Summary

I have had a main goal for many years, in that I wish ultimately to deposit a record of the Bower/Collier Family Tree with the Society of Genealogists.

I have dubbed this project, "The Big One!", as it will involve a lot of work and take some years to complete.

Initial Plans

1. Drawing up a template to be used for each family name.

2. Collating information held in hardcopy format and electronically, as a Word document with scanned attachments.

Template for each Family Name

After some thought, I decided to base the template on the Progress Reports that I have been keeping in the web-site.

I have called the template, "Family History Research Reports".

Template - Family History Research Reports

Testing the Template

I selected 3 "minor" names to test the template:

Bradbrook
Pitts
Robinson

and started on 3 of the 16 main family names.

Hayes
Peryer/Perrier
Ransom(e)

To give me a break, I summarised 2 other main family names, Gardner and Jones where there was not a great deal of documentation to tackle.

Lessons Learnt

Welcome Interruptions!

I realised that, while I was working gradually to complete the Big One!, I would still want to develop my other projects andrespond to enquiries generated by my web-site

Also I would have to keep up with and take advantage of developments in information available to genealogists and absorb any new information into my records.

Writing up your records provides one more opportunity to try to develop the Family Tree while the information is fresh in mind.

Current Plan

I have completed 13 Family names to date including 7 of the 16 main family names.

At some stage, I will make a start on the Brecht One-Name Study!

Progress Report

The project has been running now for some years. I maintain a Progress Report as a discipline.

The Big One! Progress Report

* * * *

So the biggest project that I have ever taken on.

Gradually I will have a better set of records and at the end of the project have something I can lodge with the Society of Genealogists.

Colin Bower
29 February 2024

The Big One! Index