June is behind us, as is another 30 x 30 challenge. How did things go for you? Did you manage to meet your goal of 30 minutes of genealogy research/organizing for 30 days (or whatever your alternate goal was)? If not, did you do more than might have done without the challenge? Please report in!
My month didn’t go exactly as planned, due to competing responsibilities. But I definitely put in more than 15 hours, thanks to my genealogy research trip. I had hoped to expend daily effort on planning the trip, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, the planning went in spurts of larger amounts of time. And then, of course, I had the trip itself, which I took the last week in June. That week alone, I spent more than 30 hours doing genealogy research. So I’m calling this challenge a success, even if my approach wasn’t exactly 30 x 30esque.
I’ll write about my trip in Friday’s post. In the meantime, those of you who took on the challenge please use the comments to let us know how it went!
Hi Janine,
My June 30×30 Challenge reaped a major success.
I completed my first research project participating in Diana Elder & Nicole Dyer’s Research Like a Pro Study Group. Although I did not answer my research objective, I learned a terrific methodology for conducting a reasonably exhaustive research project. I’m proud of my report, developed confidence, and would share the report with others.
I conducted research for the family history book I’m writing about my maternal grandmother.
Thanks for introducing me to the 30×30 Challenge. I know I’ll use this approach for future projects in all areas of interest, not just genealogy.
Cheri, how exciting! I’m so happy for you! I’m so glad the challenge contributed to your success.
I did way more than 30 mins a day and though i made great progress in processing documents I’d just downloaded and stuffed into a folder, I still have scores left to do.
Doesn’t it feel good to get through those documents? It stresses me out when I have a backlog of downloaded documents waiting to be processed. Getting through it a little at a time is a great approach.
I lagged miserably behind, as I never got back into the groove after I was sick. However, for the few days I participated, I did get more done than I would have had I not joined the challenge. I’m also up for a new 30 x 30 and hope I stay healthy through that one.
I hope you’re much better, Linda! I’ll be doing another 30 x 30 challenge in the next few months and certainly you’ll still be healthy!
I completed my two week trip and found SO much new information! I met a “new” cousin and found some exciting information, I visited 4 old houses which ancestors built from 1634 on! Now I need at least one 30×30 to process all the photos, evernote notes and handwritten notes I gleaned! But a two day nap is first!
Your trip sounds amazing! I’m so happy for you! You’re right–processing all the information you gathered on your trip is its own challenge! I’m facing that myself.
Overall I met the 30 minute day goal. As mentioned before, I even managed to do census transcribing while I was on vacation. My focus in June was to work on my to do list that is on Trello. Many of the items were carry overs from last year. I cleared some of them or at least refocused my research on tasks needing to be completed.
That’s excellent, Jerry! I bet that felt great. I really enjoyed using Trello for planning my research trip and for my everyday to-do list, but I haven’t transitioned from Evernote for my genealogy to-do list. I’m curious, how do you organize yours? If you feel like sharing, I’d love to know the types of lists you keep in Trello.
Happy 4th of July. Sorry for the delay in responding. My main board is called Genealogy To Do. Under this board I have my cards called To Do, Working On, and Completed. Items that I plan to work on during the next few weeks I will enter on my Genealogy To Do Board. I also have boards by surname and Under these boards I have cards of To Do and Completed. When I first think of something that I need to work on I will put this in the To Do card under the s
Surname board. Once I determine that I will start working on it in the next few weeks, I will move it to my Genealogy To Do board. Once I have completed the task, I will move it back to the Surname board under the Completed Card. Hope this is not too confusing. My process is still evolving. As a side note, I use Evernote to keep notes when I come across something of interest to me that I find while doing research. It keeps me from having scrapes of notes.
Thank you so much for detailing that, Jerry! It makes perfect sense. I was having trouble visualizing sorting out the to-dos and wondered if you have lists of Surnames in a To-Do board, but your system is much better than that! I really appreciate your sharing it. I may have to give it a try!
I didn’t get my goal of 30×30, but what time I did have was productive. Lots of watch and learn with videos/webinars. More of the merging of information from my multiple trees to my DoOver Tree, got back one more generation with collateral lines so Overall, I am very happy!
I ended up doing the equivalent of conducting 30 minutes of genealogy research for 13 days out of the month. While not exactly what I wanted, it is more than I would’ve gotten done without the challenge. Thanks for doing it!