2. The List of “Don’ts”
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5. Agenda
1. What is Trello?
2. The Trello User Interface
(Home, Workspaces, Boards,
Lists, Cards)
3. Iterative Research Process
4. Case Study
Rebecca Martha Graham’s Father
5. Documenting
6. Gathering
7. Case Study
Los Angeles Research Trip
8. Processing and Writing
6. Trello
Trello is a cloud-based project
planning system.
Based on a Japanese lean
manufacturing project management
technique known as
Kanban
(literally “signboard”), Trello was
designed to aid in planning business
and technology projects.
7. Trello as a
Bulletin
Board
Trello works like a bulletin board to
organize and visualize the progress
of work.
It helps you visualize gaps in your
planning and allows you to fill those
gaps at any time.
It is a working to-do list, displayed in
the context of the research you have
completed, so that you get a sense of
progress.
8. Trello
Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy of items:
• Home contains Workspaces
• Workspaces contain Boards
• Boards contain Lists
• Lists contain Cards
• Cards gather details
about tasks and chores
9. Cards
The main metaphor of Trello is that of
cards on a cork board.
I also think of it as similar to 3 x 5 cards
for a high school or college term paper.
The cards are not the term paper, but
their use to gather, organize, and
process information was essential for
writing the term paper.
10. Trello
Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy of items:
• Home contains Workspaces
• Workspaces contain Boards
• Boards contain Lists
• Lists contain Cards
• Cards gather details
about tasks and chores
12. Trello
Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy of items:
• Home contains Workspaces
• Workspaces contain Boards
• Boards contain Lists
• Lists contain Cards
• Cards gather details
about tasks and chores
14. Trello
Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy of items:
• Home contains Workspaces
• Workspaces contain Boards
• Boards contain Lists
• Lists contain Cards
• Cards gather details
about tasks and chores
15. Trello
Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy of items:
• Home contains Workspaces
• Workspaces contain Boards
• Boards contain Lists
• Lists contain Cards
• Cards gather details
about tasks and chores
17. Trello
Hierarchy
There is a hierarchy of items:
• Home contains Workspaces
• Workspaces contain Boards
• Boards contain Lists
• Lists contain Cards
• Cards gather details
about tasks and chores
18. Trello Cards
The bulk of the work in Trello is on
cards.
The hierarchy (Home, Workspaces,
Boards, and Lists) just
• Organizes cards
• Contextualizes cards in terms of
status (how far along are you in
that bit of research?)
Trello is all about cards.
38. Planning: A
Case Study
Your genealogy research will be more
effective if you plan. We all know that,
but we don’t always work that way.
Let me walk you through a case study of
the use of Trello on something that I’m
still researching.
40. Research
Question
Who was the father of Rebecca
Martha Graham (1831-1880) of
Monroe, Fayette, and Cabell
Counties, VA (WV), whose mother
was Jane Graham (1811-1854)?
41. In 1770–1772, Col. James
Graham (1741–1813) built one
of the first two-story log
houses in what is now
Summers County, West
Virginia. This house still stands
and functions as a museum
and gathering place.
Col. James Graham was my
5th great grandfather and Jane
Graham’s maternal
grandfather.
42. Family
Lore
• James Graham was a colonel in the
Virginia militia during the
Revolutionary War
• His daughter, Rebecca Graham (my
4th great grandmother) married her 1st
cousin, Joseph Graham
• Their daughter, Jane Graham (my 3rd
great grandmother) never married
• Rebecca Martha Graham (my 2nd
great grandmother)
43. More
Family
Lore
Jane Graham, daughter of Joseph and
Rebecca Graham, born April 6, 1811,
died July 28, 1854.
Rebecca Martha Graham, her daughter,
born July 28, 1831, married Henry Lake
Miller, November 1, 1853, died July 11,
1880, between eight and nine o’clock in
the evening.
