Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Using a timer to aid your research

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Use a timer to keep you focused and capture small snippets of timeToday I have time to devote to some genealogy research. But I also have a couple of phone appointments and I need to work out at the gym. And my knitting group meets tonight. So my day is sort of chopped up.

Sometimes I get caught in the trap of feeling like I can’t start any family history research unless I have a large chunk of uninterrupted time ahead of me. The trouble with that I rarely have a large chunk of time available. So if I wait, I won’t get much done.

This morning at 11 am, knowing that I wanted to go to the gym at about 11:30, I sent the timer on my iPhone for 25 minutes. It served a couple of purposes:

  • It kept me focused on the research until the timer went off
  • It kept me from losing myself in the research and missing going to the gym
  • Stopping at the end of 25 minutes kept me chomping at the bit to do more research, so later today I’ll be able to set my timer again and get more work done.

I think that fear of getting lost in the work sometimes prevents me from starting, so the timer really is my friend. And I’m always amazed at what I can get done in short bursts of time.

In his book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, author Mark Forster talks about timed bursts and how taking breaks increases productivity (versus working long stretches of time). He advocates using a timer and cautions to stop the moment the timer goes off, so that you want to get back to work when the break is over. The brain craves completion, he explains.

My intention is to use the timer throughout the day and see if I can wedge in at least two hours of genealogy time in my day.

Next time you have a short period of time to do some family history research, pull out a timer and see if it helps!

The importance of proper preservation

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disintegrating scrapbook croppedI recently purchased the Declutter Your Photos Like an Archivist kit from Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist. The kit came with some great supplies and some wonderful info. And it included four live webchats with Sally last month for people who purchased the kits.

Great stuff. Great learning.

My takeaway was how important it is to properly store family keepsakes on paper so that acid doesn’t destroy them over time. It takes more effort. It’s more expensive. And the end result is that future generations will be able to enjoy and benefit from these precious items.

This is all well and good in theory. The application of it, however, can feel cumbersome, as I discovered when helping a client sort through World War II-related items left behind by her grandfather and father.

Then we found her father’s scrapbook, a page of which is pictured above. He obviously took so much care in putting it together. When he was alive, he refused to speak to his children about his war experiences and didn’t even let them look at his scrapbook. Now that he’s gone, his daughter can learn a little about his experience through this precious book.

But here’s the thing: The scrapbook is literally disintegrating. The papers held within are in okay shape. But the brittle, yellowed scrapbook pages were clearly made from acidic paper and they crumble at the touch. I’m hopeful that my client will make it a priority to rescue the items held inside the scrapbook and perhaps replicate it in an acid-free environment.

I so appreciate this reminder of the importance of proper preservation if papers are to survive to be enjoyed by future generations. Any time I hesitate to go to the trouble and expense, I’ll remind myself of this scrapbook.

Preserving photos and documents

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BeaAdamscroppedMy father was recently sent a packet of aging newspaper clippings and some photographs by a cousin. She was cleaning out her mother’s home after a downsizing (her mother is my grandfather’s sister) and thought my father would enjoy the clippings and photos about his parents, Dave and Bea Adams. There were also a couple of clippings about my father, Gene Adams.

They were delightful to look at and read. My grandfather had published a small-town weekly newspaper (The Franklin County Graphic) and several of the clippings were humorous essays by him, about my grandmother. Real treasures. There were also photographs, probably taken by my grandfather who was also the newspaper’s photographer, of my grandmother all dolled up. I knew her as very casual dresser, so they were really fun to see. I’ve included one with this post–I don’t know why there’s a veil attached to her hat.

Anyway, I wanted to treat these treasures properly. The newspaper clippings are yellowing and getting fragile. They were mushed together with the photos in an envelope. Fortunately, I have a few resources that I’d purchased to help me make sure these items get the proper treatment. They include:

Thanks for these resources, I’ve done the following with my treasures:

  • I’ve put the newspaper clippings into an archival folder, separated from the photos, and will have them photocopied onto archival paper. (They’re too big for my scanner.) They’re safe in an archival box.
  • I’ve put the photographs into a labeled archival envelope in an archival box.

This is making me want to get my hands on more documents and photos. My mother has a box of them in her closet that I think I’ll bring home with me next time I visit.

 

Asking the right questions

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I’m in Walla Walla, Washington, visiting my parents. Last winter, I wrote about how excited I was to be able to interview them about family lore. Unfortunately on that visit, they weren’t remembering a whole lot of information. (Though I was able to share some information with them, which was nice.)

This trip, I’ve decided to focus on their own parents. My father’s mother’s family and my mother’s father’s family are pretty well documented. But I realize I know less about my maternal grandmother’s family and my paternal grandfather’s family. So that’s what I’m going to focus on.

This year, I’m going to use my Livescribe pen to record our interviews, which I have high hopes will come in handy down the road.

Last year I was disappointed at the results of my family-history-related conversations with my parents. This year, I’m going to try to come up with specific questions that might spark some helpful memories. Winging it wasn’t a great strategy last time.

As an aside, if your parents are not yet elderly, I encourage you to get as much information from them as you can while their memories are good. How I regret not having these conversations 10 or 20 years ago!