The project I'm working on is a bit more problematic, but I've cleared off the little table behind my desk and that is now reserved exclusively for those materials. I've gone through and put away the reference materials I don't need at the moment, and now there's actually a space to work.

Temporary Folders
That leaves the filing and database entering. As I mentioned in last week's column, a find in the passport database led me to explore a bit more of my Grandpa Pyburn's family and sadly, those pages are now interfiled with examples I used in the article and finds from other family lines. These are all piled up waiting for that free moment to follow through on them.

I do have a system in place to absorb these records on a temporary basis until I have the time to go through and analyze them. I bought a small plastic bin that holds hanging file folders, and I have created folders for my surnames. I can quickly sort papers by surname and that way when I get a free minute, I can just grab a folder and process the records a bit at a time.

For those times where I'm plundering a database and have pages with multiple surnames, I have a miscellaneous file too.

This file is also great for to-do notes or a record of places I've searched but came out empty-handed. It's my go-to place when I get some time to myself to work on my family.

Books I've Started
As I cleared out some of the more obvious things cluttering my office, I found seven books that I'm currently in some stage of reading. I'm terrible that way. I start a book and a new one catches my eye, so the first one gets dropped while I'm checking out the new one, and then suddenly another book appears on my radar that "I just have to read." The rest is history. This week we hung a cabinet in the kitchen for all my spices that had formerly been kept in wire baskets. One of the wire baskets has been re-purposed to hold my reading collection. With them all in one place taunting me to come read for a while, I have a feeling I'll get a lot more reading done.

Those Articles You've Been Meaning to Read
With the holidays, it's sometimes hard to get our normal dose of genealogy reading in, like newsletter or magazine articles. For those in e-mail format, it's easy to copy and paste them into documents and save them as text files. I have a folder on my hard drive for "Reading Materials" so that when an article of interest comes in that I don't have time to read, I can file it away and avoid cluttering up my inbox. Magazines have taken up residence in another former spice-jar-holding wire basket.

Schedule a Task a Day
If your office or workspace is small like mine is, it's easy for clutter to take over. When it does it seems even harder to tackle the project and all to easy to just close the door on it. If you approach it in small pieces, doing a task each day, or working on just one corner at a time, you'll find that it's not as bad as you think.

This month I'll be taking off a few days before and after Christmas. Instead of having nightmares about the piles of stashed papers in the closet, I can sit in my office with peace of mind and spend some enjoyable time with my ancestors.

Share Your Organizational Challenge or Tip
With the amount of data we accumulate searching for our ancestors, organizing can be one of the biggest challenges. Please let us know what challenges you face, or any tips you have in the comments section of the blog.

Juliana Smith has been an editor of Ancestry.com newsletters for more than nine years and is author of The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and wrote the "Computers and Technology" chapter in The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, rev. 3rd edition. Juliana can be reached by e-mail at Juliana@Ancestry.com, but she regrets that her schedule does not allow her to assist with personal research.

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by Michael John Neill

Each of us has our own brick wall ancestor or family. Mine is Ira William Sargent, who, along with his wife and two children, was apparently dropped off by aliens in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1880. Regular readers will remember Ira from previous articles.

Occasionally I type Ira's name in the search box at Ancestry to see if a new potential match appears in any recently released databases. I keep track of all the "false" leads--those Iras who, for one reason or another are "not mine." This tracking is important and includes where I located the "Ira" and why I think he is not mine. The spreadsheet of Iras continues to grow over time and is an integral part of my research process.

A few months ago, a "new" Ira surfaced in the Iowa State Census database at Ancestry. I immediately checked it out and viewed the complete record image.

Based upon the family structure, this Ira was not one I had already located and eliminated. However, that does not mean he is automatically "mine."

First Steps
The first step was to see how close these details matched what was known about the Ira for whom I was looking. My Ira was born ca. 1843 in either Canada or the state of New York. Based upon later census information, he came to the midwestern United States by the early 1870s and most likely lived in Iowa, Missouri, or Illinois from that time on. Those are the only details I have. (Itinerant day laborers are not known for leaving a vast quantity of records.)