44. Joseph Graham
(d. 1857)
Col. James Graham
(1741-1813)
Florence Graham
(1744-1800)
Rebecca Graham
(d. 1866)
Florence Graham
Nolan
(1803-1860)
Lancelot Graham
(1806-1880)
John Graham
(1809-1893)
Jane Graham
(1811-1854)
Rebecca Martha
Graham
(1831-1880)
Henry Lake Miller
(1817-1900)
Elizabeth Graham
Ballengee
(1815-1853)
David Graham
(1821-1914)
48. Jane
Graham
Death
Register
Line Numbered. 30.
Name in Full. Jane Graham
White W
Sex. F
Date of Death. July 28 [1854]
Place of Death. [Monroe County, Va]
Name of Disease or Cause of Death. Murdered
Age. 43 yrs 3 mos. 22 days
Names of Parents. Jos. & Rebecca Graham
Where Born. [Monroe Co. W Va]
Occupation.
Consort of, or Unmarried. Unmarried
Name of Person giving Information of Death. Rebecca
Graham
Designation of Informant… Mother
50. R. M. Miller
Death
Register
Line Numbered. 32.
Name in Full. Miller, R. M.
White [white checked]
Sex. [female checked]
Date of Death. June 11 [1880]
Place of Death. [Guyandotte Dist., Cabell Co., WV]
Name of Disease or Cause of Death. Dysentery
Age. 48 yrs 10 mo
Names of Parents. Graham _____
Where Born. Monroe Co. W Va
Occupation.
Consort of, or Unmarried. H L Miller
Name of [Informant]. Wm. C Miller
Designation of Informant…. Son
52. Jane
Appointed
Rebecca’s
Guardian
“The Court doth assign Jane Graham guardian
to Rebecca Graham infant of the said Jane
Graham: and thereupon the said Jane Graham
with Lanty Graham, Joseph R. Hill and William
T. Mann her securities entered into and
acknowledged a bond in the penalty of $500.
conditioned as the law directs.”
Monroe County Court Order Book, Monroe Co.,
VA, 5:378; cited in FHL film 589358 : researched
21 November 2016.
54. Article 1st All contracts made and entered into by
the above mentioned parties shall stand and be the
same as if a marriage had never taken place.
Article 2nd All the money bonds and property
now belonging to the said Rebecca M. Graham and
all that may become hereafter due or in any way
fall to her is to be at the command of the said
Henry L. Miller his lifetime and to be receipted for
after received by him and the amount of money
and of property severally to be refunded at his
death to the said Rebecca M Graham or her heirs
without interest thereon.
55. Plan
What do I know?
• 1811: Rebecca’s mother Jane Graham born.
• 1831: Rebecca born out of wedlock.
• 1845: Jane appointed guardian of Rebecca.
• Before 1854: Rebecca’s father died in
Missouri, leaving her land.
• 1853: Rebecca signs a prenuptial agreement
and marries.
• 1854: Violent arguments between Jane and
her brother James on the farm.
• 1854: Jane murdered, no one ever
convicted. The murder trial covered in
newspapers nationally.
56. Plan
How do I use Trello to help find
Rebecca’s father?
• Keep a view of completed research.
• Brainstorm additional research:
• Wills and property records in MO,
probably Daviess Co.
• Court records in VA and MO.
• Friends, associates, and neighbors
in VA.
• Autosomal DNA
57.
58.
59. Interative
Research
Process
The great thing about Trello is that it
facilitates an ”Iterative Research
Process.”
• Each card has a lifecycle. You can add
to it, split it, amend it, attach files to
it, add links to it, as you refine your
thinking.
• As you move it to “Done,” you can
record your findings right there.
61. Document
We are told to “document as you go.”
A tool like Trello encourages this
because every time you interact with a
card, you have the opportunity to note
what you’re doing or what you found.
63. Gather
Through the use of attachments (direct
and from sources such as Dropbox and
Email), you can gather images of records
for later evaluation.
A Trello card can be there to remind you
to get a certain document, let’s say the
1950 census.
Once you do that, you can attach it and
document it there, for later processing
and writing.
