and Florence Koehler living together in the census records. Since I know my paternal grandfather's birthday is in 1927, I figured I could search the 1930 census for George and Florence Koehler with a son John and I'd find them. Wham-bam - seemed easy enough. I was wrong. I couldn't find anything that matched that so I've hit somewhat of a brick wall there. All I really want to do is find out the names of my paternal great-great grandparents so I can fill in the blanks on the family tree but since I can't find anything on my great-grandfather it's rather difficult to do so.
I need some sort of a clue here but I'm stuck. I'm going to try to do a Freedom of Information Act request for my grandfather's NY National Guard records. I'm hoping those records will give me a hint of where my grandfather was living when he joined in 1952 and, possibly, lead me on another route to my great-grandfather's personal information. Stay tuned for that and if any one reading has any hints or tips for me, please let me know. I could use them =)
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