Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Genea-fiction recommendation: Ellie McClellan Genealogy Mysteries

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I just finished reading the fourth Ellie McClellan Genealogy Mystery, Family Crimes, by Beth Farrar. Way back in 2014, I wrote a post about how I had just discovered genea-fiction and requested recommendations. I’ve read many since and I’m especially enjoying this series. Ellie McClellan is a professional genealogist living in Canada who leads a weekly group of senior citizens in learning how to tell their family stories. It’s sweet and cozy and the characters are so likeable. I love that so many of the characters are older. I love the attention to detail. And I love that author Beth Farrar sneaks in lots of genealogy tips!

I learned about the Ellie McClellan Genealogy Mysteries in the Genealogical Crime Mystery Book Club Facebook group, of which Beth Farrar is a member. I subscribe to Kindle Unlimited (it has an $11.99 a month fee) and I can read the Kindle version of these books at no additional charge. They’re also available for purchase in hardback or paperback versions.

If you like genea-fiction and you’re not a member of the Genealogy Crime Mystery Book Club, I encourage you to join if you’re on Facebook. And if  you’re a genea-fiction fan and you haven’t read this series yet, I encourage you to give it a try. I can’t wait for the next one to come out!

And the giveaway winner is….

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I was so pleased at the enthusiastic response to the giveaway for Drew Smith’s book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy! I did the drawing for the winner and it is:

Carole Ashbridge

I’ll be sending the book to Carole on Monday.

For the 42 of you who entered but didn’t win, I urge to consider purchasing this terrific resource. Thank you so much for entering!

Generation By Generation: Book review and giveaway

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When I was offered a review copy of the new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, by Drew Smith, I was happy to accept. I’m a big fan of Drew’s work (and was thrilled when he did one of my How They Do It interviews back in 2017). I ended up receiving two copies of the book, so I’m offering a giveaway for one of them. (See the bottom of this post for details on the giveaway.)

Drew Smith has been doing genealogy since the 1990s and has been working as a genealogy educator for decades. This genealogy book, written for beginners, is the book that he wished he’d been able to read when he was first learning how to research his family. It’s divided into two parts. Part I For all Generations: Preparing to Research discusses preparing to do research. It provides a foundation of understanding about various facets of research, starting with Names, Places, Dates and Events and ending with a chapter on Using Online Repositories. You can bet I first turned to Chapter 4: Tools and Methods to Keep Us Organized. (Drew is the author of the 2016 book Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher.) In that chapter, he succinctly and clearly lays out some ways to organize both digital and paper documents.

Part II Generation by Generation: Doing the Research is where things get innovative. Beginner genealogists are often advised to start with themselves and move up their family tree as their research progresses. Drew organizes Part II of this book in the same way, offering information about sources and record types for various time periods. Chapters include information about different types of records in each of these generations:

  • Generations after 1950 in the U.S.
  • Generations from 1880 to 1950 in the U.S.
  • Generations from 1850 to 1880 in the U.S.
  • Generations from 1776 to 1850 in the U.S.
  • Generations in British America before 1776
  • Generations outside the U.S. (in English)
  • Generations with Records in Other Languages

The bulk of Part II is obviously U.S. focused, so those genealogists (like me) whose families have been in the U.S. for generations will find this book especially helpful.

Like Drew, I wish a book like this had been around when I started doing genealogy research. It’s so clearly laid out and clearly written, with bits of humor tossed in. The depth of information is broad and Drew doesn’t go down rabbit holes, but he doesn’t just skim the surface. His explanation of the various types of DNA was one of the most easy to understand that I’ve read. The generational approach of Part II is very useful friendly and easy to apply to the moving-up-the-tree way that many people (including me) research. I’m not a beginner genealogist, but I benefited from the book!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: If you’d like to win a free (physical) copy of the book, just leave a comment below and tell me how long you’ve been doing genealogy and how you think you’ll benefit from the book. To get an extra entry, share this blog post on Facebook. Be sure to tag Organize Your Family History so I see it. I will select a winner at random using the Random Number Generator and will let the winner know via email. Deadline is Friday, September 8, 2023 and I will reach out to the winner for a mailing address on Saturday, September 9.

PLEASE NOTE: THE GIVEAWAY IS OVER AND ENTRIES ARE CLOSED.

 

My New Thing: Peace of Mind Budgeting

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I have not been doing a lot of blogging or  genealogy research in recent months, because I’ve started a new adventure. In March, I completed a training program to become a YNAB Certified Budgeting Coach. YNAB (aka You Need A Budget) is a budgeting method and app that helps people get control of their spending (and saving). I started using it in 2018 and it changed my life. Ever since, I’ve been promoting it to everyone I know and I jumped at the chance to take training so that I could add budget coaching to the service offerings of my organizing business, Peace of Mind Organizing®.

The relationship of budget coaching to genealogy is only tangential (it’s a great idea to budget for your genealogy expenses), but I mention it here because I wanted my readers to know what was going on with me.

I just debuted my website Peace of Mind Budgeting last. Please check it out if you’re interesting in learning my budgeting coaching services and reading my budgeting blog. Or you can go straight to the YNAB website to learn about it and sign up for a free trial. (That’s a referral link…if you click it and ending up subscribing to YNAB–it’s $99 a year when paid annually–we each get an extra month added to our subscriptions.)

Why do I love YNAB so much? It has allowed me to:

  • Get out and stay out of credit card debt
  • Building healthy savings
  • Welcome my husband’s recent retirement without freaking out about money
  • Live without financial stress, because I am in control of my finances
  • Handle my elderly aunt’s and, before he passed away, my father’s finances with ease

Just in case you’re interested in my budget coaching services, I wanted to let you know that I’m offering a discount while I get my feet wet. The first six budgeting clients who sign up for one of my packages will receive a substantial discount. I created a special coupon code for OYFH readers: OYFH. Use that code when you book a package to take advantage of it. If you get the message “Sorry, this coupon code is not valid” you’ll know that all those spots have been sold.

I started Organize Your Family History ten years ago this month (can you believe it?). And it’s not going anywhere. But since I’ll be spending so much time with Peace of Mind Budgeting, my blogging schedule here will be reduced to once a week. And I’ll be re-running some good posts from the past, along with creating new content.

Thanks for letting me share my news!