When Work Feeds Your Addiction: Researching with Ancestry.com

"Many academics recognize that working with Ancestry.com and genealogical data can become quite addictive. That’s me: I am one of those historians."

Not Feeling ‘Excel’lent

"My confession: I don’t know how to use Excel."

"Sometimes, as a way to re-envision the lived reality of the people we write about, I play a little game..."

Early on in the project, we realized we needed specific guidelines for the collection of data from very different archival sources.

"So, what are we going to do with all those entries? How are we going to analyse them?"

"There is an art to grant writing... It takes a different set of skills."

"Some patients who exhibited very bad behaviour or who were 'excessively filthy in their habits' were sent to 'the Basement'."

"I don’t think anyone in our project deserves to be made into a Voldemort."

"I see the materials with which the team has engaged...as a repository of feelings and emotions."

"Noting the rise in cases, a spike, and then a gradual petering out over time was incredibly calming during the summer of 2020..."