65. Case Study:
Planning a
Research
Trip
Trello can help you organize your
planning for a research trip.
This can include everything from
your actual travel (flight, hotel, car) to
the sites you intend to visit and the
research you plan to do.
For place-focused research, I use
Trello in connection with Google
Maps, as shown in this case study.
66. Create a
Board
On the top of
your screen, to
the left of
Search is a
”Create”
button, which
allows you to
create a board
from scratch.
67. Board
Setup
When you create a
board, you must
choose a background
image or color and
title the board.
You also must decide
on the visibility of the
board which can be
Private, Workspace,
or Public.
68. Board
Background
Image
You can search
through the
Unsplash catalog of
royalty-free images
to use as your
background.
Here, I have chosen
a photograph of the
the Los Angeles
skyline.
70. Start
Creating Lists
Once you have created your board,
you can start creating your lists.
On the next slide, you will see that
I’m creating a board with the lists:
• Preparatory Research
• Trip Planning
77. Process
I think of Trello as a “helper” for
processing your research findings and
writing them up in a research report or
other document.
You will need other tools, such as Excel
and especially a writing program such
as Word to analyze your documents and
present your findings for others.
79. Write
Trello is a your digital cork board or
stack of 3 x 5 cards.
It doesn’t replace your writing tools but
helps you organize your notes and
ensure you have covered everything you
thought to cover during the research
process.
Of course, when you evaluate your
evidence and start writing, you may
realize you have more research to do.
83. Take Aways
• Plan and document your research
• to know where you have been;
• to know where you need to go;
• to be able to follow an “iterative
research process.”
• Trello can help you develop your
plans and keep track of your
progress as well as gather
documents as you go.
84. Take Aways
• But Kanban and Trello don’t work
for everyone.
• Find your method and plan and
document your research.
87. Thank you!
• Copies of these slides and the syllabus will be available
on my website.
• I am working on a book, Obsidian for Genealogists. See my
website for more information.
genealogymedia.com
@genealogymedia
Notas del editor
Welcome to this NGS 2022 NGS Conference presentation.
I am Jordan Jones, and this is session S448: Turbo Charge Your Research Planning with Trello.
As a presenter, I've been asked to remind you that you should not be taking any screenshots or photographs or capturing any audio or video recordings of this lecture.
Presentations, including slides and syllabus material are protected by my copyright, though shortly after this conference, I will share this material more on my website.
NGS has the copyright on the compilation of the recordings and these recordings cannot be copied or projected for the use of groups.
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
Trello is a cloud-based project planning system.
Based on a Japanese lean manufacturing project management technique known as
Kanban
(literally “signboard”), Trello was designed to aid in planning business and technology projects.
I explain as much in the syllabus. But the syllabus does not nearly have the space to allow you to get a visual representation of what this software is and how you can use it to plan and document genealogical research.
In this lecture, I will demonstrate through annotated screen captures how the concepts of Kanban as implemented in Trello can help you in your research. I will also present a couple of case studies that will show you more specifically how Trello can help you in a paternity search and on a research trip. If we have time and my Internet connection holds out, I will also walk you through the Trello interface live. Let’s get started.
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
Let’s take a look at the Trello HOME page. If you start using Trello, your home page will start to look like this.
First, you have the main menu, this gives quick access to
Other workspaces
Recent Boards
Starred Boards
Templates (for creating new boards)
and a Create button to create new boards from scratch
This menu appears commonly throughout and will help you move around and get key things done
Next, you have your High-Level Navigation. This allows you to get to boards, templates, back to home (this page), and to different workspaces
Finally, boards organized by starred boards, recent boards, and in workspace collections
If we click on “Jordan’s Genealogy Workspace,” we get to …
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
Here’s a sample workspace, my Genealogy Workspace.
First, you have the main menu, this gives quick access to
other workspaces
Recent Boards
Starred Boards
Templates (for creating new boards)
and a create button to generate new boards from scratch
Next, you have your Workspace Label. This just reminds of where you are and whether this is a free or paid workspace
Finally, you have a visual representation of your boards. You can click on any of these to get to your boards.
