The more I spread my family tree out on the internet the more cousins I drag in (willingly, of course. Just this month I have had four new cousins find me through Facebook and I’ve made two new ones through my DNA test.
I love finding new cousins, really I do! But, I’m finding that despite my stellar ability to remember which great great grandparents had which kids, I lack when it comes to, say, remember where I put my glasses 5 minutes after I was wearing them. I also have trouble in some cases remember which new contact connects to which line in my family tree.
I could keep a list, but then I have to put the list somewhere. If it’s on my computer I have to remember where on my computer it resides and what I named it. I also have to include enough information so that I know which Joao Pacheco we’re talking about (I have many). It is tedious just to think about it.
As I was inputting some information the other day, it dawned on me that there was an easy solution. Why not make a custom field in RootsMagic where I can note my connections on each individual. Then, if I designate the field as private only I can see it.
I created the field then tested it out. I was able to create a simple report that showed me the individual in my database and the researcher who is associated with them. It took less than a minute.
Why hadn’t I thought of this before? It’s not like database management wasn’t what I did for a living for 20+ years. And, it isn’t like I haven’t created all sorts of custom fields on RootsMagic. Some times I make things so difficult! I like it when the database does the work for me.