I have been pondering lately just what I should do with all the information I have.

Ideally it would be great to have it all published in book form but I just cannot visualize how it would all work out. I have around 27,500 people on my tree at the moment, on my computer in the Family Tree Maker programme.

It’s easy to move around the software and go from family to family, backwards or forwards, but how on earth would all that transpose into the printed word?

It would amount to several copies of War and Peace proportions I am sure. Has anyone done this, taken the information and details from their computer family history programme and had it turned into a book?

If there is anyone out there who has done this I would certainly appreciate hearing about how this was achieved.

The reason I am thinking of this in book form is so that other family members could have access to everything. It’s easy for me to go into the Family Tree Maker programme and find anyone I want, but when you try to describe someone on the tree to one of your family members they seem to get that glazed look in their eye after a while and you can just tell they aren’t following you very well.

I think if they could see it actually written down and perhaps accompanied by pictures wherever possible, of the individual, it might start to mean something to other family members.

Now they just treat it as Mothers [or Grandmothers] pastime and seem to feel that it is nothing to do with them. How wrong they can be.

I feel quite concerned that 35 to 40 years of family history research is all going to be wasted when I am not around any more. Not being morbid but I know I won’t last forever and I do feel that it would be a crying shame for all this amazing information to go to waste and never see the light of day again, just because I am not around any more.

So – if anyone out there has any help they can give with regard to publishing their Family History I would be very happy to hear from them.

I am always amazed by just how many new websites I find when I am trawling the net for Family History information.

I am sure they have always been there, but it seems just lately that everytime I Google something I find a new site. Unfortunately for me, researching mostly UK ancestors, a lot of these sites are biased towards Americans. Having said that most of the queries I see are from American people trying to trace their roots back in the UK.

I found an interesting one the other day, for the UK, it was Ancestral-Villages and this one allows you to post your village or surname interest free and you can look at whatever else is on there from other people.

I am in two minds about the changes to the IGI. Sometimes I find information on the old set up that doesn’t appear on the new pages and also vice versa. This I find quite strange, you would think whatever was on one database would appear on the other.  Once or twice I have tried actually writing, snail mail, to people whose addresses appear under one of the items I am looking at, birth or marriage etc. but the entries must have been made too many years ago and I never get a reply.

I just love it when I am in touch with a new connection. Sharing information is what it is all about and gaining an extended family is so good. Having someone new to talk to about your passion is brilliant.

Asking Google for certain names and places can be like opening a can of worms. I have tried putting the name and place in inverted commas so I don’t get all the rubbish which is nothing to do with what I want, but then sometimes I don’t use inverted commas and I patiently trawl right through pages and pages of seemingly unconnected sites. I have to say though that occasionally I do come up with a little nugget of information which gives me a new track to follow. It is time consuming though, going through the sites right up to page 5, 6 or 7 of Google.

I have spent hours changing the request around, changing the wording, taking out dates or places etc. just to see what Google can come up with.

One thing I do enjoy is, when I am researching some aristocratic ancestor or somebody who is notable for some reason or other,  asking Google for pictures. This is great if you find one of the person you are looking for. I had a real field day the other week and was capturing all kinds of photos and I now have quite a sizeable folder with just Family History pictures. I am not sure at this stage what I will do with them – but they are there when I decide.

Do you sometimes sit in front of your computer, wanting to get on with your Family History research, and you simply cannot make up your mind which line to look at? This is happening to me a bit lately and I don’t like it.

I have so many lines to follow, all ongoing, and there are times when I just feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. My tree stands at the moment at 25,600 so you can imagine I have an enormous amount of names to cover.

It’s just a case of taking them all back a step at a time, I pick one and find that I still cannot take it beyond where I was when I was researching that particular name before. So I try another one and the same thing happens. I just sit there and think – now what!

Have I gone as far as I can with them or should I just stop thinking about it and get on, pick another name and give it another go. I think I am probably in ‘research doldrums’. I am becalmed, I am making no discernible headway and it is causing me a lot of frustration.

What do you all do when you hit this situation? How do you re-motivate yourself? Perhaps you don’t get like this, but if you do and you have any good tips on how to get out of this mindset I would be very pleased to hear them.

I am still passionately interested in my Family History but just for the moment I feel like I am treading water. I just cannot settle to any one name, I am fluttering about, chopping and changing, and this is just not the way I normally work at all.

Perhaps I should leave it all for a week and come back to it, hoping my mind will focus better. I love looking out for my ancestors and really feel links with them – but not this week.