Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

My dream genealogy staycation

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I’ve been very busy helping clients get organized recently and just have not taken the time to do genealogy research. I’ve been out all day most days and when I come home it’s all I can do to wrangle my email and get ready for the next day before collapsing with a glass of wine. (Well, it’s not quite that dramatic, but you get the idea.)

I find myself fantasizing about taking an entire week off to spend on doing genealogy research. In this dream stay-cation, I’d probably do the following:

That sounds like more than a week’s worth of activities, actually. But the truth is that the chances I would actually take a week away from clients and running my organizing business is pretty remote.

But you know what? I don’t need a week off to dig into this stuff. Heck, I don’t need an afternoon off. If I can capture an hour here or there, I’ll make progress.  And if I managed to put in 30 minutes most days, I’d make huge progress. It’s just like I tell my clients about decluttering: 15 or 30 minutes a day can make all the difference in the world. In fact, I got out my calculator and figured it out. If you declutter (or do family history research) for 3o minutes a day, five days a week, for a year , it comes to 130 hours. That’s more than three work weeks!

I still love the idea of focusing my efforts for an entire week. But for now, I’ll try to wedge about a half hour a day in and see what progress I can make!

Questioning my assumptions

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I wrote last year about the importance of keeping a research log and my intention to keep one. I still think it’s important. Despite that, I’m still not really keeping one.

Oh, but I wish I were. My grandfather’s grandfather was George Washington Adams. I had accumulated a certain amount of information about him–and I’d recorded sources for everything. But now as I revisit him, I’m starting to doubt whether the military sources I found are necessarily for the right guy. And I think if I’d been keeping a good research log, I’d have perhaps written down why I was so certain that the George W. Adams from Company A, 35th Kentucky Infantry (Union), who ended up in the National Soldier’s Home for awhile in the 1920s and 1930s was my great great great grandfather. But looking at it now, I’m not so sure.

So I’m going to go back to all the data I’ve gathered for him and cast a critical eye on what I’ve found and make sure that I’ve got the right guy. And I’m going to carefully record my efforts and my reasoning for every fact. I’m not pledging to start keeping a research log for every bit of research I do (though I hope to at some point). I’m just pledging to do it for this one ancestor.

Once I figure out if I have the right guy, I’ll write here and let you know!

The emotional roller coaster of family history research

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Last week I was so excited because I had (finally) followed up on a request I’d made for an ancestor’s death certificate. I anxiously awaited the arrival of the document, thinking about all the info I would glean from it.

It arrived yesterday and, indeed, there was plenty of information on it. Unfortunately, the information pointed to the fact that this George Washington Adams wasn’t my George Washington Adams, my grandfather’s grandfather. His parents’ names aren’t familiar to me so I  doubt that I’m even related to this guy.

What a disappointment. But I’ll keep looking to try to locate more information on my great great grandfather. I think the large amount of time that elapsed since I first found the index that made me think I could get my hands on his death certificate makes the disappointment event greater.

I’ll redouble my efforts (try re-searching databases I’ve searched before, perhaps) and report here if I find what I’m looking for.

Research sometimes means re-search

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At Ancestry Day last month, a thought occurred to me that has really stuck. While learning about various ways to search Ancestry.com and how their databases are constantly being updated, I realized that searching again for information (i.e. re-searching) is critical. I can’t assume that since I didn’t find information when searching Ancestry (or any other database) for an ancestor I never will.

I guess this really points to the necessity and usefulness of a research log. I have to admit that since blogging about creating a research log, my use has been sporadic. I guess I should redouble my efforts.

So you might want to take a look at your brick walls and try searching again the databases that came up short before. At the rate new information is being indexed and posted, you might be in for a pleasant surprise!