Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Looking for a genealogy event to attend?

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One of the things I love about doing genealogy research is the rich availability of classes to further my education. Thanks to the internet, I’m not limited to classes near me, so the opportunities are abundant. They’re so abundant, in fact, it can be hard to be aware of them and keep track of them.

Enter Conference Keeper. It’s a website whose purpose is to keep you informed of upcoming genealogy events.

I took a look today and was amazed at all the offerings. The events are organized in a variety of ways: by date, by location, virtual events, DNA events, etc. There’s a section for calls for presentations and papers, so if you’re a genealogy speaker, it’s a great place to look for speaking opportunities. And that just skims the surface of what’s available on the website.

If you’re itching to sign up for a genealogy conference,  workshop, or class just peruse Conference Keeper to see your many choices!

Keep looking for new evidence

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Today, I was perusing Facebook and I saw a post from Crista Cowan, corporate genealogist at Ancestry® that stopped me in my tracks. I had to grab my notebook and write down this sentence from her post:

Certainty is the enemy of curiosity.

She said that sometimes genealogists can become so certain about a fact that they stop looking for new evidence. And if we don’t look for new evidence, we’ll never disprove the “facts” in our research.

I immediately started thinking about how that might apply to my research and how I could methodically check to see what new evidence I might want to seek.

A few approaches came to mind:

  • I could climb my tree, one person at a time. For each person I could look in the Events, Facts and Notes tabs in Reunion, looking at what’s there and what sources substantiate each fact. Perhaps I might set a goal of having at least three source citations for each fact.  I could identify missing data as well.
  • I could just pick a person and do a search on Ancestry and/or Family Search to see what documents come up. I actually searched on my father today and found a 1954 City Directory listing that I had previously found and created a source citation for. But I missed that it mentioned my newlywed mother’s occupation in 1954 (she was working as a secretary for her father’s company while my dad was in the Army). So I added that to my database.
  • I could go back to my progress chart and see what B/M/D and census documents (and other information) remain to be found for the people in my tree.
  • I could go back to my source documentation checklist and continue going through each source to make sure I have extracted all the evidence from each source document.

I think any of these approaches would work well and I don’t think I have to choose just one. For the moment, I think I might start by going through my tree and examining what facts I have on my direct-line ancestors, creating a list of the new evidence I’m going to seek. This feels like a great second-half-of-the-year project to me!

In her post, Crista recommended the book Think Again, by Adam Grant, whose subtitle is “The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know.” I’ve put a hold on both the Kindle and audio versions of that book at my library and I can’t to read it through the lens of genealogy research.

We’re offering Declutter Happy Hour again!

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Each Wednesday in February, my podcast co-host, Shannon Wilkinson, and I taught a Declutter Happy Hour to a group of about 15 lovely participants. It was so much fun, we’ve decided to offer it again. The next session of the four-part class  will be held April 7, 14, 21, and 28 from 6 to 7:30 pm central daylight time. Click here to learn more and register.

As I said in my January post about the first session, Shannon and I created Declutter Happy Hour way back in 2009.  It started as a teleclass then morphed into an ecourse before we retired it. And it ended up being a precursor to our podcast.

We were thrilled to be invited by our friends at Fly Paper to bring Declutter Happy Hour back to life, this time via Zoom. And we’re doubly delighted to be offering a second session!

Declutter Happy Hour is a live experience where you get to do some decluttering during the class. I think it’s really special because it infuses the decluttering process with a secret ingredient: mindset change (plus fun and laughter).

Each of the four sessions starts with a discussion led by Shannon and me about an important aspect of the decluttering process and the mindset shift that can go along with it. Then, during the class, you get time to work on a small decluttering project. It could be something to do with your decluttering your genealogy research papers. Or you may want to tackle your linen closet (or any other space in your home). Or your hard drive. Whatever you decide to work on, Shannon and I will stay in the Zoom room, ready and waiting to answer any questions and provide support and encouragement.

By the end of four sessions you’ll have let go of more than just stuff and you’ll have the tools to take on decluttering projects on your own. (But you’d be welcome to  sign up for another session!)

Again, Declutter Happy Hour runs on Wednesdays in April starting at 6 pm central time. You can register at eventbrite. Let me know in the comments if you sign up!

End-of-the-year sale on Orderly Roots guides!

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Need a little extra help and motivation getting organized in the new year? Then I have a special sale for you.  I currently offer three Orderly Roots guides, downloadable pdfs that I’ve written on topics surrounding organizing your genealogy research. I’m in the process of writing more and hope to publish a new one very soon.

In the meantime, in the spirit of getting organized for the new year, I’m offering a very special sale on the existing guides. Today through Sunday, you can buy all three Orderly Roots guides for the price of one! Put all three in your cart and use the promo code NEWYEAR at checkout and you’ll be charged only $9.00. (The sale doesn’t include the Paperless Genealogy Guide.)

Don’t wait! The coupon code expires at 12:01 am central time on January 4.