Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

New year, new 30 x 30 challenge

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I’m launching a new 30 x 30 challenge for the month of January. Boy, do I need it! After virtually ignoring my research since my father passed away at the end of August, I’m ready to gently return to it. I’ve started by doing a little bit each day this week and am ready to keep a commitment to doing genealogy research (or genealogy organizing) for 30 days in a row. The commitment is typically for 30 minutes a day but I’ll be happy if I average 30 minutes a day over the course of the month.

I’m going to focus on eliminating my backlog of downloaded files, taking at least one class or webinar each week, and basically getting a handle on where I am with my research.

I’ve been doing periodic 30 x 30 challenges since August of 2015 and I find they almost always help me get back on track. I found the accountability of the challenge to be really motivating.

If you’d like to join me in committing to doing daily research in January 2023, please comment below. Feel free to let everyone know what you’ll be working on (but don’t feel like you have to). In the middle of a month, I’ll have a check-in post where you can report your progress. And at the end of the month, we’ll have a wrap-up post.

January is always a good time for me to try to create beneficial habits. Not only am I excited by the 30 x 30 challenge, I’m also really excited about Yoga with Adriene’s 30-day yoga journey, which I’ve been doing every year since 2019. If you do yoga, or are curious about doing yoga, I invite you to join me in that challenge as well!

Keeping genealogy goals attainable

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I’m a big goal setter. Am I a big goal achiever? Not so much when it comes to genealogy goals. Every year I set them (and blog about them) and then I never look at them again. This year, I created a vision board (we recorded a podcast episode about that) and “Little and Often” is part of my vision board, to remind me to work on genealogy frequently.

So this year, in an effort to actually remember and attain my genealogy goals I am making them very simple. Here they are:

  • Research little and often
  • Take one genealogy webinar or class a week
  • Have no documents in my backlog on the last day of every month

Those goals feel attainable and easy to remember. I am going to have a 30 x 30 challenge for the month of January, which will help me stick with the little and often part of it. (Watch for a post about that next week.)

How about you? Do you set genealogy goals? If so, do you achieve them?

 

What to give the genealogist on your list?

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As a professional organizer, I see over and over again how difficult it is for people to let go of items they were given as a gift, even if those items no longer serve them. This observation 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.

Luckily there are many non-tangible gifts that won’t turn into clutter. And if you have a genealogist on your holiday gift list especially easy, since there are so many fun, clutter-free gifts available, even at the last minute. I’ve updated the list I published last year, I hope you find it helpful. Here are my ideas:

  • A subscription to an online service, like Ancestry, Fold3 or MyHeritage
  • A membership in a local society (even if it’s not local to your gift recipient) that offers webinars, like the Florida State Genealogical Society or the Southern California Genealogy Society (among many others). Access to the webinar archives is an amazing, inexpensive gift.
  • A gift certificate to work with a professional genealogist
  • A photo consultation with Maureen Taylor, photo detective
  • My Orderly Roots Bundle (you could download it for them and email it, or contact me after you pay for it for a special code they can use to download it themselves)
  • 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
  • A date to attend the 2023 RootsTech conference together virtually or in person!

As much as I love clutter-free gifts, I do have a suggestion of a physical gift for the genealogist in your life who wears necklaces. It’s the family tree necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs, which you can have made with your own surnames. I adore the one I gave myself back in 2014.

Photo by Lore Schodts on Unsplash.

Who should I interview for How They Do It?

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Five years ago, I started my interview series, How They Do It, in which I ask professional genealogists and/or genealogy writers how they organize their own research. It’s sort of fallen by the wayside and I want to bring it back with gusto in 2023.

I’d love to hear from you if there are any genealogists you’d like me to ask. (And if you have a personal connection with someone, please let me know!) If you click on the link above, you can read the interviews I’ve done already.

It’s a pretty easy process: The interviews are done via email, I ask everyone the same questions (with occasional tweaking), and the interviewee is welcome to skip any questions that feel onerous or irrelevant. I ask them to submit a headshot, bio, and, ideally, a photo of their genealogy research space.

Here are the genealogists I’ve been lucky enough to interview for this series since it began on January 3, 2017 (in alphabetical order):

  • Lisa Alzo
  • Donna Cox Baker
  • Melissa Barker
  • Kenyatta D. Berry
  • Lisa Louise Cooke
  • Kitty Cooper
  • Crista Cowan
  • Amy Johnson Crow
  • Diana Elder
  • Nathan Dylan Goodwin
  • Julie Goucher
  • Michael Lacopo
  • David Allen Lambert
  • Denise May Levenick
  • Thomas MacEntee
  • Julie Miller
  • Sunny Morton
  • Gena Philibert-Ortega
  • Pat Richley-Erickson
  • Barbara Schmidt
  • Randy Seaver
  • Drew Smith
  • Megan Smolenyak
  • Diahan Southard
  • Paula Stuart-Warren
  • D. Joshua Taylor
  • Amie Bowser Tennant
  • Marion Burk Wood

I’m poised to send out interview invitations, so please help me out with any names. If you’re a pro genealogist or genealogy writer and haven’t done one of these interviews with me, please feel free to volunteer yourself!

You can put your suggestions in the comments or email me at janine@organizeyourfamilyhistory.com. Thanks!