Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #7: Don’t ignore the siblings

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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. This one is about an important lesson I learned years ago. Please, learn from my mistakes!

Don’t ignore your ancestors’ siblings

When I first started doing genealogy research, I was easily overwhelmed by the ever-growing number of ancestors I encountered. I started out with census research, primarily, and when I looked at the long list of names on a given ancestor’s census form, I decided to focus on just the ancestor I was descended from. It felt overwhelming and tedious to enter information from all the siblings into my software. I didn’t see the point.

I was wrong.

I’ve since discovered (as I posted about here) that these siblings (called collateral relatives) are hugely helpful in my research. Not only do they flesh out the experience of my direct-line ancestors, they provide valuable clues that I’ve found the right family. So rather than feel overwhelmed by these large families, I now feel thrilled when I find them. It may take a few minutes to enter information for each person into my database, but it’s time well spent. The bushier the tree the better (as long as every person in the tree has been confirmed with sources)!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

A special 90th birthday present

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My dad, Gene Adams, two days shy of his 90th birthday

I am so happy to be posting again! I left St. Louis on September 6 to drive to 2,000 miles to Walla Walla, Washington, to help my father celebrate his 90th birthday. (He was born 11 Sep 1930.) I drove because I didn’t want to risk transmitting the coronavirus to him and I felt more in control of who I interacted with driving than flying. On the way, my MacBook Pro went belly up and I ended up having to send it in to Apple for repair. I wasn’t up to trying to blog from my phone, so that’s why I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks.

In any case, my computer has been returned good as new (it had a swollen battery that had to replaced) and I’m delighted to be back to blogging.

I had a lovely visit with my father, whom I hadn’t seen since February, and I’m so glad I made the trip. I took four days/three nights in each direction and I drove alone. It was amazing to see this part of the country. I spent the night in two states, South Dakota and Montana, that I’d never been to before. That brings my total number of states visited to 48! I listened to lots of podcasts and I even managed to do a little cemetery research on the way home. (More on that in a future post.)

What I wanted to write about today is the birthday gift I gave my father. At 90, he doesn’t need stuff. Because of COVID, we couldn’t have a birthday party. So, at the suggestion of a friend, I reached out to dozens of people from various parts of his life, asking each of them to send me a 30- to 60-second video wishing him a happy birthday and marking the occasion any other way they wanted to.

I used Trello to track my invitations and responses, which made it really easy. It was such a joy to communicate with these folks and receive their wonderful videos. I ended up with forty videos. I purchased an iPad for him so he can watch the videos when he wants. (He’s a Luddite with no computer and no internet access and no desire for either.)

I put the individual videos on the iPad and also used iMovie on my Mac to string them all together into one video, which I put on the iPad. That turned out to be the way he likes to watch it most. Finally, I bought a lightning-to-HDMI adapter so that he can watch the video on his TV. I did everything manually and found it quite easy, but since then, I have found out about a service that will send out the invitations and the compile the videos for you for a small fee. It’s called VidHug.

He was blown away. Because he’s a Luddite I think he thinks it was a lot harder for me to do than it actually was, though I tried to set him straight. The hardest part was finishing the project without a computer! He really enjoyed hearing from so many loved ones. The video was just plain heartwarming.

This is the best gift I’ve ever given (I’m not great at gift giving) and my father appreciated it so much. I mention it here in case you have an elderly relative (or, really, anyone) you’d like to honor this way.  It seems particularly helpful these days when travel and in-person gatherings are so difficult.

Quick Tip #6: Tidy up your research space

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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. This one is about your genealogy research, but it can certainly apply to other areas of your home!

Tidy up your research space before ending the session

If you use paper in your genealogy research, you probably opene file folders or binders during a session and you undoubtedly create some new paper by printing. If you take a few minutes at the end of the session to file those papers in their folders or binders and put them away in their homes, your future self will thank you. When you start your next session with a clear research space, it’s easier to jump right in.

I don’t use paper in my research, but I use the same principle with my digital research. I try hard to process any documents I download during the session. And I file in my folder structure as I go along. Keeping the genealogy folder on my hard drive tidy and organized makes everything easier.

I also try to clear my work desk at the end of every work day to make the next day easier, whether I’m doing genealogy research or working on my business. An uncluttered space contributes to an uncluttered mind!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Reminder: You can let go of “should”

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It’s natural to ask about questions about organizing (your genealogy or anything else) that start with the word “should.” Should I organize my documents this way or that way? Should I store things here or there? Should I focus on this or that?

When I try to answer a question that starts with should, the answer is almost always, “It depends.” Because it’s all about what will work for you.

I encourage my clients (and anyone else who will listen to me) to let go of the word should. And to also let go of asking questions that start with, “What’s the right way to…” or What’s the best way to….”

Because here’s the thing: I can’t tell you what you should do. Only you know what’s right for you. It can be much more beneficial to think in terms of what you’d like to do, or what you think will work best for you, rather than what you should do. Especially when it comes to organizing your genealogy research, the thing you should do (in my opinion) is the thing that works well for you and that you can keep up.

For example:

  • Maybe you’ve always heard that you should store your paper documents in binders, but you have trouble keeping up with that. Let go of that should and consider using file folders or scanning your documents.
  • Maybe you think you should print every document for the sake of posterity but you’re overrun with unfiled paper. You can let go of that should, particularly if your electronic documents are already organized.
  • Conversely, maybe you’ve heard you should scan every bit of paper and store files electronically, but you’re overwhelmed by the prospect. Bye bye, should. You can let your paper files be sufficient. Or just start storing new files electronically and leaving your papers unscanned.
  • Maybe you’re told you should keep a research log, but you just can’t get yourself to do it. A research log can be hugely beneficial. But don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have one just because you think you should.

In other words, set yourself up for success and do what works for you. Decide what your priorities are (accessibility for you, accessibility for others, ease of use, etc.) and focus your organizing systems on those priorities. Don’t do something just because someone told you you should if it doesn’t seem like it will work for you.

All that said, there are some genealogy shoulds that I think you should pay attention to:

  • You should cite your sources so you can find them again and know where your facts came from (but you don’t have to cite them perfectly if that’s getting in the way of citing them at all).
  • You should back up your electronic data in case of a crash. (I use an external hard drive and automated cloud storage.)

Genealogy is supposed to be fun. Don’t let the shoulds drag you down. Make your own choices and own them. And keep yourself open to new ways of doing things. (See what I did there? I told you all sorts of things I think you should do, without using that word. Take what works for you and let go of the rest.)

[If this is feels familiar, it’s because I initially published this post on May 17, 2016. Then I published it again on November 6, 2018 with a different title. It’s a message that really resonates with me right now, so I wanted to repeat it.]