31 Days to Better Genealogy – Day 8: Review Your Notes

Amy Johnson Crow has been sharing on her Generations Cafe Facebook Group a prompt each day for May. They are based off of her book 31 Days to Better Genealogy that you can buy on Amazon (shown below).

Day 8 of 31 Days to Better Genealogy is: Review Your Notes. Amy Johnson Crow talked about that you sometimes already have the answer to your research question and that you just need to analyze what you already have to find it. So I pulled up my old Reunion Family Tree Software and poked around to see what notes I may have in there that I haven’t yet transferred to my online family trees.

I clicked on Elizabeth McGinity Johnson and in her notes field, I had this:

Surrogate’s Court – Cattaraugus County
In the Matter of the Estate of
Certificate Appointment

The People of the State of New York
To All To Whom These Presents shall come or may concern, Send Greeting:
Know ye, that at the Village of Little Valley, in the County of Cattaraugus, in the State of New York, on the 21st day of July in the year of our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred fifty Letters of Administration on the Estate of Elizabeth M. Johnson, late of the Village of Randolph, in said County ____________ were duly granted and issued by the Surrogate of said County of Cattaraugus to Frank D. Johnson and that the same are still valid and in full force.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, We have caused the seal of our Surrogate’s Court of Cattaraugus County to be hereunto affixed.
WITNESS, HON. Alonzo J. Prey, Surrogate of the said County of Cattaraugus, at Little Valley, in said County, this 7th day of March, A. D. 1951.
Minnie E. Boberg Clerk of the Surrogate’s Court

First, I’m proud of myself as a beginner genealogist, that I transcribed a document. But, where is it now? Why don’t I have it scanned and uploaded? I’m in the middle of scanning the Johnson box and haven’t come across it. Perhaps it is in my Johnson binder…

Ok, so I checked the binder and found a printing of the document, but not the actual document. I assume that I had the document at one point to scan it and print it. I hope that I find it within the Johnson Box. If not, I wonder if a copy of it would be at the Cattaraugus Surrogate’s Court. For that matter, there is probably an estate file for Frank Johnson, too!

Must get more organized!