Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Creating a digital workflow

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Since it’s RootsTech time, I was thinking about the talk I co-presented at RootsTech 2017 with Brooks Duncan called Going Paperless in Genealogy. Shortly after I wrote a post about my digital workflow that presents it pretty concisely. I’m happy to report that the workflow has stood the test of time. I thought now would be a good time to repeat that post.

When Brooks Duncan and I spoke at RootsTech about going digital with genealogy research, it became apparent to me from the questions that digital workflow is an individual thing. I’ve developed a work flow that works well for me, so I thought I’d share it here. I’m not suggesting I do things The Right Way (I don’t know if there is a right way, especially for hobbyists), but I wanted to show you what works for me. I know that I love seeing examples of how people handle their own workflow, so in the spirit of sharing, here’s mine.

When I find a digital document online–let’s say it’s a census document that I found at Ancestry–I take the following steps after ascertaining that it’s pertinent to my research:

  1. I click Save to download the document to my computer’s desktop.
  2. I rename the file immediately so that it reflects my simple file-naming protocol (year document type-ancestor name-location).
  3. I immediately file the document in my file structure (Genealogy/Surnames/[Ancestor’s surname]/[Ancestor’s name]
  4. I analyze the document and enter the first fact into my Reunion software.
  5. I create a source for that fact, using Reunion’s templates.
  6. I drag the image of the file into the Multimedia section of the Reunion source screen for that source. (That’s an example of the Reunion source screen at the top of this post.)
  7. I enter all other facts I find in the document into Reunion, using the same source number for each fact I find in that document.
  8. I click Preview in the Reunion source screen for that source and copy the citation and paste it into the metadata of the image file on my hard drive.

I added that last step after RootsTech, adapting a suggestion made by an audience member at our talk. I hadn’t thought about noting on the image what the source number and citation is. I think it’s a great idea and now I intend to go to back and do that for all my sources.

This eight-step work flow takes me from discovery through processing the document. It means that I don’t have stray documents on my hard drive with nonsensical file means. It also means I can easily a find a document when I want to. And it helps me see what documents are missing. Having the confidence that I can find a document I’ve saved allows me to feel good about not printing it, which cuts down on my paper clutter. (And, yes, I backup my hard drive daily, both to the cloud and to an external hard drive.) This workflow was about five years in the making, and I’m very satisfied with it!

For more in-depth information on how I organize my own genealogy, including a detailed look at my digital workflow, check out How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow, a 37-page downloadable available for $19.99.

 

 

It’s RootsTech time!

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RootsTech snuck up on me this year because, for the first time in a decade, I’m not planning to attend, either in-person or virtually. As I’ve explained here, I’m not focusing on my genealogy research this year (though I still enjoy maintaining Organize Your Family History!) and instead using the time to focus on building my YNAB budget coaching practice

But I wanted to share a couple of resources in case RootsTech snuck up on you as well. It will be held both in-person in Salt Lake City and virtually 29 February to 2 March, 2024. Online registration is free; in-person registration for all three days of the event is $109 if you register before 29 February and $129 if you register on site. To register, just go to the Rootstech website and choose which experience you want.

To me, $109 registration for the in-person conference is the bargain of the century. I loved attending in person. Being among thousands of genealogy enthusiasts and taking the classes in person is an unforgettable experience and I’m so glad I was able to attend five conferences. Participating in the conference online is also a great experience, though it’s much easier to get distracted by real life.

The conference has so many classes (more than 200!) it can feel overwhelming to choose what to attend. RootsTech has a created a terrific blog post detailing how to plan your RootsTech 2024 schedule, whether you’re attending in person or online.

Are you planning to attend? If so, what are you most excited about?

I hope this year’s RootsTech is a great experience for all of you who attend!

Four habits to make your research easier

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I stumbled on this post I wrote a year ago and I liked it so much I thought I would share it again. Creating great habits in any aspect of your life tends to make your life easier. The more we can do habitually, the less we have to think about doing it. I encourage you to consider incorporating these four habits into your genealogy life!

I’m a huge fan of creating beneficial habits. When you have a habit going, it becomes automatic–at least for awhile! And when that happens, life gets easier. (You might enjoy listening to Episode 22 of the podcast I co-hosted, Getting to Good Enough, called Creating Helpful Habits.)

I got to thinking about the genealogy habits that benefit me and four jumped to mind. Your future self will thank you if you do these four things every time you research:

  1. Rename the files you download. Having a consistent file-naming protocol will help make sure you don’t lose valuable documents on your hard drive. (See this blog post if you’re interested in my file-naming protocol and folder structure.)
  2. Process each document right after you download it. By process, I mean extract all the data from it and enter it in your genealogy software. Be sure to create a source citation (see #3 below). If you do this, you won’t have an ever-present backlog of unprocessed documents nagging at you. And you get to further your research!
  3. Create a source citation for every document and assign a source to every fact. In my genealogy life no fact goes into my database (I use Reunion) without a source citation. That’s how I know I can trust my research. (And so can other people.)
  4. Log your research during each session or, at the very least, write out your next steps. It is so useful to be able to pull up your research log and see where you left off. It eliminates that overwhelming question, “What should I research today?” (Here’s a post on my very informal research log.)

The good news is that while these habits are important, they’re not hard. I encourage you to work on creating great genealogy habits. It can take some of the frustration out of the research process. You want your genealogy research to be as frustration-free as possible!

For detailed information on how I organize my own genealogy research, check out my Orderly Roots Guide, How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow, available for $19.99.

Carving out time for your genealogy research

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Ticking clockBack in 2015, I published this post, which I originally published on another of my three blogs, the one on my organizing business’s website, Peace of Mind Organizing. These days I’m trying to blog once a week on each of my blogs. (The third is the blog on my budget coaching website, Peace of Mind Budgeting.) The focuses of the blogs are separate, but occasionally a post written for one can transfer right over to the other.

That’s the case with this post. When perusing my business blog, I realized that a post called Finding time to feed your soul, originally published in 2014, would be great on this blog. So here it is. I hope you find it helpful!

I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.

But I don’t actually research as often as I’d like. And that’s a shame, because researching my family history feeds my soul.

We’re all busy with the daily activities of life. Throw kids, aging parents, demanding work, needy spouses or sick pets into the mix and sometimes it feels like we don’t have any time to do those things that really nourish us.

I believe that doing those things is really important for self care. So how can we find the time?

Time management is all about managing priorities. If you put everyone’s needs before your own, all you’ll be doing is putting out fires. And that’s not good for you. So I think it’s important to figure out little pockets of time that you can set aside as “me time.” During that special time, you can do that thing that keeps you going and that feeds your soul.

How can you find some pockets of time when you’re already so busy?

  • Get up a half hour early to feed your soul
  • Drop an activity that you’re doing because you think you should, not because you want to
  • If you’re a TV watcher, have a no-TV day each week and put that time toward your desired activity
  • Find people who also do what you want to do (like a knitting group) and agree to do that activity together.
  • Block off time on your calendar for your soul-feeding activity
  • Explain to your family your need to have to time of your own and arrange for a redistribution of chores

The list could go on. Perhaps you just need to be a little creative.

If you’re saying to yourself, I can’t take time out for myself while my house is messy…that’ll have to wait until I get organized then please stop. It breaks my heart when people stop their messy homes from allowing them to live. Sure, work on your home, bit by bit (or hire someone to help you), but reward your efforts with some soul-nourishing activity.

Our lives our important and they should be as happy and fulfilling as possible. I’m a firm believer that we can take control of our time and do those things that bring fulfillment.

Can you make some time for yourself this weekend?

Photo by R.L. Hyde via Flickr