We’re halfway through April and a good number of you said you were going to participate in the April 30 x 30 challenge in which we vow to do something genealogy-related for 30 minutes each day throughout the 30 days of the month.
How’s it going? Have you been able to make that daily effort? Is it paying dividends?
I haven’t missed a day yet, I’m happy to say, but I haven’t been able to do much more than 30 minutes either. Because I have a backlog of documents to process, it feels like a little bit of drudgery, I’m afraid. But I know I’ll get through it, even if all I can do is work on it 30 minutes at a time.
I’m going to spend some time thinking about how to deal with the backlog without it feeling like drudgery and I plan to blog about that soon.
If you’re participating in the 30 x 30 challenge (or would like to), please comment and let us know how it’s going!
As with every 30×30 challenge I’ve tried so far, I made it to day 3 or 4. My life is utter chaos right now. Sigh.
Cut yourself some slack, Nancy! That’s two hours you might not have accomplished otherwise. Please know that you can always hop back in. Thanks for your honesty!
I do genealogy for others as part of being in DAR. Your 30 x 30 challenge has challenged me to make the time for my own family history, so thank you for that. I don’t keep track – I think I have made at least 30 minutes on almost all days. And about half of those days are my own family. Yay!
Excellent, Kay! Keep up the great work!
So far so good. And tend to find i go over the 30 mins once i get started. Xx
That’s great, Marilyn. If you have time in your day to keep going, that’s even better.
So far I only missed 1 day. The 30 minute days seem to work versus waiting for a time when I have a few hours to do genealogy which usually does not happen.
That’s excellent, Jerry! (And that 30-minute benefit applies to so many things, including decluttering your home!)
Hi Janine! I’m not doing the challenge this time but I’m hoping you can help me with something else. I’m going to be in Washington, DC next week. I could visit the National Archives. I live near Salt Lake City, so I have easy access to the records at the Family History Library there and, of course, the internet. My question is: Is there something at the National Archives you can only look at in person? Something not to miss at the Arxhives while I’m there in DC?
If you have Civil War ancestors, Leslie, you could potentially see their pension records at the National Archives. I spent, I think, $70 to have them sent to me and I’m glad I did. But it would be great to be able to do that on the spot. I’m sure there are other records like that that aren’t available online. This page of the National Archives website describes the genealogy resources available and can help you prepare for a visit. https://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/start-research/nara-resources.html
One note: I did visit the National Archives here in St. Louis, to look at a specific record set, and I had to make arrangements ahead of time so that the records were available to me. In your shoes, I’d definitely look into what you might want to see ahead of time, in case you have to make a request.
Perhaps another reader has some more specific advice. Have fun!
It has been going well. I have worked at least 3 hours a day since your challenge began. Part geneology, other family and regional history research and photo identification scanning and organizing digital files.
That’s fantastic, Terry!!
Hope you will do a wrap up of the 30 day challenge. I liked having the “Family History Janine” to be accountable for this process. I even kept a digital log of what I did. Maybe you have some ideas on how to do this. I hope you do this next year too! Thanks for inspiring me to work harder and more consistantly on my projects!
Thanks, Terry! I’m so glad that I could be an accountability partner for you! I did do a wrap up post for the 30 x 30 challenge and I’ll definitely be doing another one before next year.
As far as your digital log goes, I keep mine in Evernote, which is working well for me.