Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Getting past overwhelm by breaking a project down

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getting past overwhelm by breaking down a projectAs I plug away at transcribing my 2nd great grandfather’s 137-document pension file, I keep thinking to myself how valuable it is that I’m doing this one small document at a time. When I started, the idea of transcribing this vast file seemed insurmountable. The printed sheaf of papers that I received from the National Archives is nearly an inch tall!

But rather than think about the enormity of transcribing the whole file, I’m just looking at the next document. Then the one after that. I’m trying to work on it at least 30 minutes daily (even after the succcessful end of my latest 30 x 30 challenge two weeks ago, I’ve only missed a couple of days) and slowly but surely I’m getting through it. Today, I transcribed documents 47 and 48. Before long, I’ll be halfway done.

Once or twice I’ve questioned the value of this exercise. But as soon as I do that, I discover something I didn’t notice on first reading, when I wasn’t transcribing. There’s no doubt in my mind that transcribing these pension documents is a valuable use of my time.

So here’s my big takeaway, which of course can be applied to many aspects of my life. When I’m facing a large, seemingly insurmountable project, I can get past overwhelm and eventually complete it if I:

  • Break it down into small tasks
  • Do one task at a time
  • Work on it very regularly, for a small period of time

This strategy is working well on the pension file. I can’t wait to get all the way to the end and see what discoveries has in store for me!

A commenter asked for the steps on requesting a Civil War pension file.  Here they are:

  1. Go to this page on the National Archives website.
  2. Select NATF 85D: Federal Military Pension Application – Civil War and Later Complete File
  3. Select delivery format (I selected paper)
  4. Click Add to Cart
  5. Login or register
  6. Fill out form with your ancestor’s name, military unit and other information (if you don’t have that, check out Ancestry.com or Fold3.com to get it)
  7. Pay $80 online
  8. Wait for your packet!

Are you storing family keepsakes properly?

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Take time to properly store inherited itemsI had a wake-up call this morning. My one-year-old standard poodle, Bix, and I came down to my office to start work for the day.  No sooner had I sat down at my computer when I heard him chewing on something. Thankfully I didn’t ignore the sound like I sometimes do; I immediately investigated. There was Bix, lying on the floor chewing on page 34 of the epic 37-page letter my grandfather wrote my grandmother in 1927. Bix responded to my thunderous “NO!” and dropped it, but the damage was done.

At first, I couldn’t figure out where he got it. I looked all around for where I had stored that precious letter. I found it up high, stored loose on top of the Adams archival photo box in my office closet. That’s right, on top of the box. (How lazy can I be?) For some reason, that particular page had fallen off the top of the box and Bix noticed it on the floor. I hurriedly put it back and started plucked bits of paper off of Bix’s legs. Before I knew it, the page fell off again.

Clearly, this is a very poor way to store a delicate item that’s precious to me. I’ve already scanned and transcribed the letter, so the torn words aren’t lost to me. But I’m heartsick that my carelessness resulted in damage.

So I’m taking action this morning to properly store the letter. It’s shameful–I even have the supplies on hand to store it properly. I actually have acid-free tape, which I picked up at a genealogy conference, so I will see if I can tape the fragments back onto the damaged letter. I consulted my copy of How to Archive Family Keepsakes, by Denise May Levenick, so I know I should carefully unfold the letter and store the pages flat, in order, in an archival file folder inside an archival document box. As soon as I post this, I will take care of it.

Do you have any precious inherited items that you could be storing more safely? I encourage you not to wait until you get a wake-up call like mine: take the time to properly store them now. If you need help on proper storage, Denise’s book is excellent.

Clutter-free genealogy gifts

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Since I deal with clutter in my clients’ homes all year long, this time of year I’m always thinking (and writing) about the benefits of giving intangible gifts. A year ago I created a post about clutter-free gifts for genealogists. It still holds true, so I’ve decided to run it again today (with a few updates).

As a professional organizer, I frequently help clients declutter their physical possessions. Over and over again I’ve seen how difficult it is for most folks to let go of an item they’d received as a gift, even if they don’t use or love it.

This realization has changed the way I give gifts. As I’ve written repeatedly on my organizing blog, I think it’s much kinder to give a gift that doesn’t have a chance to turn into clutter. So I find myself giving these types of gifts:

  • digital gifts (iTunes gift certificate, or a subscription to Amazon Prime, for example)
  • services (gift certificate for a massage or a float)
  • ephemeral goods (like edibles and cut flowers) and
  • experiences (an outing or meal together)

If you have any genealogy enthusiasts on your list, you’re in luck. There are all sorts of opportunities to give clutter-free gifts to those folks. Here are some ideas.

  • A subscription to an online service, like Ancestry, Fold3 or MyHeritage
  • A membership in a local society or other association, like the NGS or the Southern California Genealogy Society (so they can have access to the webinar archives, my pick for deal of the century)
  • A gift certificate to work with a professional genealogist
  • The story behind a mystery photo, revealed by Maureen Taylor, photo detective.
  • One or more of my Orderly Roots guides (you could download it for them and email it, or contact me for a special code they can use to download a guide you pay for)
  • Your help with their genealogy (maybe offer to spend a couple of hours on one of their brick walls)
  • Your help decluttering or organizing their research space
  • A trip together to a cemetery or research library
  • Registration for a genealogy conference (they could hear me speak at RootsTech 2017!)
  • A donation in their name to a worthy genealogy cause (like Preserve the Pensions or their favorite genealogy society)

If you do want to give a physical item, be sure it’s useful. You could consider a Flip-Pal mobile scanner or a ShotBox portable photo light box. Perhaps less utilitarian, but a lovely, meaningful gift is the family tree necklace. I adore the one I gave myself.

Before you buy anything, check out the Genealogy Bargains area of the Geneabloggers website to see if there are any special deals to be found!

Illustration by Traci Gardner via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Recording negative research

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badsearchAs someone who tries to be an organized genealogist, I think one of the hardest things to remember to do is to make a note of my fruitless searches. When you do a search and get no results, the natural thing to do is to plow ahead and tweak the search and try again or to try searching another collection (or another ancestor).

But if you take the time to document that negative search, you might save yourself from duplicating that fruitless search in the near future (and therefore save yourself some time).

To me, the tricky part is figuring out how to record it. If you’re faithful about a research log (high five!), it seems fairly straightforward to include it in your log.

But if you’re one of those people (and I have to admit to being one of them) who doesn’t record everything faithfully in a log, you might have to devise a system specifically for negative research.

Here’s what I’m going to try. Using Evernote, I’ve created a Negative Research notebook in my Genealogy stack. I’ll try to remember to create a note when I spend time on fruitless research, making note of what I searched for and where, what the results were and when I did the search. By putting surnames in the note, I’ll easily be able to access the note on a simple search in Evernote, if I’m looking for information I stored there on a specific family member.

One caveat: I’m often searching sites like Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org, so I need to bear in mind that they’re constantly adding new collections. So just because a search came up blank one day doesn’t mean that it won’t bear fruit a year (or more or less) down the road. Periodically, I’ll try to remember to check out my Negative Research notebook and see if it’s time to try that search again.

I’m hopeful this system will help me save precious research time.

How about you? Do you record your negative research? If so, how do you do it?