Genealogy Research Action-Access Management System
GRAAMS for Family Historians who want to conquer their notes.
Hello Family Historian,
Before you read any further, know that this post is information-heavy. Going into this, I want you to know that I intend to support its implementation in a collaborative learning environment designed to make building skills and understanding a step-by-step process. Look for CuZens Collaborative, a learning lab for family historians coming soon!
See the bottom of this newsletter for important announcements.
And, if you already have experience with any of the work I’ve researched or the app I will share, this information is yours for personal use. I hope you find it helpful! Let’s get busy conquering our notes!
All the best,
Robin
How it began...
It all began with this Newsletter Post called Conquering Our Notes to Write Our Family History. While researching a better way to organize our notes in a way that builds from the bottom up, a family history in any form, I explored the ideas presented by Sönke Ahrens in How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking and Tiago Forte in his book, Building a Second Brain. Additionally, I've drawn the idea of a Map of Content from Nick Milo from his video channel, "Linking Your Thinking."
How it developed...
Armed with these three highly effective notetaking methods, I could see a specific path for genealogists to use a system that would not only organize their notes and files for family history research, but also create a protocol that created a smooth path to a family history product.
Finally, we can conquer our notes!
The genealogist would determine the product, in this context, whether it was an
Article * Blog post * Family manuscript * Book * Video * Podcast * Presentation
The products can essentially only be limited to the collective creative mind of genealogists.
Creating a System
From here, I developed GRAAMS, an acronym for Genealogy Research & Action-Access Management System to create a way to conquer our notes and turn them into thoughts that can be used to build a family history product from the bottom up.
GRAAMS
What is GRAAMS?
A Protocol for Processing GENEALOGY RESEARCH Notes that leads to ACTION and keeps them available for future ACCESS, within a smooth MANAGEMENT SYSTEM to lead to a successful product.
GRAAMS is built on the Obsidian Note-taking App which we will use as the workspace. Obsidian is free.
INTRODUCTION TO GRAAMS ACCESS TOOLS IN OBSIDIAN
Notes
Each Capture Note and each Thought Note exist in either the CURRENT Folder, the FUTURE Folder, or the ARCHIVE Folder. ANCHOR Notes are always in the ANCHOR Folder.
Workspace
Use Workspaces to create a package of information to be able to return to easily.
Properties
Add Properties to a note to enhance sorting and categorization. It gives the note metadata. Properties can be managed in Settings/Core Plugins.
Properties List of Examples
Status: CURRENT, FUTURE, ARCHIVE
MOC Type: LINEAGE BANK, SURNAME HUB, ANCHOR,
Note Type: CAPTURE, ANCHOR, THOUGHT
Relationship: GRANDMOTHER, GREAT GRANDFATHER, AUNT, etc.
Projects
You will need the Project Community Plugin. It lets you manage your current project more efficiently.
Tags
Ideas, that you think your future self will think about when trying to find a note should be added as a tag. Think of tags as clues to find this note again. To add a tag, type your desired tag with a hashtag directly in front of it. You can’t have any spaces in your tag. Example: #richardHinkson #liveryStable
Links
Make connections between notes to develop new conclusions or inferences. All notes link to the anchor. All anchors link to the Hub. Links to new ideas generated while writing Thought Notes will organically occur. Linking notes together provides the way back to notes you are looking for.
Hubs
One Hub per Surname. This is a Map of Ancestors. Whenever you add a new Anchor Note, add it first to the Ancestor Hub.
Lineage Bank
This is a Map of all Surname Hubs. There is one for Paternal and one for Maternal.
GRAAMS
Section 1: Action Management
Write to think, connect, and build knowledge about your research.
Creating the telegram.
“Action” is what you do with your Genealogy Research. The goal is to take the piles of notes, the digital archives you have on your drive, and any future notes and turn them into actionable information that will lead to a family history product.
First, let’s look at the different types of notes we take in GRAAMS:
Anchor, Capture, Thought, Bucket, Production.
Types of Notes
Anchor Note
An Anchor Note is used to connect notes to an ancestor.
One anchor note for each ancestor.
Each Ancestor Anchor note title includes Last Name, First Name, Year born.
Direct ancestors, grandparents, great grandparents, 2 times great grandparents, etc., are assigned “Direct Ancestor” in Properties.1
Assigned “Indirect Ancestor” in Properties for any other individual in our lineage (Uncles, aunts, great granduncles, great grandaunts, cousins)
Ancestor Anchor Template
Each Ancestor Anchor Note will have the same structure.
Basic biographical information (Birth, Death, Spouse, Children, etc.)
Each ancestor named in a note will have their own Anchor Note.
The Anchor will be the Map of Content2 for that Ancestor.
Here is what the template looks like in Obsidian.
Capture Note
What
Capture is the act of finding a source for your genealogy research. The source can be any form that you find it in. It could be a book, website, document, conversation with a family member, photograph, online post... The list goes on and encompasses any form.
Why
When you capture your source, you give it a place to exist where your future self can find it, using tags that would make sense to you, in the future. You can attach images and PDFs for reference in the future.
How
Create one Capture Note for each source.
The note should be titled the same as the source. If the source is a conversation with a person, then your title could be, "Conversation with Great Grand Aunt Lesley about Great Grandmother, Ruth Hinkson"
Adding Properties to your Capture Note lets your future self know what kind of source it is.
