Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

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!

My genealogy staycation!

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This morning I looked at my calendar and realized that, at this moment in time, I have a free week in a couple of weeks. That is, I have no organizing appointments scheduled for the week of June 20 (well, a tentative one on Friday the 24th). Thankfully, I’ve been in business long enough to see that as the blessing it is, rather than freaking out that my business is failing (which it certainly isn’t).

A few years, I wrote a post here about my dream genealogy staycation. I fantasized about what I’d do if I had a week to devote to genealogy research. When I looked at that gloriously empty week on my calendar this morning, I realized that I could make that dream a reality! So I’m going to block out the week and start making plans about how I’ll spend it. Lucky for me, that blog post is a great starting point.

I’m getting another amazing opportunity when I go on the NGS research trip to the Allen County Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in August. I think my staycation will be a great precursor to that. The work I do this month should help make that trip even more productive.

How about you? Have you ever taken a chunk of time off to work on your genealogy? Did it meet your expectations? And do you have any suggestions for me?

Ethnicity: The fun byproduct of my DNA test

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DNA test. Now what?Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I never felt much of a connection to March 17 until I had my DNA tested through Ancestry DNA. Then I discovered in that test that I’m 38% Irish. (That’s my pie chart in the picture.) I knew that Ireland was in my family tree, but I haven’t researched much that far back to realize that it was an important part of my heritage.

Growing up, Irish roots were never mentioned. All that came up was vague mention of England, though in reality our heritage wasn’t much discussed. That’s probably because there were  no immigrants recent enough for my parents or grandparents’ to have known them. We always just felt American.

When I had my DNA tested, it was in an effort to meet cousins and further my genealogical research. (Understanding those results is an ongoing project.) The ethnicity component of didn’t even enter my mind. But today, St. Patrick’s Day, it feels nice to have a kinship with my Irish forebears, though I’m still learning about who they were.

If you’ve had your DNA tested were you surprised by the ethnicity results?

Take obituaries with a grain of salt

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Take obituaries with a grain of saltMy mother, Betty Sue Brown Adams, died last week.  She was born on May 2, 1933 and died June 17, 2015. It felt very strange to add a death date to her entry in Reunion, my family tree software.

Since I’m a writer, my father asked me to write her obituary. Fortunately, we had had discussions about what she wanted in her obituary, so it was quite easy to write. I wrote it the day after she passed away and submitted to the local paper on June 19. It was published Sunday, June 21.

Yesterday, I was looking at the obituary and realized it contained an error, one that was completely my fault. It wasn’t a big deal–I wrote that she’d been a volunteer at the Blue Mountain Humane Society Gift Shop when in fact she’d been a volunteer at the Blue Mountain Humane Society Thrift Shop. It’s a subtle, but significant difference.

Seeing that error made me realize how easy it is for errors to be introduced into obituaries. I was writing with a clear head, with pre-planned information, into a document that I emailed to the newspaper. And yet an error showed up in print.

Just think how easily errors could be introduced into the obituaries of our ancestors: the writer may or may not have known the deceased person. The person who wrote the obituary may or may not be a good writer. The information may have been hand-entered for typesetting. There are so many ways an obituary can be made inaccurate.

So that’s today’s genealogy take away from my mother’s passing: Take obituaries with a grain of salt.

By the way, I wrote on my organizing blog yesterday about the importance of having the difficult conversation that will help make someone’s death easier for survivors. If you have loved ones near the ends of their lives, I encourage you to check it out.

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When you first join the list, I’ll send you a few emails to help you organize your family history. After that you’ll hear from me at the end of every month when I send an email with links to that month’s posts. And every now and then, I’ll let you know when I have something special to promote.