Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Creating a virtual RootsTech playlist

By 6 Comments

It’s that time of year again! The RootsTech conference will be held March 2 to 4, 2023. This year, they’re offering the conference both in-person and virtually. I made the decision not to attend in person, but I did register for the virtual conference and spent a little bit of time this morning putting some sessions onto my playlist. (It’s not too late to register for either option!)

I’m easily overwhelmed by choices and I found the choices of sessions to watch over the last two virtual conferences a little overwhelming. In case you’re the same way, I thought I’d share how I went about creating a playlist for me to watch next week or beyond. (I’m assuming, though I don’t know for sure, that the main stage sessions will be recorded for future watching.)

  1. First, I registered for the conference. (I did that back in January.)
  2. Then I logged into the Rootstech website by clicking on Sign In in the top menu bar.
  3. I clicked RootsTech 2023 in the top menu bar, then Calendar (in the Virtual section). I went through both the Main Stage and Sessions listings, clicking the Add to Playlist button for those sessions I didn’t want to miss.
  4. Then I clicked On Demand in the top menu bar, then Browse the Library. I was pleased to see 2023 sessions listed, though I won’t be able to watch them until the conference starts. I added to my playlist the sessions that caught my fancy.
  5. I didn’t want to have to browse all the offerings, so I clicked on Search the Full Library. Then I put the Filters to work for me. I selected English and 2023 (that narrowed it to 228 classes) and then I used the Search function. I searched for Organizing and got a very manageable 13 results. I selected some of those to add to my playlist.

In less than ten minutes, I added 22 sessions to my playlist. And I noticed that my playlists from 2021 and 2022 are still available!

There are so many learning opportunities at RootsTech. I’m sad not to be attending in person but I am very grateful that RootsTech makes it so easy (and inexpensive–it’s free!) to participate from home.

 

January 2023 30 x 30 challenge wrap up

By 12 Comments

Today’s the last day of January. Does it feel like the month lasted forever? Oh my gosh, January 1 seems like eons ago. In any case, it’s also the end of the 30 x 30 challenge. How did you do? Were you able to do genealogy research or organizing (or whatever your goal was) every day for 30 days?

My month started off GREAT! But then my research screeched to a halt on January 19. I traveled to Walla Walla on the 18th to settle my father’s estate (and I actually processed some documents on the plane) but, unfortunately, I picked up a virus of some sort while traveling. (I tested negative for COVID consistently on home tests and once I got home I went to urgent care and got a negative PCR test for COVID and a negative flu test.) While I was in Walla Walla it took all my energy to do what I was there to do and I was able to do virtually nothing else. So I did no genealogy research at all. By the time I got home to St. Louis last week I was really sick and barely able to function. I started feeling better yesterday and today my energy levels are almost normal.

What I think I want to do for myself and for my research is pick up where I left off and try to do another 11 days in a row to get back in the swing of the things. (I’m going to try to do the same thing with yoga, since my 30-day yoga journey also went off the rails.)

I sincerely hope those of you who did the 30 x 30 with me had a better time of it! I look forward to hearing about it in the comments.

January 2023 30 x 30 mid-month check in

By 5 Comments

We’ve passed the mid-point of our 30 x 30 challenge. How is it going?

I’ve been pleased with my ability to remember to do research and then actually do it this month. I have missed three days of the past 16 and I’ve averaged 32 minutes a day, so I’m track. Two of the 13 research sessions were spent taking webinars. One was watching Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. And one was helping a friend with her genealogy and giving her a bit of a tutorial about Ancestry and Family Search. So it wasn’t all research on my family.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been good about logging my research in my simple Evernote research log, thanks largely to my putting a star in my spreadsheet every time I did it.

I go to Washington state tomorrow to settle my dad’s estate. I’m hopeful that won’t get in the way of daily research, though I might cut myself a little slack since I have a 12-hour trip door to door and my first flight leaves at 5:50 a.m.

I’m interested to hear how it’s going for you. Please let me know in the comments!

Motivated by a little star

By 2 Comments

I’m in the midst of this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, where I’m trying to do 30 minutes of genealogy research a day. I’m also trying to whittle my backlog of unprocessed documents down and to remember to enter my work in my research log each session.

I’ll be posting a mid-month update next week, but today I wanted to tell you about a little tweak I made to my workflow that has proven to be very helpful in getting to me use my research log.

Four or five years ago I created a spreadsheet where I can keep track of my backlog and also log how many minutes I researched. I usually use this spreadsheet during 30 x 30 challenges and I just start a new tab for each challenge. (You can read more about this spreadsheet in my post Keeping track of my backlog busting from a year ago.)

This year I added a column where I place a little star after I log the day’s research. It’s crazy to me how rewarding having that little star is. (You can see it in the close-up above.) It not only provides a visual reminder to log the session log, but it also gives me a little jolt of happiness because I’ve earned a star.

I love it when I can come up with easy way to motivate myself!