Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Time for another 30 x 30 challenge!

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It’s that time again! I need a 30 x 30 challenge so badly because I barely got any genealogy research done in March. I love how a 30 x 30 challenge vaults research to the top of my daily task list.

Who would like to join me in committing to doing at 30 minutes of research a day for 30 days? (You’re welcome to customize the challenge in any way…it’s your challenge.) We’ll start on April 1.

In February’s challenge, I worked on checking the sources in my source documentation list and in the process added significantly to my backlog of documents to be processed. So this month, I’m going to focus on reducing that backlog. And I’m committing to process any new documents during the session I download them (because sometimes you have to do a little clarifying research when you’re busting the backlog). As I have in the past, I’ll keep a spreadsheet of my progress, so I can feel good about it (and, I hope, not feel overwhelmed).

Let me know in the comments if you’d like to join me! I’ll be posting a mid-month and end-of-the-month check in where we can share how it’s going. Here’s to a great month of research!

Quick Tip #16: Don’t forget about your local library

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. I think this one’s a good reminder.

Don’t forget about your local library!

Here in St. Louis, our city and county library systems have some remarkable resources for genealogists. Both have genealogy rooms that I’ve enjoyed researching in. And they have expert staff members who provide great assistance. All of it’s free of charge.

Of course, the pandemic has made using the local library difficult. Here, branches have been closed off and on. The St. Louis County library genealogy room has been closed since the pandemic began. I traditionally rely on it to give me access to those documents from Family Search that are available only if you’re using the wifi system of an affiliate library. The county library has generously extended its wifi reach to its parking lot. Last week, I parked there and was able to download some documents from Family Search. Maybe that’s something you can do at your library too.

Even if your local library branch is closed, I urge you to check to see whether they are offering access to online databases or perhaps are allowing you to consult remotely with librarians. They may have expanded online resources because of the pandemic. Here in St. Louis, for example, the library edition of Ancestry.com is now available to county library card holders at home (while the genealogy room is closed). If you don’t have a library card, now’s a good time to get one!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

How’d your February 30 x 30 challenge go?

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The February 30 x 30 challenge is over (or almost over depending on when you started). How did it go? Did you work on your goal every day? Did you find that the challenge helped keep you on task?

I did pretty well. My plan was to work every day, even if it wasn’t for 30 minutes, and I was going focus on going through my source documents, making sure that I had plucked all the information from each document, attached it to the source record and properly cited it. I hoped to get through 30 documents.

It didn’t quite work out that way. I was able to work every day until February 25. That’s when RootsTech started and when I went off the rails of my 30 x 30 challenge. But I was okay with that, since with RootsTech I was at least thinking about genealogy. I thought it would be quick to go through my source documentation but what ended up happening was that the source documents sparked more questions (typically about collateral relatives who early on I wasn’t researching). So I pursued more information, rather than putting aside these bright shiny objects for later. The result? I had an enjoyable 26 days of daily research. But I verified only 10 sources! (Sources 91 through 100.) I still call it a successful month, though.

I hope you were even more successful than me. If you participated in the challenge, please let us know in the comments how you did!

Quick Tip #15: Resist the urge to print

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This one changed my genealogy life.

Resist the urge to print

As a professional organizer, I know what a problem paper clutter can be. And I know how hard it can be to access unfiled paper (and so much paper is unfiled!). So I am a huge proponent of not printing genealogy documents I find online. Instead, I encourage you to download and file them.

The key to feeling confident about downloading, rather than printing, is to have a reliable file-naming protocol and folder structure so that you can find the documents. Mine is detailed in this post, but yours might be different. That’s great, as long as it works for you. When you download and file digitally, rather than print and file or put into binders, your documents are always at your fingertips when you’re at your computer, even if you’re at a library or repository. It can be a mindset shift, but I think it’s worth it.

It’s important to mention, as was brought up in the comments to this post, that it’s absolutely essential to backup your hard drive if you’re going to store your documents digitally. I wrote about this in my last quick tip.

For extensive information on going paperless in your genealogy research, check out the Paperless Genealogy Guide I wrote with scanning expert Brooks Duncan, available for purchase at his website, DocumentSnap.

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash