Being housebound doesn’t mean that you need to stop working on your lineage society application. Here are five things you can do to keep your application process moving:
- Decide which societies you’d like to join. There are a lot of lineage societies out there. We’ve discussed a few of the more popular, but there are others that are very active. Does your hometown’s founders’ group sound like fun?
- Identify a line and check it against what the society already has on file. Many societies have a way to check their previously verified applications so you can determine how much of the line you’ll need to document.
- Order the vital records (civil registration) that you’ll need to complete the application. They always take a few weeks to arrive anyway. Order them by mail now, and you’ll be ahead when things get started again.
- Contact the society you’re interested in. Most societies require you to work with a historian or registrar. The Mayflower Society currently has a multi-month queue to get historian assistance in some states. Get in line now.
- Review your other sources and decide if you need help. Finding the process of ordering the records overwhelming? Need help making a parent-child connection? Most genealogists are still working. Now is the perfect time to reach out!