The age and place of birth for this Ira is consistent with mine. The consistency proves nothing, but indicates that further work on this new Ira is needed.

If 1856 Iowa census was correct, Ira and most of the other children in the Landon household should be enumerated somewhere in the United States in 1850, probably in Illinois or in Iowa. Given that I have searched the 1850 and 1860 census extensively for any reasonable rendering of Ira Sargent, I thought it odd I had not already located this family.

I easily found Asa Landon living in Illinois in 1850 with what appeared to be the same family from the 1856 Iowa state census.

1850 Owen, Winnebago County, Illinois Census

• Asa Landon, aged 41, male, farmer, $400 real estate, born Canada
• Mary Landon, aged 39, female, born Canada
• Emma Landon, aged 10, female, born Canada
• Lucretia Landon, aged 8, female, born Canada
• Ira Landon, aged 6, male, born New York
• Martha Landon, aged 4, female, born Illinois
• Minerva Landon, aged 2, female, born Illinois
• Edwin Landon, aged 3/12, male, born Illinois
• Nelson Witesall, aged 25, male, born Canada

The ages and first names are relatively consistent with the 1856 Iowa state census enumeration. In 1850 all the children have the last name Landon. This explains why I had never located this family.

A Marriage Record
The Illinois State Marriage index contained a reference that hinted at the likely family structure and explained the variant last names for some of the children.

There was an index entry indicating a Mrs. Mary Sargent married Asa Landon on 6 January 1849 in Winnebago County, Illinois. This date of marriage is consistent with the census enumerations for the family and the last names of the children as given in 1856.

I still have problems, though. I need to track down the Ira Sargent from the 1856 census enumeration in order to determine whether or not he is "mine." I also need to find the name of Mary's prior husband (Sargent) in order to conclude if records on him (or on his family) provide any information on his children.

The 1860 Census
The Landon family was located in Missouri in the 1860 census. There are a few inconsistencies with this information, but it appears to be the correct family.

1860 Census, Benton Township, Christian County, Missouri

• Asa Landon, aged 62, male, farmer, New York
• Luxesy, aged 18, female, born New York
• Martha, aged 16, female, born Canada?
• Ira[nn?], aged 14, female, born Illinois
• [Mariana?], aged 12, female, born Illinois
• Edwin [T?], aged 9, male, born Illinois
• Roxey, aged 7, female, born Illinois

Asa appears to have aged twenty years since the 1850 census. However, the age in either enumeration could easily be incorrect. If Asa's age in 1856 is actually fifty-eight then the 1860 census age of sixty-two is not that inconsistent.

The rest of the household presents a slight challenge. Except for Emma the names of the children are relatively the same as they were in 1850. Emma's absence is easily explained. In 1860, Emma would have been twenty years old and could easily have been married and in her own household or working outside the home and enumerated elsewhere. The ages of the children are pretty much a ten-year progression until you look at the names and the gender. That is when Ira and Martha create a problem.

My premise is that the census taker, when using his field notes to write up his clean copy of the census, made a mistake in the enumeration. The sixteen-year-old should be Ira and the fourteen- year-old should be Martha. The gender of Ira is incorrect as well. I'm not entirely certain whether this is the case, but it seems reasonable and easier to explain that than the appearance of "new" children in 1860. The key is that I transcribe the census exactly as it appears and include my commentary in my notes.

There is still more work to do on this family. Research needs to be conducted in Winnebago County, Illinois, in an attempt to learn more about Mary Sargent Landon's first husband. However, there are a few lessons remembered or learned:

• Remarriage of the mother can "hide" children and they can be difficult to find when the new husband's name is not known.
• Census enumerations for families should be relatively consistent, 100 percent consistency is rare.
• Variations on first names are common.
• Always be on the lookout for newly released databases or sources.

