Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Baby stepping my way back into research

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I don’t think I’ve ever felt this disconnected from my genealogy research in the ten years since I started this blog. The death of my father on August 20, coupled with the overwhelming amount of work I’m responsible for as his executor and the need to run my organizing business (I’m so grateful for my amazing employees!), means that family history research fell to the bottom of my priority list.

But I really miss doing research. I miss feeling connected to my ancestors. And I miss feeling connected to my readers. So today I’m figuring out a gentle plan to get back into the swing of it.

Here’s my guiding principle: Baby steps. I’m creating a tiny task list of things I can do to dip my toe back into my genealogy pool without feeling overwhelmed or like it’s too time-consuming to start. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. I’ve purposely kept the list short so it won’t feel overwhelming, but I give myself permission to add to it whenever I want:

  • Process one document in my backlog
  • Process one document related to my father’s passing (so far all I’ve put into my database was his death certificate, which was a little painful)
  • Pick one ancestor in my database and see what documents I’m missing
  • Search for one document from that missing documents list
  • Send 15 minutes inventorying the family archive of objects from my father and aunt (who moved into a nursing home)

In the last month, I’ve just been stymied by the thought, “I need to do some genealogy research.” Now, with this list, I feel like I can actually take action when I have that thought.

This feels like huge progress and I’ll post an update about whether it’s working. Wish me luck.

If you’ve been in this position, I would certainly be interested learning how you got back on the saddle with your research!

September 30 x 30 wrap up

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For me, September has been an exceedingly long month. I wish I could say it was a productive month for me in terms of genealogy, but as I mentioned in my mid-month check-in, that hasn’t turned out to be the case.

I am itching to do genealogy research, but this month the combination of grief-induced brain fog and the number of tasks I need to do as executor of my father’s estate has not allowed me to prioritize it. I am so grateful to the commenters who suggested I cut myself slack. I took your advice and I’m not beating myself up over my inability to do research this month.

October seems overly optimistic for me to do 30 minutes of genealogy research a day, so I will hold off until November for another 30 x 30 challenge.

How about you? If you participated in the September 30 x 30 challenge, please let us know in the comments how it went for you!

Some great downsizing advice

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Photo of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Gena Philibert-Ortega

Downsizing is something that most of us deal with at one time or another. And when you’re a genealogist, it’s especially challenging. (I blogged about it earlier this month.)

I was asked by Gena Philibert-Ortega to contribute some insights to her terrific two-part article on downsizing for Legacy Family Tree’s blog. She gathered some terrific advice from a variety of people and it’s definitely worth a read.

Here are the links:

Downsizing (Part 1) – Getting the Process Rolling (that’s the one I’m quoted in)

Downsizing (Part 2) – Let the Voices of Experience Guide You

Thank you, Gena, for including me!

September 30 x 30 check-in

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It’s the middle of the September 30 x 30 challenge and it’s time to check in. How’s your month going?

When I first proposed doing a challenge this month, I thought it would help me feel connected to my father, who died on August 20. One of my wise commenters, Marian, suggested that I go easy on myself this month. I so appreciated that because, as it’s turned out, my days are far from normal and doing research, while enjoyable, hasn’t been easy. My brother is visiting from Australia, my mind isn’t as sharp as usual, and I have myriad estate-related tasks on my plate. So in fact, I’ve researched only a handful of days.

I hope your month is going better! If you’re participating in the challenge of researching or organizing for 30 minutes a day each day this month, please let us know in the comments how it’s going!