When not gardening in the high heat and humidity this week, I have been escaping to my air-conditioned office to work on my Genealogy Research Toolbox for this blog.
Inspired by a RootsTech 2015 presentation by Thomas MacEntee about building a research toolbox and a blog post written by Linda Stufflebean about bloggers’ toolboxes, I decided it was time to create and share my own list of online go-to places for genealogy research.
To do this, I added a tab, Genealogy Research Toolbox, in this blog’s tool bar above this post. Click on it to see the drop-down menu of categories: General, Canada, Quebec/New France, Acadia, City Directories, Newspapers, Military, Cemeteries, Photos, Genealogy Education, and Online Books. These are the online resources I tend to use the most for my research and the ones I share with other genealogists.
My Genealogy Research Toolbox is a work in progress, and it will grow as I find more resources. Let me know if there are resources I should add.
You do not need a blog or website to create your own research box. You can do so by saving and organizing online resources on your web browser’s Favorites or Bookmarks or by building a list on Word or Excel. You can also organize your favourite resources on Pinterest boards and Evernote.
If interested in learning more about building your own research toolbox, I recommend you watch Thomas MacEntee’s presentation, Building a Genealogy Research Toolbox, and read Linda Stufflebean’s blog post on Empty Branches. One of Mr. MacEntee’s toolboxes is available here.
As Mr. MacEntee said in his presentation, the purpose of building a research toolbox is so that we will have access to it wherever we are and from any computer or mobile device, and to make it easy to share our discoveries with others.
Thanks Gail, I really like that you added the tab to the tool bar on your blog. So convenient to refer to, an also inspiring and helping others build their tool box. 🙂
Great sources Gail! I would add Programme de Recherche sur l’Émigration des Français en Nouvelle-France at http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/prefen/formPion.php to your sources for Quebec/New France.
Good suggestion, Jackie. Instead of linking the home page, I linked directly to the family name search page. Thanks.
Gail, Thanks for the shout out. Your new toolbox is looking great – I am working on updating mine this week. Glad I was an inspiration for you.
Gail, your toolbox looks great. Mine too was inspired by Thomas MacEntee a couple years ago. I organized it by subject then alpha order. It could use a little refinement but it works for me. Also, my blog stats show a high level of hits so hopefully it helps others too. http://denisedigsroots.blogspot.com
Nice research toolbox, Denise! Lots of resources.
Ooh, I see some interesting ones. I’ll be back to look again after work. i like the drop down tabs a lot better than how my resource pages are set up but I don’t know how to do that. Very nice.
Gail, I love your toolbox idea and now I’ll have to learn how to make my own.
I didn’t see any links to the McGill yearbooks that I read about last month in your blog. Did I miss it or have you not included it yet?
The McGill yearbooks are in the Quebec/New France section in “McGill University Archives digital exhibitions and collections.” Perhaps I should include a link about just the McGill yearbooks. Thanks!