Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Genealogy Roadshow coming to PBS this fall

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genealogyroadshowlogoI know I’m not the only one excited to watch Genealogy Roadshow on PBS this fall. The network just announced the on-air talent for the show, which includes Los Angeles-based broadcaster Emmett Miller as host, along with genealogy experts Joshua Taylor and Kenyatta Berry.

The show will shoot in four cities: Austin, Nashville, Detroit and San Francisco, each episode shot in a historical location. Participants in the show will “explore unverified genealogical claims, passed down through their family history, which may (or may not) connect them to an event of historical figure,” according to the PBS website page linked above. Does it make me a true genealogy nerd that I think that sounds like a fun and fascinating idea for a show?

The show will air Monday nights on PBS September 23 through October 14, 2013.

The beauty of wedding photos

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Arthur and Rhoda Brown, October 18, 1905Yesterday, I did a consultation with a 74-year-old man in need of organizing assistance. He proudly pointed to the wall in his hall where framed family photos were hanging. I looked at pictures of his kids and grandkids. But really drew my attention were the wedding photos. Each was such a snapshot of time.

I saw his own wedding photo, circa 1971. The bride’s dress stopped well above the knee. Fantastic. Then I saw his parents’ wedding photo, which was taken about 40 years earlier. The contrast was remarkable. It was so clearly of another era. More somber. More formal. More clothed. And absolutely beautiful.

It makes me want to find more wedding photos of my ancestors. A quick look through the small cache of photos that my mother has given me revealed the photo above, of my great grandparents, Arthur John Brown and Rhoda Wheeler. It was taken on the day of their wedding, October 18, 1905, in Nebraska. (Please forgive my crude photo of a photo.) It’s also a snapshot of an era.

One of my favorite department in Family Tree Magazine is Photo Detective, written by Maureen Taylor. Each month, Taylor points out historical clues in old photos. Taylor has a Photo Detective blog on Family Tree Magazine’s website. If you love looking at the details of old photo, you should check them out.

Happy blogiversary to me!

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happyblogiversarylgA year ago today, I posted my first blog post on Organize Your Family History. This feels like a great milestone.

I’m so grateful for the blog, because it’s helped motivate me to give family history research a higher priority in my life. I love thinking of and writing the posts. I love sharing my discoveries. But let me tell you the greatest thing that’s happened as a result of this blog: I’ve been in touch with family members I never (or barely) new before. My mother’s cousin, Jerry Brown, who’s been researching the family for years and years, found the blog and reached out. Then he sent my contact info to email list of cousins and many lovely conversations have ensued.

I even met some of my Missouri cousins earlier this year, thanks to Jerry’s reaching out to me. He’s also shared some great genealogical information.

I’ve added one organizing package  related to family history, my Heirloom Explorer package, to my organizing business and I hope this summer (if life calms down enough for me to do it) to add some pages to Organize Your Family History that will outline some services offerings related to organizing your genealogy life.

As far as the blog goes, here are a few stats (via WordPress) about what’s transpired here in the last year:

  • I’ve written 79 posts
  • There have been a total of 6,424 views
  • I’ve received 106 comments (which doubtless counts my replies to comments)
  • 82 people subscribe to the blog

My goal is to blog at least once a week, preferably twice a week. I appreciate your pageviews and your comments. If there are any topics you’d like to see me cover, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Here’s to a great Year Two!

My dream genealogy staycation

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I’ve been very busy helping clients get organized recently and just have not taken the time to do genealogy research. I’ve been out all day most days and when I come home it’s all I can do to wrangle my email and get ready for the next day before collapsing with a glass of wine. (Well, it’s not quite that dramatic, but you get the idea.)

I find myself fantasizing about taking an entire week off to spend on doing genealogy research. In this dream stay-cation, I’d probably do the following:

That sounds like more than a week’s worth of activities, actually. But the truth is that the chances I would actually take a week away from clients and running my organizing business is pretty remote.

But you know what? I don’t need a week off to dig into this stuff. Heck, I don’t need an afternoon off. If I can capture an hour here or there, I’ll make progress.  And if I managed to put in 30 minutes most days, I’d make huge progress. It’s just like I tell my clients about decluttering: 15 or 30 minutes a day can make all the difference in the world. In fact, I got out my calculator and figured it out. If you declutter (or do family history research) for 3o minutes a day, five days a week, for a year , it comes to 130 hours. That’s more than three work weeks!

I still love the idea of focusing my efforts for an entire week. But for now, I’ll try to wedge about a half hour a day in and see what progress I can make!