Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #7: Don’t ignore the siblings

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks. This one is about an important lesson I learned years ago. Please, learn from my mistakes!

Don’t ignore your ancestors’ siblings

When I first started doing genealogy research, I was easily overwhelmed by the ever-growing number of ancestors I encountered. I started out with census research, primarily, and when I looked at the long list of names on a given ancestor’s census form, I decided to focus on just the ancestor I was descended from. It felt overwhelming and tedious to enter information from all the siblings into my software. I didn’t see the point.

I was wrong.

I’ve since discovered (as I posted about here) that these siblings (called collateral relatives) are hugely helpful in my research. Not only do they flesh out the experience of my direct-line ancestors, they provide valuable clues that I’ve found the right family. So rather than feel overwhelmed by these large families, I now feel thrilled when I find them. It may take a few minutes to enter information for each person into my database, but it’s time well spent. The bushier the tree the better (as long as every person in the tree has been confirmed with sources)!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Time for another 30 x 30 challenge!

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I know it’s only been a month since my last 30 x 30 challenge ended, but in 2020 a month feels like at least three months, so it feels time for another. Will you join me in committing to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or organizing genealogy research or whatever you want) every day for 30 days stating October 1?

I was on my big trip to Walla Walla from September 6 to 19 and spent the weeks on either side of the trip preparing or digging out so I did virtually no genealogy research in September. I’m anxious to elevate genealogy to the top of my priority list, which is what these challenges do for me.

Who’s in? If you’re up for it, let me know in the comments. Here’s to a great October challenge!

A special 90th birthday present

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My dad, Gene Adams, two days shy of his 90th birthday

I am so happy to be posting again! I left St. Louis on September 6 to drive to 2,000 miles to Walla Walla, Washington, to help my father celebrate his 90th birthday. (He was born 11 Sep 1930.) I drove because I didn’t want to risk transmitting the coronavirus to him and I felt more in control of who I interacted with driving than flying. On the way, my MacBook Pro went belly up and I ended up having to send it in to Apple for repair. I wasn’t up to trying to blog from my phone, so that’s why I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks.

In any case, my computer has been returned good as new (it had a swollen battery that had to replaced) and I’m delighted to be back to blogging.

I had a lovely visit with my father, whom I hadn’t seen since February, and I’m so glad I made the trip. I took four days/three nights in each direction and I drove alone. It was amazing to see this part of the country. I spent the night in two states, South Dakota and Montana, that I’d never been to before. That brings my total number of states visited to 48! I listened to lots of podcasts and I even managed to do a little cemetery research on the way home. (More on that in a future post.)

What I wanted to write about today is the birthday gift I gave my father. At 90, he doesn’t need stuff. Because of COVID, we couldn’t have a birthday party. So, at the suggestion of a friend, I reached out to dozens of people from various parts of his life, asking each of them to send me a 30- to 60-second video wishing him a happy birthday and marking the occasion any other way they wanted to.

I used Trello to track my invitations and responses, which made it really easy. It was such a joy to communicate with these folks and receive their wonderful videos. I ended up with forty videos. I purchased an iPad for him so he can watch the videos when he wants. (He’s a Luddite with no computer and no internet access and no desire for either.)

I put the individual videos on the iPad and also used iMovie on my Mac to string them all together into one video, which I put on the iPad. That turned out to be the way he likes to watch it most. Finally, I bought a lightning-to-HDMI adapter so that he can watch the video on his TV. I did everything manually and found it quite easy, but since then, I have found out about a service that will send out the invitations and the compile the videos for you for a small fee. It’s called VidHug.

He was blown away. Because he’s a Luddite I think he thinks it was a lot harder for me to do than it actually was, though I tried to set him straight. The hardest part was finishing the project without a computer! He really enjoyed hearing from so many loved ones. The video was just plain heartwarming.

This is the best gift I’ve ever given (I’m not great at gift giving) and my father appreciated it so much. I mention it here in case you have an elderly relative (or, really, anyone) you’d like to honor this way.  It seems particularly helpful these days when travel and in-person gatherings are so difficult.

Quick Tip #6: Tidy up your research space

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks. This one is about your genealogy research, but it can certainly apply to other areas of your home!

Tidy up your research space before ending the session

If you use paper in your genealogy research, you probably opene file folders or binders during a session and you undoubtedly create some new paper by printing. If you take a few minutes at the end of the session to file those papers in their folders or binders and put them away in their homes, your future self will thank you. When you start your next session with a clear research space, it’s easier to jump right in.

I don’t use paper in my research, but I use the same principle with my digital research. I try hard to process any documents I download during the session. And I file in my folder structure as I go along. Keeping the genealogy folder on my hard drive tidy and organized makes everything easier.

I also try to clear my work desk at the end of every work day to make the next day easier, whether I’m doing genealogy research or working on my business. An uncluttered space contributes to an uncluttered mind!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash