Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

The end of the August 30 x 30 challenge

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It’s August 30, which means that the 30 days of the August 30 x 30 challenge are up. How’d the challenge work out for those of you who participated? I hope that you made strides you wouldn’t have otherwise made.

I’m happy to report that I had an excellent month. I hate to say it out loud for fear of jinxing it, but I feel like doing genealogy research first thing in the morning is becoming a habit! I’ve been getting up a little early to make time for it.  And I get started without any resistance. I have to say, it’s really a wonderful way to start the day!

I’ve also been able to create a habit of keeping a (very simple) research log, in Evernote. And as part of that logging, I always right down next steps. When I start my morning research, I consult my next steps, so I’ve been staying on track. Not once all month did I ask myself that overwhelming question, “What should I work on today?”

Tomorrow I’m going to go through the month’s next steps and compile a list of those steps I haven’t yet taken. I’m also going to take a look at a similar list I made at the end of July and see if there are some undone tasks there.

I know that having a 30 x 30 challenge has kept me on track. I’m going to try to continue the daily research in September without one. (I do have a week-long trip that might make that challenging.) If I’m not able to keep up with it, you can be sure that I’ll start a new 30 x 30 challenge in October!

Please report in and let me know how you did with your challenge, if you’d decided to participate. Even if you didn’t tell me you were participating, I’d love to know if the existence of the challenge was in any way motivating!

30 x 30 challenge: Mid-month check in

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We’re 18 days into the August 2017 30 x 30 challenge, in which participants are trying to do 30 minutes of research (or organizing or anything else genealogy related) for 30 days. How are things going?

I’m delighted to report that I’ve not missed a day of research. This feels especially good because this past week I had a huge team organizing project–a whole-house transformation that took my team and me four full-day sessions to complete. I had to leave the house at 7:15 am most days and didn’t get home until after 6. But I got up a little earlier than I otherwise would to get my research in. On a couple of days I did just ten minutes of research to get the ball rolling and finished the other 20 minutes in the evening.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: Since I’ve been too busy to do research for more than 30 minutes at a time much of this month, I find that I’m staying a lot more focused. I don’t have to worry about falling down the rabbit hole of chasing shiny objects, because I just don’t have time. Instead, when I come across something new, I take a note of it in my research log so I can check it later. Every morning, the first thing I do when I start my research is check the log, so I’ve been able to stay focused.

How about you? Nine readers jumped on the bandwagon in the comments when I posted the challenge on August 1. How’s it going? Have you been able to keep it up? If you missed a day, did you go right back? I’d love to hear about your successes and about any challenges I might be able to help with!

Those Eureka! moments

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I just had one of those moments where I raised both arms in the air and whooped. I think I startled my standard poodle, Bix.

I’ve been trying for the five research sessions to ascertain whether a couple I had found was my couple. I had downloaded seven documents for a George Washington Adams born in 1882 (this is the son of the George Washington Adams whose Civil War pension file I transcribed this year). He had a wife, Elizabeth Major Adams, who passed away from influenza in 1929, leaving behind seven children. Before processing these documents, I wanted to be certain that this G.W. Adams was my G.W. Adams.

A year ago, I would have accepted that he was the right person, perhaps overlooking the fact I didn’t have any definitive proof. The Genealogical Proof Standard requires reasonably exhaustive research and kept bearing that in mind as I kept researching until I found a definitive connection.

I’m keeping a research log in Evernote, so I can see everything I’ve done on this search and at the end of each session, I’ve jotted down next steps. I’ve had to keep my sessions short, so these next steps have been really helpful–and there have always been plenty of them.

One of the challenges is that on his World War I draft registration card, George, who at the time was married to Elizabeth (Betha), listed his birth date as September 19, 1883, rather than 1882 as his father had listed in a pension document. The World War II draft registration I found for George, married to Estle, listed his birth Sepember 19, 1881. Both documents show him with brown eyes and brown hair. (Brown eyes are uncommon in my family, I’ve noticed.)

I hadn’t focused on Estle until today. My Eureka moment came when I found George and Estle on the 1940 census, living with children the same names and ages as those listed as survivors in the news article about Elizabeth’s death. That’s when I whooped and hollered. I also found Estle in the burial plot next to George and two spots away from Elizabeth.

I am so glad I pursued this until I felt I’d made a real connection. If I’d gone ahead with the assumption that George and Elizabeth were the right couple I might have had lingering doubts. And I know that would have driven me crazy. Also, there’s nothing like the thrill of those Eureka moments!

Join me at the St. Louis Genealogy Conference!

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I attended last year’s St. Louis Genealogy Conference, a free conference sponsored by the LDS church, and it was terrific. So I was delighted to be invited to present at this year’s conference! The theme is Remembering Families.

The registration for the conference, which will be held Saturday, October 14, just opened. If you’re interested, you can register here. I will be presenting twice on the same topic, Going Paperless in Your Genealogy Research. If you’re a regular reader here, you know that’s a passion of mine.

The lineup looks great, with presentations on social media, maps, Missouri Digital Archives, researching Civil War ancestors, and German research, among other topics. If you plan to attend, please let me know in the comments or via email!