Genealogy usage?
One of the first 'aha!' moments I had when exploring ZettelKasten was when it occurred to me that it might be very helpful with Genealogy. Back in the day, all of my Genealogy note-taking in libraries was on index cards, notepads, etc. Now combine that with photos and scans and memorabilia and it almost seems like a Zettel system dreamed up by a genealogist!
Not only can I picture it being quite useful in the research phase, but possibly useful as a standalone genealogy program? After all, one of my favorite genealogy sites is a wiki format. Genealogy is all about persons and family links (spouse, children, parents) and you most definitely want two-way links for everything!
Any way, is anyone else using this for Genealogy?
Howdy, Stranger!
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@donblanco I am using it to "collect" different memories that will eventually get wrapped into a personal history. I'm short of time right now but will answer more later.
Hey, this is a great idea. I've been researching family history for 40+ years, starting back in the paper days. Things have progressed a lot.
I can see how the natural format of a Zettelkasten could be used to create a database of family members, with connections between individuals in one family and between generations of people. You could also have links from a person to other Zettels where you lay out proposed research, which morphs later into research results, or which link to sources of information.
However, I don't think I'm sold on the idea of exclusively using a ZK for this purpose. Typical genealogy programs offer a lot more features than could be built into a ZK, and nowadays interface almost seamlessly with a variety of on-line databases. For example, I keep my main family history database in Roots Magic and it interfaces very nicely with FamilySearch, Ancestry, and a number of other web sites. By "very nicely", I mean it goes away, searches for information in those other on-line databases, and then directs me to that information. In the case of Ancestry and FamilySearch, it uploads and downloads information directly.
Having said all that, I like the idea of leveraging some areas, particularly the research aspects of family history work, in a ZK.
Do you have any other thoughts of how you would like to use a ZK for your genealogy work?
I have already been doing this, to an extent, with some blog posts I wrote about various historical family homes, linked to each other, the original sources, and to family member profiles on WikiTree. Some day (soon?) I'll create and upload some static family pages from MacFamilyTree and link to those instead. But yeah, I definitely see it being used more for research and family history writing. But you're right, to use it for an actual full-blown database might be both overkill and duplicative, given all the existing software for this that is already out there.
I use ZK to capture my family history investigations. This includes analyzing evidence and exploring various theories. For example, some of my ancestors liked to change their preferred names from time to time. And others were pretty willing to lie about their birth years. Once I reach a conclusion, I document the genealogy in an app (RootsMagic) and on-line (familysearch.org). The nice things about text notes is that I can readily share my findings with other family members who are doing similar research.
Do you capture to cards or a notebook, or to a digital system?
I started using The Archive a couple months ago. I like it because it is so simple. The plain text approach helps me focus on analyzing evidence, versus trying to write something that looks good. I don’t even bother to spell check until my notes are a week old or so. I find I can dig deeper into the material I have collected over many years. I often retype source material into my ZK notes to force me to read it more closely. I’ve made some breakthroughs which I think resulted from emphasizing deep thinking, versus trying to create a polished product at this stage.
For example, I am working on a book about a WWI soldier. I’ve had a copy of a letter from an unnamed soldier who describes a battle my ancestor participated in. Someone in my family had made a transcript of the soldier’s letter over a hundred years ago. I wasn’t sure it was legit; I worried it might be creative fiction. When I entered the letter into my ZK system, I did some hard analysis comparing the content with about a dozen other sources. The vast majority of details lined up. I also found, to my surprise, that I could identify every individual mentioned in the letter even though they were not named. I was even able to identify the author with very high confidence. I was quite excited about this discovery. Now I am convinced that the soldier’s battle account is genuine.
This happened because I focused on issues, not presentation. For me, using boring ole’ plain text helped me focus on what matters most - getting insight into evidence.
Good point! I'm using a ZK to capture snippets of memory for a later personal history for the same reason - focus on the events and feelings about them now, and worry about how they fit together and presentation later.
And many years later I am now revisiting ZK (in physical form!) after having been away in the never-ending pursuit of PKM app 'nirvana' - have either of you made any progress in incorporating ZK into your genealogy research?
I'm using my ZK in much the same manner as we discussed before - I use it to track and record the results of my genealogical research, but the actual information gets stored in Rootsmagic and synched to both Ancestry and FamilySearch. I've continued to build a database of personal memories and stories and used those to work on my personal history. So - I have the same applications, but I've moved along quite a bit with both my genealogical research and personal history.