So, if I clicked on Genealogy, I would get to:
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
My “Genealogy” board. Let’s take a stroll through the Trello board interface.
First, you have the main menu. Which is the same as on the Workspace page
Recent Boards
Starred Boards
Templates (for creating new boards)
and a create button to generate new boards from scratch
Then, there is the Board Menu, that lets you choose boards, workspaces, and shows you how the board is shared, whether it is public or private. (By the way, private can be shared with specific people.)
Trello works like a collection of bulletin boards to organize and visualize the progress of work.
There is a hierarchy of items:
Home
Workspaces contain Boards
Boards contain Lists
Lists contain Cards
Cards gather details are about tasks and chores
Let me take you through the interface. I won’t show you all the ways you can create things in Trello, but I will walk you through what this hierarchy looks like. Later, we will see more about the use of Trello in the case studies.
My “Genealogy” board. Let’s take a stroll through the Trello board interface.
First, you have the main menu. Which is the same as on the Workspace page
Recent Boards
Starred Boards
Templates (for creating new boards)
and a create button to generate new boards from scratch
Then, there is the Board Menu, that lets you choose boards, workspaces, and shows you how the board is shared, whether it is public or private. (By the way, private can be shared with specific people.)
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
If you click on the pencil icon at the top right of a note, you open this list of card actions.
If you click on Labels within the card actions, you can create, edit, and assign labels.
You can add checklists to cards, with an option to import lists from other cards.
A card checklist looks like this.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
Here’s the marriage record for Henry L. Miller and Rebecca M. Miller.
It doesn’t mention their parents, the fact that that both of them were born out of wedlock, or the fact that Henry Lake Miller was currently still married. (Two years later, Henry Lake Miller’s first wife would remarry, and her marriage license would say that she was a widow, but … I digress.)
Here’s the minister’s return. If you’re guessing that it doesn’t reveal any more about Rebecca’s father than the marriage certificate, you are correct.
Death Register of Jane Graham
Death Register of Jane Graham
Death Register of Rebecca M. Graham
Death Register of Jane Graham
Death Register of Jane Graham
Jane Appointed Rebecca’s Guardian
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
I was looking for a note-taking platform that could do more than just store notes and files.
I was looking for one that could store record images, but also could include the documentation, and not force me to type the source list entry every time, when I had multiple records from the same source. CLICK
See the blue line – This information about the California Department of Health Services, which I use dozens of times in my research, is only typed once in my note taking system, but appears every time, via transclusion, that is inclusion by reference.
Private means it is shared only with people invited to that board. Workspace means means that it’s shared also with anyone with access to the Workspace that contains this and other boards. Public means that anyone with the URL can access the board.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
So, here’s how it looks when I have created the board and added a couple of lists to it. But, of course, there’s more to do.
I realize that I want to have a list of places to visit as well as a place to capture ideas for research and to document that research. Once I add those lists and start to brainstorm ideas about each of the lists, my board starts to look like this:
I’ve got a couple of research tasks to find out more about what I can research at St. Sava’s and the LA County Library.
You’ll also notice that I have created templates for Church Research and Library and Repository Research. Using these, I can quickly create new tasks that will all have the same starting point.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
JSON – In the free version of the product, you have access to JSON export. A JSON file looks like this. It’s not designed to be read by a person, but by a mahine.
I wanted a note-taking platform where I could create templates that remind me of the kinds of information I should be gathering for different kinds of records.
https://trello.com/guide
If the Kanban methods I have shown you here with Trello help you organize your thoughts and think through the big picture as well as the details, great.
If not, so be it, but I
What works for you might be Excel, or yellow legal pads, but whatever it is, find your method and plan and document your research.
If the Kanban methods I have shown you here with Trello help you organize your thoughts and think through the big picture as well as the details, great.
If not, so be it, but I
What works for you might be Excel, or yellow legal pads, but whatever it is, find your method and plan and document your research.