Our August 30 x 30 challenge is over and I’d love to hear how it went for you. Were you able to do genealogy research for 30 minutes a day? If not, did the challenge prompt you get more done than you might otherwise have? Do you have any achievements to share?
I had a great month. I researched every day, though I didn’t always do the full 30 minutes. This month I kept a spreadsheet of my daily progress on reducing my backlog of downloaded documents that need to be processed. One of the fields in that spreadsheet is how much time I spent each session. The Numbers spreadsheet understands minutes and hours so I can easily glance at the sum for that column and see that I spent 17 hours and 20 minutes researching in August (including 20 minutes yesterday, which is technically past the 30-day challenge). That’s an average of 33 minutes and 32 seconds a day. That feels great!!
The bad news is that I only reduced my backlog by 24 documents, which is kind of sad. Mostly that’s because I downloaded 40 documents in August, despite my pledge that I would resist downloading. So that means I processed 64 documents, which doesn’t sound quite as pathetic.
In any case, I enjoyed this month’s research and, as always, felt I benefited from doing it daily. I love the connection I maintain with my research when I work on it daily.
How about you? If you participated in the challenge, please let us know how this month went!
I did not research every day, but more than made up the time on the days that I did. While I still have work to do in getting my sourcing current, I have definitely made a lot of progress.
That’s excellent, Bonnie!!
I got a lot of scanning of pictures and albums done. Did not get much research done. It did help to spur me on to have the challenge. I have several piles moved to done that might still be in the to do otherwise
I’m so glad the challenge was helpful, Martha. Congrats on your progress!
Success! I completed a research report for my paternal grandfather, continued my genealogy education through a variety of webinars, and began a Do-over of my Legacy Family Tree. I did miss one day but had a total of 62 hours for the month. I’ve set a goal for a September challenge to add ancestors (all with sources) to my “new” Legacy Family Tree. Note: I decided it was easier to start over than to “clean up” my existing tree.
Thanks again for the “push” to get things done!
62 hours for the month! You’re a rock star, Gwen. That’s fantastic.
I didn’t stick to my objective of fixing up source citations, but did tons of research as I uncovered the trail of two sons of one of my Loyalist ancestors, along with their children and grandchildren, so much accomplished.
Much accomplished and it sounds like you had fun! That’s great, Linda.
I did make a good start on my project to transfer documents from a binder storage system to folders in archival boxes. Part of this project was to toss / recycle quite a bit of paper when I found that I had digital copies of things (i.e. newspaper articles) already. I still have some work to do and will have to do my 30 x 30 in September to keep it going! Thanks for the push.
Elizabeth, it sounds like you had a lot of success and I bet it felt good to get that duplicate paper out of there. That is a task that’s hard to rev oneself to do, so I’m impressed.
According to my research log, I only did research on 16 of 31 days, but the time average was well over one hour per session. That said, 16 days of research is fantastic! I love the 30-day challenges. It helps reinforce the habit of regular research, which is of great value to me.
Russ, you are so right: 16 days of research is fantastic! I’m glad you enjoy the 30 day challenges. I’ll probably do another one in October. They help me so much!
I’ve been working on a narrative nonfiction writing project off and on the past two years. I developed momentum in July and decided a 30×30 was a good fit. With a few August days checked off, something wasn’t right. I needed a refresher, so I dusted off some writing books and did some google searches. Frustrated with conflicting schools of thought, I contacted Creative Nonfiction for clarification.
The reply provided a thorough explanation. Fabricating stuff is Fiction and not allowed in narrative nonfiction.
I knew it. I had been led down a rabbit hole of misinformation from an online writing instructor encouraging participants to make up descriptions, details, dialogue, etc. even though there were no documents, diaries, pictures, or interviews to support the writing.
My challenge was successful even though the story is on sabbatical. I will open Scrivener in October, make a copy, keep the documented passages and discard the rest. I’ll begin anew and breathe new life into these leftover pieces.
Cheri, thank you for sharing! It sounds like August was really breakthrough month for your project even though you had to put the story on a sabbatical.
I didn’t manage to research every day, but did more than 30mins on some days whilst doing nothing on others, however, despite this I met my goal. All of my bits of paper have been sorted, scanned, and filed for the individual or family they relate to, I am now feeling a lot more organised about what I have to do a reset and restart on my actual research. I found some information had been searched for and written down multiple times, so I could discard some of the bits of paper without worrying about it, where previously I had kept everything! I can’t wait to hit the reset button on my research this month.
I’m sure it feels great to have a handle on all your bits of paper, Missy! That’s fantastic. I know it will have a huge impact on your research.
Did get to the final total, but in larger lumps. Some 2 or 3 hours sessions making up fr a few days of zero. Not the goal, but not too bad. I spent most of the time cleaning up my place names and getting the complete and correct for the period. Tough with the volume of colonial ancestors I have. And the gang that came to New York in the mid 1650’s did not make it any easier. Before 1776 I use British Colonial America to describe the “country” and Massachusetts Colony to describe the state, for example. The tools provide by Randy Majors on his web site were invaluable.
That’s way better than not bad, David! Thanks for sharing Randy Majors’ website as a resource for historical place names. Congrats on your accomplishments!
Great job, everyone. You inspire me. This month was a miss for me. I had too many unexpected family things pop up. I hope to try again next time.
I hope you’re cutting yourself lots of slack, Mary. I think I’ll do another 30 x 30 in October so you can try again!