Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Ancestry DNA has updated its ethnicity estimates again

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I was just notified that my ethnicity estimate from Ancestry has been updated once again. According to this post from Ancestry, the estimates are getting more and more accurate because they’re based on more and more data. I don’t don’t really understand how that works but I know there’s lots of information out there when I’m ready to explore.

But I found comparing my estimates with my brother’s as well as with our previous estimates pretty interesting.

Here’s a screenshot of the current new estimates with Larry and me side by side.

So Larry has a good chunk of his DNA indicating Germanic Europe, where I have just a smidge. France and Norway don’t show up in him at all. And I have what appears to be substantially more Irish blood.

Now when I look at a similar image from a year ago (which appeared in this post on our ethnicity estimates) I see how things shifted.

Larry’s portion from Ireland and Scotland went down significantly and Germanic Europe went up. His England, Wales and Northwestern Europe went down slightly and mine went up.  My percent Irish went down, Germanic Europe made its first appearance and Sweden, as well as Greece & the Balkans went away.

I don’t have time to do research to try to understand or analyze this, but I thought you might it prompt you to check to see if your AncestryDNA ethnicity estimate has been updated as well.

P.S. If you haven’t done AncestryDNA but are intrigued, for the next 12 days the kits are on sale for $59, down 40% from the regular price of $99.

Overwhelm rears its ugly head

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In the past, I was easily overwhelmed by my genealogy research. As my tree grew, so did my opportunities for research. I would sit down to research with no idea what to work on. A few years ago, I implemented a quarterly plan, where I would focus on one line per quarter, which helped narrow things down. That helped somewhat.

My focus got better when I implemented a few practices:

  • I decided to focus on one line (my Adams line) all year. That was last year, and this year, I’ve been sticking with the Adams family.
  • I started keeping an informal research log. At the end of each session, I write down next steps.
  • I consistently research every day, even if it’s as little as 15 minutes. That keeps my head in the game and means I don’t have to refamiliarize myself with my research at the beginning of the session.

Things were going along very well for the last six to nine months. Then I went to RootsTech.

The double-edged sword of being focused is that you get a lot done, but you have blinders on about other avenues or opportunities for research. RootsTech stripped off those blinders and I took lots of notes about possible things to research. I also came back from the conference with a busy client schedule and not as much time for research.

The result? I feel like I’m floundering a bit. I’m still researching daily. I’m still writing down next steps, but I’m a bit all over the place.

So today, I’m resolving to regain focus. My intention is to do that by choosing a project I can complete in a reasonable amount of time, one that has a clear start and finish. I have a bunch of unprocessed documents in my Surnames folder. As part of my digital workflow, I’m supposed to process all documents as I download them, but when I was at the Family History Library right before RootsTech I wasn’t able to do that. I’m going to focus on extracting data from those documents and filing them properly. In the case of the handwritten deeds I downloaded, I’ll also transcribe them.

I’m already feeling better because I have a focus, I know what I’ll be working on and I’ll be doing so systematically until I finish. When I come across other leads, I’ll write them down in my follow up folders in Evernote. (I keep follow up folders by surname in my Genealogy stack.) I’m hopeful that by the time I finish with this project I’ll have my mojo back and be able to stave off those feelings of overwhelm!

Keep your eyes out for a new 30 x 30 challenge in April. I’m going to need one!

Unmodified photo by Chris Duglosz via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Join me at the St. Louis Genealogy Conference!

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I attended last year’s St. Louis Genealogy Conference, a free conference sponsored by the LDS church, and it was terrific. So I was delighted to be invited to present at this year’s conference! The theme is Remembering Families.

The registration for the conference, which will be held Saturday, October 14, just opened. If you’re interested, you can register here. I will be presenting twice on the same topic, Going Paperless in Your Genealogy Research. If you’re a regular reader here, you know that’s a passion of mine.

The lineup looks great, with presentations on social media, maps, Missouri Digital Archives, researching Civil War ancestors, and German research, among other topics. If you plan to attend, please let me know in the comments or via email!

Staying connected with my ancestors

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In June, I completed the 30 x 30 challenge in which I did at least 30 minutes of genealogy research a day the whole month. Then I kept it up into July, managing to research each day through July 9. I’d created a wonderful routine of doing genealogy research first thing in the morning. It was a great way to start the day.

Then my routine was disrupted by a pre-planned trip to visit my dad in Walla Walla, Washington. Unfortunately, he ended up being hospitalized after a fall the day I arrived. So my days have been spent first at the hospital, then the rehab facility. He comes home in a couple of days and I go back to my home in six days. So I just haven’t had the luxury of time alone to do research. (This also explains why I didn’t blog last week!)

I was really struck yesterday by how much I miss researching. I miss my connection with my ancestors. And I miss making progress. I also miss my peaceful morning routine.

I’m trying to stay connected with my ancestors by talking with my dad and my aunt (his sister) about family history. I’ve been able to share some information that they didn’t know, uncovered in my research. And my aunt gave me the beautiful photo above of her mother as a baby, with her sister and parents. (The parents are William Reese Rasco, 1878-1957 and Louella Watts Rasco, 1879-1953. The kids are my great aunt Lessie Rasco, 1901-1994, and my grandmother, Beatrix Rasco Adams, 1907-1987.)

I hope having researched daily for 39 days will help me get right back into the swing of things when I get home next week. Perhaps I can get started before that, once once my dad is in his home and I’m hanging out with him there.

What I want to avoid is losing my mojo and getting out of the habit of researching. So you may see another 30 x 30 challenge coming up sooner rather than later!