In an upcoming column, we'll see how WorldConnect was used to assist in locating this family and how I may have found Mary's Sargent husband.

Michael John Neill is a genealogical writer and speaker who has been researching his or his children's genealogy for more than twenty years. A math instructor in his "other life," Michael taught at the former Genealogical Institute of Mid-America and has served on the FGS Board. He also lectures on a variety of genealogical topics and gives seminars across the country. He maintains a personal website at www.rootdig.com

Upcoming Events With Michael John Neill

• Genealogy Computing Week
  Computer workshops at Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, Illinois,
  03-08 March 2008
• Salt Lake City Family History Library Trip
  14 May-21 May 2008

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The following items were posted to the 24/7 Family History Circle blog over the past week:

• Dublin Census for 1911 Online
• Survey Reveals Americans' Surprising Lack of Family Knowledge
• Ancestry.com Launches U.S. Passport Applications Showcasing Travels of the Rich and Famous
• Apologies and the Passport Link

Did you know that no one in the census collection at Ancestry.com has the first name "Breakfast"? Not surprising? Well what if you learned that there are eighty-five entries for people named "Lunch" and one hundred and one named "Dinner." Isn't breakfast the most important meal of the day? Well, apparently it's not important enough to name your kid after.

Why are we telling you this? Because it's just one of the juicy morsels that you'll find in Ancestry Publishing's upcoming book, Bad Baby Names: The Worst True Names Parents Saddled Their Kids With—And You Can Too! Watch the Ancestry Weekly Journal for more names that make your tummy rumble.

Today's image (in the upper, right-hand corner of this newsletter) is from the Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000 at Ancestry.

Winter Sunday in Olden Times, by F. Gleason, Boston, ca. 1875.

by Paula Stuart Warren, CG

This recent Thanksgiving got me thinking about the definition of family. Several years ago one of my grandchildren had a family history school project. She corrected me on the charts we prepared together. She asked why we weren't including one aunt, one uncle, and one grandpa. They are certainly family but not relatives by blood. The aunt is a family friend, the uncle is my brother-in-law's brother, and Grandpa Bud is his father. Additionally, I have others who call me Mom or Grandma. The oldest granddaughter calls them my fake children and grandchildren. (Don't get upset, the term fake is used lovingly between us; that is a story for another time.) My children and now my grandchildren have always had many "relatives" that don't fit into the spaces in genealogy software or paper charts. This year's Thanksgiving celebrations were spent with many good people who are not blood relatives. I have some special genealogy families, too. Will future generations know who all these people are in my life and yours? Don't forget to include them as you document your family's history and add their names to pictures. Have you written the story of their connection to you? Maybe it is time.

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Researching the Landscape
I live in a rural county and do a lot of research for people who cannot come to our area. They frequently want to know what the area is like. We describe the (lack of) roads, the flat land, etc.

I recently decided to try the same thing for my children and grandchildren. Our roots are heavy in Pennsylvania. When one drives through there it is lovely to see the tiny communities tucked in between the mountains. I am going to start taking photos of the areas our roots grew in. Since we were there pre-Revolutionary War, I have started reading articles describing the hardships at that time.

My grandmother was born in Nebraska in 1903. Most of the housing there was sod houses. She and her two oldest brothers were born there. I have done some Web searching and located photos of several types of sod houses and have printed them off.

Families are so much more than names and dates. This is making ours come alive.

Sincerely,
Gloria Hall

Save Old Address Books
Don't overlook old address books for some surprise connections. My grandfather died at ninety-two, and he kept the same address book for years. In this address book, addresses were updated by simply marking through and adding the new above or below. Some of the names had kinship shown, as in "Oliver's granddaughter." There was also a separate Christmas card list.

I was actually able to take some of these names and locations and connect to a lost branch of my family. Some of the older address books are almost a family history in themselves. Be sure to keep them when old papers and items are sorted through after a death.

