u/No-Guitar728

POST UPDATE: WOW! I am so thankful for all the comments and insight, what an amazing community.

What I’m hearing from all of this is:

1. Patience
2. Record and download everything
3. Trust nothing
4. Verify everything
5. Trust the expert writings and literature

Original Post:

I’ve been spending hours researching my family history through newspapers, census records, military records, city directories, photographs, and other sources. Recently, I found and started documenting hundreds of newspaper articles and photographs created by my grandmother while she worked for the Tampa Tribune in the 1940s.

I’d like to spend the next year developing my skills and seeing how far I can get. I’m not planning a career change, but I’d like to move beyond being a casual beginner and learn how to do this properly.

For those of you who have been doing genealogy or historical research for years:

What do you wish you’d known when you started?
Which skills should I focus on first?
What beginner mistakes should I avoid?
Which books, courses, archives, or other resources have been most useful?
If you were starting over with one year to learn, how would you approach it?
What’s the best or most sensible way to start a project? How do I set it up? Where do you compile your information?

I’d appreciate any advice. I’m interested in improving, but I’m also aware that I have a lot to learn.

I’m doing some genealogy research on my great-grandfather and was hoping someone could help me understand what his unit would have experienced during WWI.

He served as a PFC in Company C, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division from May 30(10), 1917 to September 25, 1919. I also recently discovered he received the Silver Star according to his headstone application.

I’m not looking for help finding records. I’m more curious about where the 16th Infantry was during those dates, what battles he fought, what life was like for an enlisted man in his regiment, and any other experiences my great-grandfather likely had.

Any books, unit histories, or recommended reading would be appreciated!!

I’m doing some genealogy research on my great-grandfather and was hoping someone could help me understand what his unit would have experienced during WWI.

He served as a PFC in Company C, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division from May 30(10), 1917 to September 25, 1919. I also recently discovered he received the Silver Star according to his headstone application.

I’m not looking for help finding records. I’m more curious about where the 16th Infantry was during those dates, what battles he fought, what life was like for an enlisted man in his regiment, and any other experiences my great-grandfather likely had.

Any books, unit histories, or recommended reading would be appreciated!!

Running my first 50k in Florida this November, currently running around 15 miles a week. Planning on getting those numbers up slowly and all while strength training my legs.

I have newbie questions
- is it worth buying new shoes? I’ve got road shoes and trail runners that’re both 400+ miles. I’m not finding any issue with them other than I don’t like the Hoka Speedgoat all that much with how bulky it is

-the race allows for a drop bag, what do I put in a drop bag?

-do I need to have a genuine nutrition/fueling plan for this 50k or is it just stay on the liquids and don’t eat anything sketchy the night before type deal?

-While I’m training, should I be hitting more miles each session or spending more time on my feet at a slower pace?

-If I want to run a sub 7.5 hour race, how fast do I need to move on trail and through the aid stations? There’s 3 of them

Hi y’all,

I’m in my first year of Geography and GIS work in school and am fortunate to work at an amazing company at the same time.

Part of my job involves heavy use in Salesforce and I’ve been brainstorming some ideas about how to make Geospatial assets and business oriented dynamic maps to help with Key Account Management and contract life cycles and a few other asks.

My problem: I’m not a computer science oriented person. How the **** do I use python in any of this?

I’d love for the maps and dashboards to be live data that doesn’t need to be refreshed - is it as simple as opening a Python window and writing a script to scalp data from Salesforce?

Do I need do to anything fancy in Salesforce first? Do I need additional software or do I just need ArcGIS and my Salesforce open? How do I make sure the dashboards and maps are constantly running?

Make all the assumptions you need, I’m just having a hard time connecting how python works in any of this when in my mind I just need to routinely upload data from salesforce to update the maps and dash boards.

Talk to me in broad strokes as fancy jargon scares me cause I’m fragile. (stupid)