Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Letting research trip planning be easy

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As I’ve posted here, I’m planning a research trip to Kentucky later this month. I’m bound and determined to get the most out of this trip by doing a great job of planning for it in advance. My father’s paternal line lived in Kentucky for at least four generations so a lot of my people lived there, primarily in the 19th century (though some stayed there in the 20th century). I’m researching collateral lines, in addition to direct-line ancestors, so there are of things I can research there. What goes hand in hand with a lot of opportunities? Overwhelm.

Each day as part of my current 30 x 30 challenge, I’ve been working on planning the trip, but I’ve been a little scattered in my approach and it’s getting a little frustrating because I’m not really making decisions. I’m searching for clarity. And I think I found it.

Yesterday, my co-host Shannon Wilkinson and I recorded Episode 54 of our podcast Getting to Good Enough. (We’ll publish it on June 13.) The episode’s theme was Let It Be Easy, which is my mantra, as I’ve shared on this blog. As we were talking about this topic, I realized that I haven’t been letting this planning process be easy. Quite the opposite. Time for things to change.

So as soon as we finished recording, I pulled out some paper and started started brainstorming. I began with the all-important question, “Why do I want to take this trip?” Focusing on the answers to that question was so helpful. Four answers came to mind immediately and they gave my some instant clarity and direction. The answers were:

  1. To learn as much as I can about my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938) (I’ve been fairly intensively studying him since I received and transcribed his 137-document civil war pension file)
  2. To solve mysteries
  3. To flesh out my family tree
  4. To expand my expertise

So now I’m focusing on identifying the blanks I can fill in for George Washington Adams, along with any information that could use more substantiation. I’m writing down mysteries, starting with those swirling around this second great grandfather (there are a few), and then I’ll look at how I might make tree stronger, bushier, and/or taller. I’d like to do a lot of that this week because next week I want to focus on scheduling the trip and contacting repositories.

I literally think the words “let it be easy” to myself probably four times a week. But for some reason, I hadn’t applied them to this trip. I’m feeling much better now that I have. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!

Impromptu 30 x 30 challenge!

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Today’s June 1 and I decided I really need a 30 x 30 challenge. I’m planning to take a research trip the last week in June and as I started thinking about how I really wanted to do some great pre-planning for it, I realized I would  benefit from a 30 x 30 challenge.

Will you join me in committing to 30 minutes of genealogy research a day for 30 days (or whatever incarnation of the challenge works for you)? With a challenge, I am more likely to do daily work on planning my trip and the whole month (including the research trip) will have less stress and more ease.

I’m so glad these challenges are helpful to many of those who participate, but with this post I’m making it clear that I do it for myself! I find the accountability extremely helpful. With this particular challenge I’ll be focusing on those families I plan to research in Kentucky and on planning the logistics of the trip.

Please let me know in the comments if you’re in!

Even “paperless” genealogists should keep some records

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If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve embraced the idea of minimizing paper in my genealogical research. I never print out the documents I find online. Instead, I download them, immediately rename the file according to my file-naming protocol and, once I’ve gleaned all the information I can from the document and created a source citation, I file it within my folder structure. My blog post called How I process a downloaded document takes you step-by-step through my digital workflow. And there’s lots more information in the Paperless Genealogy Guide, the 44-page downloadable guide that Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap and I wrote as we prepared to speak on that topic at RootsTech in 2017.

As someone who espouses letting go of paper, I’m often asked if there are papers that those who are trying to minimize should keep. I usually reply by saying that documents that are impossible or difficult to replace–even if they’re scanned–are worth hanging on to. That means, for instance, there’s no need to hang on to census records but original birth certificates are worth keeping in a file or binder.

I recently came across a post on the Abundant Genealogy blog from Melissa Barker, The Archive Lady, on this very topic. (Melissa was the subject of my How They Do It Interview in August 2017.) Her Abundant Genealogy post, called 5 Genealogical Records You Should Never Throw Away, goes into some detail about five types of records that you should hang onto. It’s definitely worth reading. (Spoiler alert: The five types of records are original records, diaries and journals, scrapbooks, old letters and photographs. Read the blog post to find out why.)

I would have a hard time throwing away hand-written letters and, in fact, though I carefully scanned it, I still have the epic 36-page letter my grandfather my wrote my grandmother right before they got married, in which he confessed the family secrets. That will be passed along to my niece or nephew or, perhaps, a cousin. But will I keep all old photographs once I’ve scanned them? I’m not so sure.

What about you? Are there are any records you would add to the list of keepers? Any that you don’t think belong there?

Planning my Kentucky research trip

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One of my goals for 2019 is to take another research trip to Kentucky. My people were from western Kentucky: McLean, Hopkins and Muhlenberg counties, primarily. I’m really fortunate in that Kentucky has many wonderful repositories. I had a brief visit to the Kentucky Historical Society (or was it the State Archives?) in Frankfort when I was there on a bourbon trip with my husband in 2014. Earlier that year, I visited cemeteries and a library in McLean and Daviess counties.

On both those trips, I did do some preparation but I really floundered a bit when I got to the repositories. I don’t want to repeat that feeling of not knowing what to research. I went to a talk on Kentucky resources at the NGS conference, so I have a great list of places I could visit. And I went to a talk on organizing a research trip and have lots of great logistical ideas in terms of the travel.

Here’s what I’m struggling with today: What’s a better way to go about planning what I want to find out? It seems like I have a couple of options:

  • Come up with research questions and then figure out which respositories might have the answers
  • Research the repositories’ holdings and then figure out what I records I need from each of the repositories

My gut tells me to do the former. Figure out my burning questions and seek out the answers that I can’t find online. But I’m not sure.

These are the places I’m thinking I’ll go:

  • Kentucky State Archives (Frankfort)
  • Martin F. Schmidt Research Library at the Kentucky Historical Society (Frankfort)
  • Office of Vital Statistics (Frankfort)
  • Filson Historical Society (Louisville) [I made a connection with a curator there when I was at NGS!]
  • Kentucky Room of the Daviess County Public Library (Owensboro)
  • Western Kentucky University Manuscripts and Folklife Archives (Bowling Green)
  • McLean County Courthouse (Calhoun)
  • Various cemeteries in McLean County

That’s kind of a daunting (but exciting!) list.

I’d love to hear comments from any of you who are familiar with Kentucky research or have advice about planning my trip, which I’m hoping to take in late June. If there’s an approach you recommend for preparing or if there are places you’d suggest I go, I’m all ears!

 

 

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