Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

What would you like to read about?

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Apologies for my spotty blogging of late. My computer dying made last week challenging and this week I got a booster shot and needed a day two to recover. So my productivity has been hampered! But my computer and I are now healthy and I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of more regular blogging.

As I ponder the ideas I have for posts, I figured it would be smart to ask my readers what they’re curious to read. Are there genealogy organizing topics that you’d like to see me write about? Any struggles with your organization efforts that you think I might be able to help with by blogging?

Please tell me in the comments. And please don’t censor yourself. I welcome as many suggestions as you’d like to make!

 

 

If you’ve purchased an Orderly Roots guide…

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…I have a favor to ask.

I’m just about to publish a new Orderly Roots guide (called How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow; it will detail how I organize my genealogy research). I’m in the process of completing a new description page for the guides and I’d love to include a few testimonials.

No pressure, of course, but if you’d like to help me out, just answer any of these questions, by either commenting on this post or sending an email to janine@organizeyourfamilyhistory.com.

Here are my questions:

  • Which guide or guides did you purchase?
  • Did you find the guide helpful?
  • What kind of results did you see or feel because you read the guide?
  • Did the guide help you make any changes in how you organize or conduct your research?

Thanks in advance to anyone who wants to take the time to answer any of those of questions. I’ll put those who respond on a temporary email list so you’ll be the first to hear when How I Do It is published.

NGS moves to virtual for its May 2020 conference

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I feel so fortunate that the RootsTech conference was held in February, just prior to the COVID-19 crisis’s grip on the world. The National Genealogical Society wasn’t so lucky with its conference, which was to be held, like RootsTech, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. The NGS conference was scheduled for May 20 to 23, 2020.

Today, NGS announced that the 2020 conference will be virtual. The plan, as explained on their website, is for a full day of NGS Live! on May 20, from 11 am to 7 pm eastern. “In addition, streaming access to many more sessions will be available starting in July.” The conference organizers promise more updates as they become available.

To me, this seems like a smart approach and it’s better than canceling the conference. (RootsTech announced last month that its planned November 2020 conference in London is being postponed for a year. But that announcement came less than a month after the conference was announced, so the planning was in its early stages.) I’m sure it was a very difficult decision for the conference organizers and that it will be a logistical challenge.

I was to have attended the conference of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals in early April and that conference was canceled entirely. I’m happy for the NGS registrants that there will be some type of conference next month.

These are interesting times, aren’t they?

Help others (and yourself) by indexing

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When the self-isolation around the COVID-19 crisis started, I jotted down some things I might do to occupy my time. I was inspired at RootsTech to volunteer to index once again for Family Search (I hadn’t done it since the 2017 Worldwide Indexing Event) so I added indexing to my list. This past week, I gave it a try.

Family Search makes it so easy to volunteer to index. I logged in, selected Indexing from the top menu bar, then Find a Project. I focused on the United States (there are plenty of opportunities in other countries as well), then selected “US, Michigan–Naturalization Records, 1837-1933.” I did a thorough reading of the instructions and indexed a batch. I only did it for a short while that day, but I plan to go back to it this weekend.

If you’re getting a little tired of your own research, this might be a nice change of pace. As someone who has benefited from the volunteer indexing efforts of others, it feels nice to contribute. And here’s a bonus: Indexing might make you a better researcher!