TGP 36 – Harold Henderson on Writing

The Genealogy Professional podcast

Featured Guest

Harold Henderson, CG

Harold Henderson,CG(sm) has been a professional writer since 1979, a professional genealogist since 2009, and a board-certified genealogist since June 2012. He lives and works in northwest Indiana and at midwestroots.net, with a focus on northern Indiana, southwestern Michigan, and northeastern Illinois (plus feeder states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York).

He serves as a board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists where he chairs the APG Quarterly advisory committee. He moderates the on-line Transitional Genealogists Forum.

He is the author of Finding Ancestors in Fort Wayne and In Court In LaPorte, an every-name index to the earliest (1830s) court records of La Porte County, Indiana. He has published articles in American Ancestors Journal (annual supplement to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register), the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, the APG Quarterly, Archives.com’s late lamented expert series, and state publications in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. He blogs at http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com. At any given time he would probably rather be reading a grantor index.

Contact Links

Harold Henderson on Twitter – @Midwest Roots

Harold Henderson on Google+

Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog

Midwest Roots website

Other Links

Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog article: “What I would have liked to know as a newbie”

One Action Genealogists Can Take Right Now

“Join APG, do the Pro-Gen Study Group, and do a gut check to see how much you love doing genealogy for other people“

Recommended Book

Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner

American Colonies: The Settling of North America, Vol. 1 by Alan Taylor

The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, Fourth Edition by Edmund Morgan

Applied Genealogy by Eugene Aubrey Stratton

North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History by Helen Leary

Mastering Genealogical Proof by Dr. Thomas W. Jones

Productivity Tool

“The important application is the application of the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair”

Advice

“When you write, either write in the creative mode and just do it and get it on paper and then write in the editorial mode where you are thinking about grammar and sentence structure. Do them both but do them separately. Don’t give yourself writer’s block.“

Action Item

We need to get better as genealogists at giving and receiving feedback. This will make us better genealogists because it will teach us to correct our mistakes and to strive to do better work.

ACTION:

Pair off with another genealogist – whether it is someone from Facebook, your local genealogical society or local library. Write up some up your genealogy according to the BCG Genealogical Standards Manual. Share your genealogy with the other person. Review what your partner has given you and then provide feedback. First, let your partner know what they have done right and then give them suggestions for how they can improve. Just going through this exercise will make you a better genealogist because you will be more comfortable sharing your work with another person. Good luck!

Direct link to this post: http://www.thegenealogyprofessional.com/harold-henderson

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