Thought Note
Thought Notes are similar to Permanent Notes in the Zettelkasten system. Thought notes are designed to start from Capture Notes. The Thought Notes should contain one idea or concept that you have inferred, deduced, concluded, or determined from the information you found. When an additional idea or the beginning of a new thought occurs while writing, simply add double brackets around a keyword. This will create a new note. This allows you to process the idea in writing before it drifts from your memory while keeping your original thought note clear and focused on one idea. Here is how you would move through the process.
Step 1:
Review a Capture Note you’ve created.
While in the Capture Note, create a link to a NEW note using the double brackets. Give your note a logical title that relates to your initial thoughts about the source you’ve captured. Click on the link to begin using your note.
Step 2:
Write about what you’ve found.
When you write, ideas and thoughts will form. Write it all down. This is the process of developing your thoughts in your Second Brain.
Step 3:
Polish Your Note for Future Reference
Revise and finish the note so it is easy to trigger your memory when you return to it.
Example:
Turn-
John M Hinkson, Volcano Livery Stable - what was their relationship?
Into
John M Hinkson was Richard S Hinkson’s partner owner of the Volcano Livery Stable. Did the fact that they were brothers impact their business positively or negatively? The fact that they were partners indicates they at the very least could get along with each other. It could mean they were close brothers. How long did the business last? What caused them to close the business?
Step 4:
Link the Thought Note to the Anchor.
Use double brackets to link the Anchor/s. Any ancestors who are mentioned in the thoughts you’ve written about. [[Richard S Hinkson]]
Step 5:
Create Tags.
Using ideas that your future self would use to find this note, add tags. For this example, I would use, #JohnMHinkson #RichardSHinkson #Livery #brothers #Volcano #Business
Step 6:
Link the Thought Note to its Bucket.
Link the note to curate your content.
Bucket Note
The Bucket is where you curate notes that go together to grow into the product. As your notes develop and your collection grows, you will turn it into a Map of Content (MOC) that you will take to Production.
Curated Notes- notes you’ve selected to be in the specific bucket that will build from the bottom up with a destination for production. They are added to the Bucket Note by linking the thought notes that relate the Bucket Note’s focus.
Determine a Focus for your Bucket. Every Thought Note linked in this Bucket Note will align to some degree with that focus. Title your Bucket Note accordingly to show your future self the main idea or topic. Example: “Hinkson Family History”
Once you have curated enough of your thoughts to create a product such as a book, article, presentation, video, family manuscript, or chronicle (For more information about writing chronicles visit at Chronicle Makers), your Bucket moves into Production.
Production Note
A Production Note is the last stop on this Action Management Pipeline. This is where we transfer the organically built body of work in the Thought Notes, curated in the Bucket Note. The Production Note is used specifically for organizing the transfer. No matter what the intended outcome of your research, this note is where you make a connecting bridge between your Bucket Notes and your product. Products can be whatever you choose. In this process, you will have built the product from the bottom up using the notes you’ve curated in your Bucket.
Section 2: Access Management
How to find your way back to your notes.
Sending the telegram.
FOLDERS
Think of your Folders differently than the traditional folder in a file cabinet.
I recommend you only have these folders in your Obsidian Vault for now. Avoid old ideas about organizing using folders. There are three categories of folders:
MAPS OF CONTENT (MOC), STATUS, and TEMPLATES.
1. Maps of Content
Hubs
One Hub Note per Surname. Each Anchor note starts in the Surname Hub.
Anchors
Permanent Folder for all Ancestor Anchor Notes with 2 subfolders: 1. Direct 2. Indirect
2. Status Folder for a Capture or Thought Notes
Current
This is your current focus. This will be assigned as a project in a Workspace.
Future
This is the place to put anything you come across that you don't want to lose. It goes through initial processing (Capture & Thought Notes) and is left for later.
Archived
This is the folder for any completed notes you are no longer working on. Complete would be any Thought or Capture Note that has been moved out of the Bucket, into Production and is now complete.
3. Template
This is where templates will be created and stored. Making templates for your notes provides consistency and ease of use.
Use this website created from my CuZens Collaborative Obsidian Vault to help guide you. It is a living document that will grow as I add new information.
Congratulations on making it this far! This was a lot of information to consume. Here’s the good news! You don’t have to implement this alone!
In two weeks, look for the launch of CuZens Collaborative exclusively for Paid Subscribers ready to take the next level of organizing and preserving their family history research.
This Co-Lab will serve as a place on Substack to learn how to implement and manage GRAAMS and connect with others to increase your understanding. Together, we can build our best genealogy experience.
Here’s more good news! If you are already a Paid Subscriber, you will have
full access to CuZens Collaborative!
Please take advantage of my offer to get in on the ground floor before the Launch in mid-July. Before the CuZens Collaborative Launch, you can become an annual Subscriber for only $30. Once CuZens Collaborative launches, the annual Subscription Price will increase to $55.
Become a Paid Subscriber now to take advantage of the lower price!
Grateful
I want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to Zelda York, my editor. I couldn’t do this without her! Thank you!
I love the Substack Family History Community! You are the best!
Thank you for investing your time in reading this newsletter. My goal is to be able to:
Research and provide information about organizing and preserving your family history.
Focus on what matters to you as a family historian.
Provide worthwhile resources accessible to all family historians who subscribe to Genealogy Matters.
Access to GenStack, a weekly round-up of Family History related posts by the Family Historian Community here on Substack.
Properties give your notes metadata for sorting and searching.
The Map of Content will lead to all notes pertaining to the Ancestor.
I’m intrigued. Do you use this method instead of keeping a traditional research log?