Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Getting started again after a hiatus

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One of the things I love about doing daily genealogy research is that I never lose the thread of my research. I jot down next steps in my research log and then each morning I know just what to work on. No agonizing over what to research.

That’s how it’s supposed to work and how it does work when I’m in my groove. But, as I mentioned in a post earlier this week, I’ve done virtually no research for about a month. None. It makes me sad and it’s why I’m starting a 30 x 30 challenge on April 1.

Today I had a sliver of time and some motivation to get back in the saddle. But I faced a conundrum about what to work on. Most recently, I’d been working on eradicating the paper backlog I uncovered. But I’m away from home at the moment so I physically couldn’t do that.

It’s amazing to my how paralyzing the question, “What should I work on?” is. It can stop me in my tracks.

So I started thinking about the various strategies I could employ in figuring out what to work on today:

  • I could look at my research log to see where I left off.
  • I could work on processing my backlog of downloaded documents. (A small one has built up in recent months.)
  • I could open up my Source Documentation Checklist and pick up where I left off.
  • I could look at my follow-up notes, which I keep in notebooks by surname in Evernote.
  • I could choose an ancestor (any ancestor) and see what research questions I have about him/her and get started there.
  • I could look in my family-tree software (I use Reunion) and see if any of my families had a significant event today and work on them. (I wrote about that method here.)
  • If I were at home, I could play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and close my eyes and grab a pin on my ancestor map, then do some research on that ancestor. (That’s my ancestor map in the photo.)

Here’s the thing: it doesn’t really matter what I start working on as long as I re-engage with my research. The important thing is that I get the ball rolling and work on something. (Anything, really.) As my co-host Shannon Wilkinson and I discuss on our podcast Getting to Good Enough, perfectionism can really get in the way of doing what you love!

What I ended up doing was working on my backlog of downloaded documents, which allowed me to jump right in and make progress. It felt great!

Heads up! A 30 x 30 challenge is coming!

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March has been a terrible month for me in terms of prioritizing doing family history research. And that makes it a bad blogging month for me because, of course, my research feeds this blog.

I know that the 30 x 30 challenge (in which I challenge myself and my readers to do 30 minutes of genealogy research or organizing every day for 30 days) is hugely helpful for me in prioritizing research.

So on April 1, I’ll start a new challenge. You can be thinking about whether you’d like to join me. It’s going to be a little challenging for me because I’ll be going to an organizing conference in early April and an out-of-town wedding in mid-April. But getting my research groove back will be really important if I want to maximize the benefits of attending the National Genealogical Society conference May 8 to 11. And if I can do it this April, I can pretty much do it any month.

You don’t have to commit now but keep an eye out for a post on March 29 announcing the challenge!

How They Do It: Kenyatta D. Berry

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You may well be familiar with professional genealogist Kenyatta D. Berry, a host of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow. She has a new book out, The Family Tree Toolkit and when I heard her talking about it on the podcast Genealogy Happy Hour, I knew I wanted to interview her about she organizes her genealogy research. So here’s this month’s How They Do It interview. Enjoy!

How They Do It: Kenyatta BerryHow They Do It: Kenyatta D. Berry

How long have you been doing genealogy?

I have been doing genealogy research and writing for over 20 years.

What’s your favorite thing about being a genealogist?

I love helping people find their people especially descendants of enslaved individuals. Their reaction when I uncover and share some remarkable information about their family history gives me chills. It is my calling to help people uncover their family history and share their ancestors story. I have seen people literally change before my eyes on Genealogy Roadshow.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to organizing your genealogy?

The biggest challenge is digitizing the research I have collected over the past twenty years. I have a closet full of binders and boxes of research from when I started doing genealogy and took field trips to my ancestral homelands.

What is your favorite technology tool for genealogy?

I like using Evernote to help organize research projects, stories and my family history. I also use Dropbox to share documents with clients and family members. I have created Dropbox folders for my maternal and paternal ancestors.

If you were starting out new as a genealogist what would you do differently?

I would have cited my sources, developed better research logs and started an organizational system from the beginning.

Do you keep a research log? If so, what format?

I keep a loose version of a “research log” in Evernote for projects. When I am doing enslaved genealogy research, all of my notes are handwritten. I am a visual person and I need to track the movement of enslaved and enslavers on a blank piece of paper. Once I have analyzed my notes, then I enter them into Evernote.

How do you keep track of clues or ideas for further research?

I use notebooks and small sheets of papers to keep track of clues or ideas for further research. I type the notes into Evernote and update as needed. Transferring the notes helps me work through any outstanding questions and organize my thoughts in a logical process.

How do you go about sharing your personal research with cousins or other interested parties?

I share my personal research with my family members via family stories, biographical sketches and documents on Dropbox.

What’s the most important thing you do to prepare for a research trip?

The most important thing is to know everything about the county including the resources available at the local repositories, courthouses and archives. Also, be nice to the court clerk because it goes a long way.

What’s your biggest piece of advice to genealogists in terms of organizing their research?

Create a system that works for you and don’t be afraid to try something new if something doesn’t work. We all learn differently and as your research expands you might need to alter your system for organizing research. There isn’t a right or wrong answer for organizing your research.

Do you have a dedicated space in your home for doing genealogy research? What’s it like?

I do not have a dedicated space in your home in my apartment because I live in a one-bedroom. My research is stored in closets, cabinets and a portion of my bookshelves are dedicated to genealogy books.

Do you have anything to add?

Develop your library of genealogy and historical resources based on your interests. This will help broaden your knowledge as you continue to uncover your ancestors place in history.

I can so relate to these responses, especially what Kenyatta said there being no right way to organize and that organization systems sometimes need to change. Also, as someone who keeps a very casual research log in Evernote, I was thrilled to read that Kenyatta also keep a loose version of a log there. For more information from Kenyatta, I encourage you to check out her book, The Family Tree Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Uncovering Your Ancestry and Researching Genealogy.

Not at RootsTech? Watch the live stream!

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RootsTech 2019 started yesterday. I’m not there and in fact I don’t have much time at computer to participate live, but tomorrow I plan to spend some time at my computer watching live (and perhaps recorded) sessions.

If you’d like to watch from home (or your mobile device), you can find the Livestream schedule here and see which sessions are being streamed.

If you want to just turn it on and have it running in the background, here is the YouTube links to Friday’s program (8 am to 7 pm Mountain time). Saturday’s live stream is from 8 am to 4 pm Mountain.

Here’s some good news: If you weren’t able to watch the live stream on Wednesday or Thursday, you can watch the recordings!  Here are the links for Wednesday and Thursday.

In addition to the live stream, if you’re on Twitter, follow the hashtag #rootstech or #notatrootstech to read about people’s experiences and get hints for things to pay attention to. I’m enjoying seeing photos from some of the Expo booths, though it does make me sad I’m not there! Perhaps next year.