Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

30 x 30 wrap up

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It’s the last day of the month. Somehow, during this pandemic, one month feels like two months. So this 30 x 30 challenge feels especially long. I’m proud to say that I did actually do genealogy research every day this month except one. I can’t remember what happened the day I didn’t manage to do any–I think it was a day I worked with an organizing client. But I feel very proud to have accomplished 29 out of 30 days of research. I didn’t do 30 minutes every day, but definitely averaged at least 30 minutes a day.

The challenge put genealogy research at the top of my priority list and for that I’m grateful. I’m so grateful, in fact, that I’ll probably have another one in just a couple of months. Keep your eye out for an August 2020 30 x 30 challenge. (I’m curious to see if I keep it up in July without the challenge.)

Until then, though, please let me know in the comments how the challenge went for you, if you participated. Did you manage to research every day? Did you work on what you expected? And did you find more frequent research to be more beneficial?

I can’t wait to hear. I’m grateful for those of you who took up the challenge!

Quick Tip #1: Rename your document as soon as you download it

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I’ve decided to offer some bite-size Quick Tips every now and again that might help you in organizing your genealogy research. I’m going to kick it off with one of my favorite tips; it’s the best habit I’ve developed when it comes to my genealogy research.

 

Rename your document as soon as you download it

If you’ve ever downloaded a document from FamilySearch or Ancestry, you’re familiar with the outrageously long alphanumeric file name that comes with the file. My suggestion is to develop a file-naming protocol and immediately change the filename so that you won’t lose the document on your hard drive. Ideally, you’d process the document (i.e. enter information from it into your genealogy software and create a source citation) right away. But if the file has to languish for awhile, if you change the filename you’ll at least be able to tell at a glance what it is.

The protocol that works for me is Year Type of Document-Ancestor Name-Locality.ext.

So, for example, the death certificate for one of my second greatgrandfathers is named 1936 Death Certificate-John D. Jeffries-Rockville Bates Missouri.jpg.

That works for me–you may have one that works better for you. But the point is to have an easy-to-remember protocol that gives you an informative file name. Then rename a document the moment you download. Bonus tip:  Once downloaded, move the renamed into an appropriate folder. (Mine goes into a folder called Surnames.)

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Stacy Julian reopening her 20in20 online course (for a good cause)

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I became a huge fan of Stacy Julian when I heard her speak at RootsTech. After RootsTech, I shared details of her talk Do Something with that Box! here and I referenced it in my own talk, The Imperfect Genealogist.

Stacy is all about helping people tell stories, particularly family stories. I’m on her mailing list and I received an email this week that she is her reopening her yearlong online course, 20in20. Here’s a short video about the course.

In a nutshell, participants will create 20 projects over the course of a year. It was originally intended to take place in the calendar year 2020. Enrollment closed months ago. But that changed this week. Stacy wrote in her email:

“As I have contemplated current events—especially those that have exposed racial inequality in the United States—I have made the decision to reopen 20in20 and donate ALL of the proceeds to organizations and efforts making a difference for people of color.”

I was very impressed by this and I asked her if I could share the information here. Here’s another great piece of news. The price has been cut in half–to $60–to encourage enrollment. See the 20in20 page on Stacy’s website for where and how she’s donating the proceeds and to sign up.

This strikes me as an amazing opportunity to create some wonderful projects, with the help of an amazing teacher, at a big discount and to do good at the same time. I just had to share.

June 30 x 30 mid-month check in

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We have an especially large group of folks who said they were participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge. (There are 40 of you!) It’s the middle of the month. I’d love to hear how it’s going!

For me, it’s been a great 30 x 30. Because of the challenge, I’ve elevated family history research to the top of my daily task list. And because I have new Trello task-management system that puts my daily tasks in front of me, I’ve researched each and every day this month. I forgot about it one day, on a Sunday that I didn’t spent time at my computer. But I did remember in time to put in a little research, though not 30 minutes. I wanted to be able to say that I haven’t missed a day. Most days I researched more than 30 minutes, because I have so much more free time.

Early in the month, I found an obituary on newspapers.com that required a premium subscription. So I signed up for a seven-day free trial and spent those seven days finding and downloading articles on various family members. (I then canceled the premium subscription.) I’ve spent the time since them processing all those downloaded articles (creating source citations, gleaning facts and entering them into Reunion and filing the articles). So I’ve had plenty of enjoyable stuff to keep me busy.

How about you? If you signed up for the challenge (or even if you didn’t), please feel free to let us know in the comments how your research month is going.