Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

The iPad for genealogy?

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iPad Air - my new genealogy friend? I’m an unabashed Apple fangirl. I bought my first MacBook in 2008. (I replaced it with a MacBook Pro in 2011.) A couple of months later, I bought an iPod Touch, which rocked my world. In 2010, I bought the original version of the iPad. I loved it. I bought my first iPhone (a 4S) in 2012. I adore it even more.

After I got my iPhone, my iPad lay dormant. The newer iPhone was so much faster than the older iPad that I couldn’t even tolerate using it. So I ended up selling it to Gazelle for $100. (I hope that doesn’t make me sound fickle!)

Now I’m giving serious thought to buying an iPad Air within the next month or so. One of the things I want to use it for is genealogy research. So far, my research has been pretty much restricted to my computer and my home office. But I’m planning for that to change in 2014 and I think I’ll venture into family history libraries and other record depositories. And I’m going to RootsTech.

So I’m curious. Do you have an iPad and, if so, do you use it for your genealogy research? Do you love it? Why or why not? Please help me decide!

Label old photos while you can

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A great example of how not to label a photo!

A great example of how not to label a photo!

I’m visiting my parents in Walla Walla, Washington, and today my mother and I went through (for the second or third time) a big box of photos that she inherited after her mother passed away. Most of the photos are from here father’s family, the Browns. Thanks to my getting to know some of the Brown cousins earlier this year, the names made more sense than they had in the past.

But oh how I wish more of the photos had been labeled. And that those that were labeled had better labels! (The photo with this post is of the back of one of the photos we looked at today.) And, of course, my other big wish is that I’d taken the time a decade or more ago, when my mother’s memory was stronger, to go through them with her.

If all the photos had been labeled with the first and last names of those pictured and the date the photo was taken, my time going through them with my mother would have been more of a trip down memory lane for her, rather than a series of head scratchers. But we did make some progress and we had a very nice time.

My mother has given me permission to take the photos home with me. I intend to do more detective work and scan the photos that I can identify and attach them to my family tree. (Yet another reason to buy the scanner I’m coveting!) I’ll be attending the Brown family reunion in June and my intention is to bring those photos with me and ask for help in identifying some of the unlabeled photos. And, of course, I’ll be happy to share photos.

Once I get home from my trip and start dealing with these photos, I’ll do more research on what to do with the originals, as well as how to electronically tag and file the photos for ease of access in sharing. (And I’ll share here.)

I have many steps ahead of me. But one thing I know is that while I’m grateful that generations before me hung on to these photos, I wish they’d taken the time to give them good labels!

Overwhelmed by resources

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shopfamilytreeWhen I decided to get serious about genealogy a year or two ago, I jumped at many opportunities there are to learn. I signed up for lots of free newsletters, as well as paid webinars and classes, books, and other resources. I joined Ancestry, Fold 3, Mocavo, and Genealogy Bank. And I spent a good deal of money at Shop Family Tree. There are no shortage of ways for me to research my ancestors.

Unfortunately, I’m not working on genealogy full-time. I have an organizing business to run, as well as the demands of day-to-day life. I want to both do the research and improve my researching skills. So some of these learning opportunities are lying fallow at the moment.

And here’s where the overwhelm kicks in: I know there are a lot of purchased items spread out over my hard drive. Some are in my files. Others on my bookshelves. I don’t know what I have. If I do know, I’m not exactly sure where to find it.

It’s time to do something about that. Here’s where my resources are scattered:

Hard drive: I’ve done a good job of organizing my hard drive when it comes to research documents (i.e. documentation about my ancestors). But it’s time to put a laser focus on my resources. I’m going to give some thought as to how to organize the stuff on my hard drive. I’m thinking of subfolders in my Genealogy folder, based on subject. But I know also need a way to track what I’ve actually read/viewed and what I haven’t. Perhaps a spreadsheet. But right now I think I might use Springpad, which I’ve been experimenting with of late. Of course, Evernote could be another option.

Book shelves and file cabinet: I have some books and some CD-ROMs and some printed PDFs scattered about. I need to locate them, catalog them, and store them all in one place, where I can easily retrieve them.

Organizing all these resources is a great first step. But the next step is to actually read the stuff, learn from it and apply what I’ve learned! When I read something particularly useful, I’ll be sure to share it here.

 

How accessible are your genealogy materials?

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Pile of papersDo you have a good place to store your genealogy stuff? Many of us don’t have the luxury of a dedicated genealogy room. And even if we do, that doesn’t mean everything’s accessible. When your material isn’t easy to get to, it can be hard to do (or start) genealogy research.

Organizers talk about the concept of “prime real estate,” where you reserve the most accessible storage spaces for the most frequently accessed materials. You want to make it easy to get stuff out and put it away again. When your research materials are accessible, one barrier to doing the research vanishes.

Take a look around your genealogy research space. Here are some tell-tale clues that there’s room for improvement:

  • Papers in piles
  • Books or papers on the floor
  • Cluttered work surfaces
  • Folders or binders without labels

If you can see yourself in this description, maybe it’s time to think about improvements.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Throw alphabetical order to the wind and put the binders or file folders containing your current research front and center
  • If you use binders and you find that you pile papers rather than placing them in the right spot in the binder, consider switching to file folders. (See my earlier blog post, Folders or binders? for more info.)
  • Try to create a habit of putting papers away after you use them, or creating a small stack to file on a designated day each week
  • Use a timer to help you focus on getting rid of your backlog (file for 15 minutes a day, for instance)
  • Streamline your system with some file clean-out sessions where you get rid of duplicates or unnecessary pieces of paper
  • Label the heck out of everything! (Don’t feel like you have to use a fancy label maker…regular Avery labels printed out on your printer will do)

This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. You don’t have to reserve an entire weekend for a complete workspace overhaul. You can make small improvements, a little at a time. (I’d start with analyzing what’s being stored in your prime real estate.)

An end-of-the-year audit of your storage space might pave the way for a breakthrough year next year!