• BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Privacy Policy
  • GENEALOGY GUIDES
    • Orderly Roots guides
      • 10 Secrets to Organizing Your Genealogy Research
      • 10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Doing Genealogy
      • Organizing Your Genealogy Right From the Start
    • The Paperless Genealogy Guide
  • SERVICES
  • MAILING LIST
  • CONTACT

Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

My quest to learn more about my family history

June 14, 2012 By Janine Adams 2 Comments

It all started about ten years ago. I was on a trip to visit my parents (who live about 1,500 miles away from me) and my mother shared with me a print out of a family history narrative that a cousin of hers created some fifteen years before. On that same trip, my father’s sister shared some info from their side of the family. Through these documents, I found out that my family had connections with the early settlement of what is now New York City, as well (on the other side) with none other than Daniel Boone.

Back then I didn’t have a laptop, so I went to an internet cafe (remember those?) and started looking around on genealogy websites to see what I might learn. I was amazed at how easy it was to find out more. Granted, I wasn’t verifying any information, just taking it at face value, but I quickly learned that on both sides of my family we have deep American roots.

I joined Ancestry.com and consulted familysearch.org and started creating handwritten Ancestry Charts. Before I knew it, I had over 120 pages of four-generation sheets.

Overwhelm rears its head

Then I started feeling overwhelmed about next steps. And then I got busy starting my business as a professional organizer. While the interest was still there, the time wasn’t so my family history research went on a hiatus.

But now I’m back. And I want to get started again. Ancestry.com looks different than it used to and I can tell there’s a whole lot more information available.

As I contemplate getting back into researching my family, I feel myself a little paralyzed by perfectionism. (This is actually unusual for me–I’m not much of a perfectionist.) I want to do this thing right and I’m not sure exactly where to go from here. I do know that I want to keep it organized so I can put my hands on information when I want it and to keep my mind from feeling muddled.

Where to start now?

That’s what this blog is going to be about: figuring out what to do, how to do it, how to organize it. I’ll also be sharing the discoveries, the mistakes and the joys that come along the way.

Thanks for reading and sharing this quest with me.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: getting started, overwhelm

Comments

  1. john mason says

    July 1, 2012 at 9:23 am

    Great Website—Very well done. Am looking forward to following your quest in discovery. John

    Reply
  2. Janine Adams says

    July 1, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    Thanks, John! I appreciate your reading the blog!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

about me

I'm Janine Adams, a professional organizer and a genealogy enthusiast. I love doing family history research, but I find it's very easy for me to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn next. So I'm working hard to stay organized and feel in control as I grow my family tree.

In this blog, I share my discoveries and explorations, along with my organizing challenges (and solutions). I hope by sharing what I learn along the way I'll be able to help you stay focused and have fun while you do your research, too.

tags

Adams amy johnson crow anniversary blogs Brown cemetery Civil War conferences connections dna electronic files Evernote excitement Family Curator family photos genealogy tools genetic genealogy getting started goals How They Do It Igleheart Jeffries keepsakes learning opportunities maps military newspapers NGS organizing aids overwhelm paper files planning rasco record keeping research research log research trip resources RootsTech social history source documentation technology Thomas MacEntee time management vital records
Speaker Badge: Rootstech 2017

join the facebook community!

join the facebook community!

My organizing business

Learn more about my organizing business, Peace of Mind Organizing®.

Subscribe by RSS

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Subscribe by email

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

© 2019 Janine Adams