Organize Your Family History

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Some great downsizing advice

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Photo of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Gena Philibert-Ortega

Downsizing is something that most of us deal with at one time or another. And when you’re a genealogist, it’s especially challenging. (I blogged about it earlier this month.)

I was asked by Gena Philibert-Ortega to contribute some insights to her terrific two-part article on downsizing for Legacy Family Tree’s blog. She gathered some terrific advice from a variety of people and it’s definitely worth a read.

Here are the links:

Downsizing (Part 1) – Getting the Process Rolling (that’s the one I’m quoted in)

Downsizing (Part 2) – Let the Voices of Experience Guide You

Thank you, Gena, for including me!

September 30 x 30 check-in

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It’s the middle of the September 30 x 30 challenge and it’s time to check in. How’s your month going?

When I first proposed doing a challenge this month, I thought it would help me feel connected to my father, who died on August 20. One of my wise commenters, Marian, suggested that I go easy on myself this month. I so appreciated that because, as it’s turned out, my days are far from normal and doing research, while enjoyable, hasn’t been easy. My brother is visiting from Australia, my mind isn’t as sharp as usual, and I have myriad estate-related tasks on my plate. So in fact, I’ve researched only a handful of days.

I hope your month is going better! If you’re participating in the challenge of researching or organizing for 30 minutes a day each day this month, please let us know in the comments how it’s going!

Downsizing when you’re the family historian

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I was so delighted to see in my email this week that my friend, Amy Johnson Crow, is promoting the podcast episode she and I recorded back in the fall of 2019, Downsizing and Family History.

When I spoke to her in 2019 I didn’t have any personal experience with dealing with inherited family history items. I always viewed my parents as non-collectors and figured when the time came I wouldn’t be faced with too many challenges. But I’ve gained some experience now and there were plenty of challenges. In March, my father’s older sister moved into skilled nursing and I sold her home for her. (I’m her Power of Attorney.) I requested that any family-history related items be taken to my father’s condo for me to go through later. Then in May, I moved my father into assisted living and faced down going through his stuff and my aunt’s stuff in the same week so I could get his condo on the market. He passed away August 20, only three months after moving, and I needed to clear out his assisted-living apartment in a matter of a few days.

I tried to practice what I preach and get in touch with what’s important to me about these documents and photos. I tried to evaluate their potential value for future historians. I offered a bunch of stuff to my brothers (one took stuff, the other didn’t). And I shipped some boxes to myself.

I have sorted through the seven boxes I shipped in May but am still processing those documents and photos. I am anticipating a shipment today of stuff from my father’s apartment. I’ll spend some time in the coming week going through those items and figuring how/where to store them. I know that Stacy Julian’s method, How to BEGIN with the BOX, will be very helpful again.

As the family historian for my family, I feel a lot of responsibility for these items. But I’m going to use my expertise as a professional organizer to try to save those items that are the most valuable from a genealogy standpoint. My perspective, as I shared on Amy’s podcast, is that the more I keep of any one category of item, the less special any of it is. But I also know that now isn’t the best time to make decisions with lasting repercussions. So I will probably save more than I might otherwise for later consideration.

If you’ve been through this, I’d be very interested in hearing about your approach!

 

Let’s do a September 30 x 30 challenge!

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I apologize for my absence over the last few weeks. My father, Gene Adams, who was just three weeks shy of his 92nd birthday, passed away on 20 August 20 2022. I am still in Walla Walla, Washington, handling arrangements. The memorial service will be held on 1 September 2022 (we waited until my brother could get here from Australia).

I can think of no better way to honor him than by focusing on researching his family in September. It will be a great way for me to get back into the swing of genealogy research, after work- and family-related interruptions. And it will keep him present in my life on a daily basis (not that he wouldn’t be otherwise).

So I’m committing to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research a day for 30 days. I probably won’t start until September 3, because I’ll be flying back to St. Louis on the September 2. Would you like to join me? If so, please comment below. I find these challenges to be a great way to keep me focused on my research.