Cheryl Parsons

Widowed May Not Mean Widowed
Don't assume that "wd" means widowed in the census. There were many more divorces in the nineteenth and early twentieth century than one would guess. However, many women listed themselves as "widowed" rather than divorced; and men would list themselves as "single." The women would typically have children with them, so could not easily state that they were "single." Many times the men did not have the children, so they could more easily call themselves "single" without much question. Do not count the former spouse dead until you find a death record. I have found this situation several times in my family lines.

Tom Humphrey
Jacksonville, Alabama

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: Juliana@Ancestry.com. Thanks to all of this week's contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Weekly Journal please state so clearly in your message.

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The year was 1809 and Europe was embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1809 a major campaign was fought against Austria, which had rebelled against French control. Major battles at Aspern-Essling and Wagram involved Napoleon moving his force of more than 60,000 troops across the Danube via hastily constructed bridges.

British troops were also fighting French troops in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War, which had begun the prior year.

Prior to 1809, Finland had been under Swedish control, but with the Porvoo Diet in 1809, Finland established itself the nation, Grand Duchy of Finland, under the protection of Russia.

In the U.S., the Embargo Act of 1807 was lifted and replaced by the Non-......... Act of 1809. (Unfortunately, I can't actually include the name of this legislation or many of you will find this newsletter deleted by overly-vigilant spam filters.) The Embargo Act prohibited the export of U.S. goods and kept American ships from visiting foreign ports. The 1809 legislation softened it by limiting the embargo to England and France. Like the Embargo Act, this legislation hurt the U.S. more than the intended targets.

In the U.S., westward expansion was picking up, and in 1809, Illinois Territory was split off of Indiana Territory. It encompassed the current state of Illinois, Wisconsin, parts of Michigan's upper peninsula, and Minnesota.

Expansion would be further aided by Robert Fulton, who after making improvements to a steamboat patented by James Watts, filed a patent and began steamboat service between New York City and Albany along the Hudson River. As this mode of transportation became more popular, it became easier to travel to the interior of the U.S. via the Great Lakes and other waterways.

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If you'd like to see your ancestor's photograph in the Ancestry Weekly Journal, send it to Juliana@Ancestry.com.

Contributed by William Adna Crawford This is a Christmas card from 1933. My father, Adna Romulus Crawford from Ironton, Ohio, and his wife, Wilhelmina Elizabeth Lowe from New York City, along with their first son, William Adna Crawford (me).	Contributed by Rose Beyke, Winslow, Indiana This is my great-uncle, Denver Bolin, feeding a goat, ca. 1919. He was born 28 March 1916 in Hawesville, Kentucky, and moved to the Winslow area of Pike County, Ind. He passed away in February of 2007 at the age of ninety.

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Has Ancestry helped you make a significant breakthrough with your family history research? If you have an Ancestry success story you'd like to share, please send it to us. We'd love to hear about it! Click here to share your story.

Organizing & Preserving Your Heirloom Documents
by Katherine Scott Sturdevant

Genealogists and non-genealogists alike inherit diaries, memoirs, letters, papers, or memorabilia from their relatives and ancestors. This book shows readers how to safely collect, preserve, and even publish some of these treasured heirlooms.

Organizing and Preserving Your Heirloom Documents is filled with practical, readable, guidelines, useful tips, and ideas on how to:

• Locate, organize, and transcribe family documents
• Care for fragile, older papers
• Annotate and illustrate documents
• Conduct historical research
• Construct a documentary volume
• Publish heirloom documents

Normally this book retails for $21.99, but for one week you can buy it in the Ancestry Store for $17.60.

Managing a Genealogical Project
by William Dollarhide

This work focuses on a particular method of organizing research materials. Its unique system of organization takes you from the preliminary stage of your research to the final presentation of your work as a report or a book. The system, an outgrowth of the Dollarhide System of Genealogical Records, enables you to manage a genealogical project with maximum ease and efficiency. Updated in 1999, this edition of Managing a Genealogical Project features new material on computer software and CD databases.

Normally this book retails for $14.95, but for one week you can buy it in the Ancestry Store for $12.70.