April is whizzing by and we’re more than halfway through our 30 x 30 challenge. How is it going?
I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to research every day, though some days have not been a full 30 minutes. I’ve been laser focused on reducing backlog of downloaded documents to be processed. So far this month I’ve downloaded only one new file, which I processed the same session. I’ve managed to reduce my backlog by more than half. I started with 112 documents and I have 49 documents left.
I’ve been very pleased that I haven’t missed a day, though I wish I had more time to spend on the backlog-busting because I’m finding it very fulfilling. One reason I’m short on research time is that I’ve been spending a lot of time getting my new How I Do It Orderly Roots Guide ready to be published on May 2. According to my spreadsheet, I have averaged 25 minutes, 8 seconds a day. So I’m hopeful I’ll end the month averaging 30 minutes a day.
How about you? Has the challenge helped you make progress toward your goals? Have you been able to research each day? I’d love to hear how it’s going!
So far so good. I’ve spend a lot time in education with RootsTech and NCGS spring conference sessions but I’m also following my goal of completing my grandfather’s residences research project. Thanks for the 30×30 challenge to remind me to “do genealogy” every day.
Excellent, Gwen! You’re reminding me that I’m not getting much genealogy education in and I wish I could. Glad to know the challenge is helping!
Hi
Well, I was a bit all over the place at first, with Legacy family tree webinars and yours from Ohio! and organizing my “Genealogy Notes” notebook and then a bit of research until I noticed my Ancestry shoebox had 99+ docs, and 19 pages. AH HA! So I have been cleaning that out, deleting people I now know aren’t ancestors, but leaving behind the maybes (Irish ancestry you learn a zillion people are born around the same time and place, and have the same name!) I am downloading docs and renaming the files and getting citations, usually spending more than 30 minutes a day, and once or twice skipping a day. Still got 99+ to go, but am down to page 13!
Wow, Janet, you have been working so diligently! It’s so rewarding to chip away at a backlog, isn’t it? Bravo!
I have done really well. I have fixed some mistakes in one of my trees. Enter information from papers of my Dad’s. I made contact with 4 people through Trulines on Ancestry. I found some really cool pictures of my older sister & her husband from their yearbook that has now been added to my local history society. So fun !
Thanks for the motivation.
So much fun! So glad that the month is going so well, Tammy!
Overall I have met my goal of 30 minutes a day. I missed a couple of days, but made up the time in subsequent days. I have been working on my to do list from 2020. I was surprised when I found that I had already accomplished one of my goals. I have been having fun translating a 1850 letter written by a cousin of my grgrandfather. In the letter he mentions that my grgrandfather was leaving from Independence, MO to a trading post in Pueblo, CO. The letter mentions several individuals related to my ancestors.
Great job, Jerry! I love transcribing personal letters–it really makes you read them, rather than skimming over the stuff you don’t immediately understand. I like that we have a Pueblo, Colorado, connection. My great great grandmother died there (though it was after the trading post days). Keep up the great work!
I have been getting in my daily 30 for the most part. I’m working on my maternal line. I’m making sure that I have census records, birth dates and death dates. I’m going back as far as I can and then I’m going forward with descendants up to at least the 1940 census. It’s very tedious but I’m seeing the fruit of my labor and that helps. Researching the descendants has helped me identify some of my DNA matches.
That’s excellent, Mary. That’s more tedious than doing fun searches, but it can be so valuable! Glad the month is going well.
It’s not going well for me at all. I started quite well, but unfortunately the death of HRH Duke of Edinburgh work commitments got in the way as I work for one of the departments involved in the planning of, and the day of, the funeral. Even with it being so scaled back there was still a lot to plan. I am looking to get back on track for the last 10 days or so of the month.
Missy, that’s a great example of how life/work can get in the way of our research. I’m sure that funeral was a whole lot of work for you and your colleagues. It’s great that you’re not going to let it derail the rest of our month! Thanks for checking in.
I’ve been doing pretty well. Including today – while I haven’t researched every day – I have conducted research on the equivalent of 15 out of the last 20 days. I won’t be able to finish the CDs by the end of the month but hopefully at least, I’ll have caught up and done the time equivalent of researching every day for all of April.
Rebecca, that sounds like great progress. Congrats!