Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

June 30 x 30 challenge mid-month check in!

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It’s the middle of our 30 x 30 challenge. How’s it going? I started out with a bang but haven’t been able to prioritize daily research, unfortunately, in the last week or so. I researched daily the first week, but only twice the second.

I’ve decided to I’m cut myself some slack, rather than throw in the towel. I have a really busy client week coming up and that will make it hard to research every day for 30 minutes. So I’ve shifted my goal for the rest of the month to researching for a total of four hours.

How about you? If you joined the challenge, please let us know in the comments how you’re doing with it!

What to do with original documents after scanning

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I do most of my research online, so this hasn’t come up a lot. But this week I’m going through documents that had lived in my parents’ home and my aunt’s home and some of them are original vital records. I did my first group of ten a couple of days ago and scanned and processed them. And then I had to decide what to do with the originals.

This morning I went through the little stack one by one and followed my gut about those I wanted to file into the paper files I have left over from before I processed everything digitally and those I would feel comfortable discarding.

In truth, I could discard any of them, since I’ve captured the images. But my gut tells me to hang on to those documents that have original writing or signatures. An example is my parents’ marriage certificate, shown above. They were married by father’s uncle and I think he filled out the form. I don’t have a good, logical reason for this decision. It just feels right because these documents feel special. I have the space in my file cart and the files are already created, so it will be a simple matter to file them. If I have to create a new file folder label and put it on a folder to file something, I might feel like more trouble than it’s worth.

This is a matter of personal preference and I understand that my preferences might change. (And you may have a completely different preference.) If I end up with a lot more and it feels too laborious, I may revisit this criterion!

Inherited items: From overwhelm to order

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As I mentioned recently, last month I shipped seven boxes of photos and documents that had belonged to my father and aunt, both of whom have moved into care facilities. Actually, one of the boxes contained just a few large items, so it’s really six small-size moving boxes full of small items. They arrived last week and I vowed to not let them linger.

But looking at the unopened boxes, I felt overwhelmed about dealing with all the stuff. I told myself that I would go through a box a day for a week and I’m happy to say that I have been able to do that. I have one box left, which I plan to go through today.

My plan was to take everything out of the large boxes and sort the items so that they feel approachable.

So far I’ve been able to follow the plan! I used Stacy Julian’s How to BEGIN with the BOX approach, which I had used when I was dealing with a box of stuff I brought home from Walla Walla in 2020. That gave me a great framework for storing the sorted items until I can start going through them. Using Step One of Stacy’s methodology (adapted a little for my current needs), I divided the contents of the boxes into these categories:

  • Documents
  • Narratives and correspondence
  • Photos
  • Framed photos
  • Albums

I put the albums and framed photos in a bin to go through later. (But I did enjoy looking at them while I was emptying the boxes.) Once I get through the last box, I’ll turn my attention to the documents, as well as narratives and correspondence. I’ll employ Stacy’s Step Two, in which I’ll select 10 items at a time–the ones that interest me most–and scan them, then process them as I would anything I found online. After the first ten are finished, I’ll go back to the documents and select ten more and so on.

The photos will be a little trickier for me, but my plan is to scan them, share them with relatives and keep the originals stored in an archival box or boxes. I’ll do the same, in turn, with the framed photos and albums.

Incidentally, the unruly bunch in the photo at the top of this post is my father and aunt, with their parents, grandparents aunts and uncles. I’m not sure who all the kids are (yet). I had never seen that photo before this week and now, thanks to this project, I’m able to recognize my great grandparents, William Reese Rasco (1878-1957) and Luella Watts Rasco (187-1953), in photos. That makes me really happy.

Having a methodology to deal with the contents of these boxes is giving me huge peace of mind. (Thank you, Stacy Julian!) Having places to put the sorted items after I go through each big box has been hugely helpful in keeping me from feeling overwhelmed. I’m excited to go through the final box so I can started processing documents. I found a number of death certificates, birth certificates, diplomas, passports and newspaper articles that I know I’ll enjoy going through.

This has been a great focus for this month’s 30 x 30 challenge!

Join me for a June 30 x 30 challenge?

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May was brutal for me in terms of being able to do genealogy research. I had so many family obligations (among my living family members) that I couldn’t pay any attention to my deceased family members! But I really want to get some family history exploration done this month, so I’m having a 30 x 30 challenge. In addition to reacquainting myself with my family tree, I hope to be sifting through the boxes I sent myself last month from my father’s and aunt’s homes after they moved. In June, I plan to focus on the documents, putting the photos aside for later.

How about you? Would you like to join me for a 30 x 30 challenge? I am committing to spending an average of 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days on genealogy research and organizing. I want to at least something each day (even if it’s not a full 30 minutes) because I find daily effort so valuable in getting back into the swing of things. I’ll be keeping a spreadsheet and I’ll be really happy if I log 900 minutes (15 hours) over the course of the month. Actually, I’ll be happy if I do something every day, even if it doesn’t add up to 15 hours.

If you’d like in on the challenge, just say so in the comments. Mid-month, I’ll post an update post on my progress and invite you to share yours.

Join the mailing list!

When you first join the list, I’ll send you a few emails to help you organize your family history. After that you’ll hear from me at the end of every month when I send an email with links to that month’s posts. And every now and then, I’ll let you know when I have something special to promote.