My March 30 x 30 challenge ended yesterday. I challenged myself to do 30 minutes of genealogy research every day for 30 days (in this case, March 1 to 30). Some of you said you’d join me.
For me, this was a successful challenge! As in my November 2016 30 x 30 challenge, I spent a lot of time transcribing. I will say that having a project like that makes the challenge easier because it was always there for me to turn to. But it wasn’t completely about the transcribing. Here’s what I accomplished:
- I did at least 30 minutes of research for probably 28 days (a couple of days I forgot!).
- I transcribed 24 documents in the Civil War pension file of my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938).
- I abstracted six documents in that pension file.
- I made a few breakthroughs in researching that 2nd great grandfather’s second family.
- I managed to stay focused on the Adams family, my goal for 2017.
- I remembered to log each of my sessions! (Full disclosure: For the transcriptions, I counted checking off a document on my checklist logging.) I feel like I’m slowly building up the research log habit.
I can tell you in all sincerity that if it weren’t for this challenge, a fraction of those things would have been accomplished. Some days I just didn’t feel like thinking about my research, but because of the challenge, I pulled out that pension file and started transcribing. It has 138 documents and I’ve transcribed 89 if them (almost two-thirds!) and abstracted 31. I still have a ways to go, but thanks to this challenge, the light is starting to shine at the end of the tunnel.
How about you? If you participated in the challenge (or a variation of it), how did it go?
Congratulations that you pulled it through! Will you go on?
Thanks, Barbara! I’m not challenging myself to do 30 minutes a day again, because if I do, I’ll lose the power of the challenge. But I do strive to do at least a little research most days (my 2017 goal was five days a week). I’ll try to keep track of what I do this month to see how frequently I research without the challenge.
I’m traveling ten days in April, so that might put a damper on things. However, I may try to visit a repository when I’m out and about!
Well done on sticking to your plan. I did about 75% because some days I just didn’t have any time available. It was a good way to push me to tackle the status of my research and as a result I have a much clearer picture of the gaps. I also cracked a few puzzles.
75 percent is great! I’m glad the challenge was a good push for you and that you cracked some puzzles!