Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #13: Create follow-up notebooks to stay focused

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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 on a small topic that pops into my head. This one has saved me from going down a rabbit hole many times.

Create follow-up notebooks to stay focused

I love playing detective, which is probably why I love genealogy research. So when I’m looking for information online it’s really hard to resist exploring every clue or idea that comes my way in the course of a research session. But if I do follow every lead, I often end up far away from where I intended to go.

That’s where follow-up notebooks come in. I have created follow-up notebooks by surname in Evernote. (This could certainly be accomplished in other platforms, in a tab in a spreadsheet, or on paper.) When I come across a clue or resource that has no bearing on the research question at hand, I just make a new note in the appropriate follow-up notebook. Later, when I’m researching that surname, the note is waiting for me. I don’t have to worry about forgetting it!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

My simple 2021 genealogy goal

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I’m a big goal setter. I set goals for my business, some of which I actually achieve. I set goals for my personal life, too. (Creating a daily yoga habit is one I’ve actually achieved, and I’m working hard on drinking 64 oz of water a day.)

Every year, I set genealogy goals too. And I rarely achieve them. Last year I blogged about my tendency to set up complex goals and I detailed what I thought were achievable goals for 2020. But once again, I didn’t look the goals I’d set. (Despite that, I did pretty well with the ones that involved creating good habits.)

So this year I want to keep it very simple. My word of the year for 2021 is ease and I want that to saturate every aspect of my life. I really would like to do genealogy every day. (And for that reason I’ll probably have six 30 x 30 challenges this year.) In the interest of ease, I’m going to set up a single genealogy goal for the year, one that I can turn to whenever I’m in doubt about what to work on and one on which I can make progress just a few minutes at a time.

My genealogy goal for 2021 is to review all my source citations and source documents. Back in 2016, I exported my sources and created a checklist in Evernote. (I blogged about that here.) In 2018, I added to the list, which now has 834 sources in it. Of those, I’ve checked 86.

So my go-to activity in 2021 will be to make my way through the sources, checking them off as I go. I anticipate learning a lot and making a lot of notes for further follow up. Will I get through all 748 remaining sources? I don’t know. It’s possible.

I actually have 1195 sources now, having added 461 since the last time I updated the checklist. I’d like to think that perhaps those more recent sources don’t need checking since I’ve become a better genealogist. But if I get there and it feels productive, I’ll keep going.

Right now, this sounds like an interesting project. It remains to be seen whether it will stay interesting. In any case, it will be a nice starting point for the year. I like having a single goal so simple that I’ll remember it.

How about you? What are your genealogy goals for 2021?

Let Amy Johnson Crow help you share your research this year!

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If you’re like me, you enjoy researching your ancestors and collateral relatives. But do you actually share what you’ve learned with interested people? I have to admit I’m not great at that (beyond the tidbits I share about my research on this blog). That’s why I signed up for by friend Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks program.

I’m a big fan of Amy’s and have heard her speak at many conferences (and of course I listen to her podcast) so I know she’s one smart cookie. I’m looking forward to receiving weekly prompts that will get me thinking about an ancestor and sharing something about them.

Maybe you’d like to try it too! The program is free.

If you start seeing more posts here about my ancestors, you’ll have Amy to thank!

December 30 x 30 challenge: How did it go?

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Happy new year! I just love turning a calendar page to a new year. It feels particularly good to say goodbye to 2020 and all its trials and tribulations. But before we do, let’s talk about the December 2020 30 x 30 challenge. How did it go for you?

December is a tough month for a challenge, I know, because there are often so many holiday- and end-of-the-year-related activities. So bravo to those of you who were up for a challenge. I did pretty well the first half of the month, but slipped a little the second half. Here’s my excuse: After 21 years with our old bed, my husband and I finally bought a new one. We went from a queen- to a king-sized bed. What does this have to do with anything? The need to wedge that large bed into our small bedroom produced a cascading array of tasks that kept me very busy! But it was worth it. The new, fancy Sleep Number bed is fantastic.

In any case, I think I researched only 23 of the 30 days. But I’m still glad for the challenge because I know I would not have been able to accomplish that much research without it.

It’s a new year, so I’ll be creating a fresh research log and working on my research goals for 2021. I’ll probably have another 30 x 30 challenge in February. (Though I guess it will be a 30 x 28 challenge.)

Please share: How was this month’s challenge for you? Did you find that December was a tough month to fit in research or was that not relevant? I’d love to hear from you!

P.S. Thanks very much to those of you who have already taken advantage of my End-of-the-Year Sale on Orderly Roots guides. If you haven’t bought the guides yet (but want to), you have until Sunday evening to get all three for the price of one!