Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Taking stock of my records

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My genealogy file cartI love the last couple of weeks of the year. This is when I set goals and resolutions. And I also typically try to do some decluttering and organizing around my house. I’ve already started the goal-setting process for my genealogy work. But I realized this morning that I needed to spend some time organizing my genealogy records and see where things stand.

I started doing genealogy research back in the first part of the 21st century. My records then were all paper. In fact, I hand wrote my ancestry charts. Since taking up the research more seriously this year, I’ve done more electronically (my family tree is now entered into software), but I do have a tendency to print things out and file them. I blogged awhile back about how I organize my genealogy files.

Above is a photo of the file cart that holds my genealogy files. As you can see it’s looking a little unruly. During that lovely week between Christmas and the end of the year, I think I will go through those files, see what I records I have and what’s missing and tidy things up. I’ll also explore the contents of the files I created years ago called “Census possibilities,” “Places to go,” and “Research tips.” By the end, I hope to feel like I know where things stand with my research. I suspect I’ll end up with a list of things to research, mysteries to solve and holes to fill.

If time allows, I’ll also spruce up my electronic files. They’re in decent shape, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I’ll write a post when that process is over and share the benefits I gained from this effort!

Finding the time for research

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I love doing family history research, but I have to admit that it can be challenging to carve out the time to do it.

Part of the reason is that I always think I want a large chunk of time to work with. I know that once I sink my teeth into a research challenge, it can be hard to stop. But I also know that if I wait until I have a large chunk of time, I may be waiting a very long time. (This is true of so many things, especially decluttering. On my organizing business’s blog, I’ve talked about the power of working on things just a few minutes at a time.)

Yesterday, I had an afternoon without outside obligations. I’m just back from visiting my parents and I have a (non-genealogy) to-do list as long as my arm. But I decided to take some time out to check out the genealogy room at the newly re-opened Central Branch of the St. Louis Public Library in downtown St. Louis. The library was closed for renovation for over a year and it’s a sight to behold. I took the opportunity to acquaint myself with the genealogical holdings of the library and am very excited to make use of this resource.

Another day soon I want to check out an LDS FamilySearch Center here in St. Louis. Taking the time to actually leave my office to check out resources or do some research sometimes can feel really challenging. But I know it’s how I’ll actually manage to make some real progress in my family history research, something I really want to do in the coming year.

Making time for family history research (or any other hobby) is about priorities. I want to make this a big priority for 2013. And I look forward to talking here about some of the progress I make!

Picking my parents’ brains

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I’m going next week to visit my parents in Walla Walla, Washington. I’ve kicked myself over the past year for not asking them more questions (or listening better when they volunteered information) about family lore and ancestors when we were all younger. Their memories aren’t as good as they were twenty years ago, naturally.

When I’m there visiting, I plan to ask a few questions that have come up as I’ve been doing genealogy research this year. I don’t know if they’ll be able to answer them, but I have to ask.

And here’s the tiny thing I’m doing that feels kind of radical. I’m actually writing down the questions, even the small curiosities. I’m not relying on my memory. I’m not going to assume that there will be a natural opportunity to ask these questions. I’m writing them in my notebook and at some point I’m going to pull out that notebook and interview my parents. And the notebook will be handy for writing down their responses.

My parents’ memories aren’t the only ones deteriorating with age. My memory is definitely not what it used to be (I’m 50) and I’m not going to take any chances.

If you’re visiting with family members over the holidays, you might jot down some questions to ask them. I so wish I’d done it years ago!

 

I love a mystery

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I think one of the reasons I enjoy genealogy research so much is that it makes me feel like a detective. The mysteries can be frustrating, but solving them is oh so satisfying.

Today’s mystery: the death date of my great, great grandmother, Antoinette Garlock Brown. I thought I had it nailed. She died in Missouri in 1922, so I had easy access to her death certificate. (In fact, I blogged about finding her death certificate in a blog post called Those Darn Nicknames.) The hand-written death certificate lists January 9, 1922 as her date of death. The filing date is listed as January 11, 1922. It didn’t seem ambiguous to me.

Today, I found a photograph of her headstone at Find A Grave. It clearly states her date of death as February 9, 1922. It’s etched in stone, so it feels very official. I also have a yellowed newspaper clipping of her obituary, which was found among my grandmother’s belongings after she passed away. It, too, lists her date of death as February 9. Unfortunately, that clipping doesn’t show the date of the newspaper nor the name of the newspaper.

When I squinted harder at the death certificate, it started to become a little more equivocal. It looks like the undertaker wrote the bulk of the information, but the medical examiner is the one who filled in the dates. Under age, the undertaker wrote 66 years, 5 months, 26 days. Since she was born August 13, 1855, that would make her death date February 9. Is it possible that the medical examiner got his months mixed up and no one noticed?

I spent some time trying to locate any other record of her death, so far to no avail. I searched for an obituary to try to get a newspaper date (if that obit appeared in January, clearly it would be wrong). It’s hard for me to imagine that both the obituary and the headstone are wrong. But it’s also hard to imagine the medical examiner not knowing what month it is.

I’m bound and determined to solve this mystery. I can’t wait to find out what the answer (and perhaps explanation) is. And when I do I’ll report it here!