Learning to Preserve and Share Vick Family History

On April 27, 2009, I will begin a five week course titled "Introduction to One-Name Studies." The course is offered by the Guild of One-Name Studies. The Guild says the "five week course will cover the history and study of surnames, what a one-name study consists of, how to get started, how to collect and analyse data from the core records and about the practical aspects of running a One-Name Study such as how to publicise your study, data protection, publishing findings and conclusions, and making sure your study is preserved for others in the future." I cannot wait to see how much I learn from the course and to put this new knowledge to work. I have been a member of the Guild for a couple of years, but I have a lot to learn (especially about British records).

I am also taking an online course in Microsoft Access (a relational database program). Access should give me another tool I need to help organize the mountain of data I am collecting. While I use a family tree program (Personal Ancestral File or PAF), I am missing a way to tie the data together on people that I cannot seem to place in a tree (or to spot that the data is on someone already in one of my trees).

By integrating the Guild course with Access I hope to do a much better job of helping to preserve and share our Vick family history.