I’m launching a new 30 x 30 challenge for the month of January. Boy, do I need it! After virtually ignoring my research since my father passed away at the end of August, I’m ready to gently return to it. I’ve started by doing a little bit each day this week and am ready to keep a commitment to doing genealogy research (or genealogy organizing) for 30 days in a row. The commitment is typically for 30 minutes a day but I’ll be happy if I average 30 minutes a day over the course of the month.
I’m going to focus on eliminating my backlog of downloaded files, taking at least one class or webinar each week, and basically getting a handle on where I am with my research.
I’ve been doing periodic 30 x 30 challenges since August of 2015 and I find they almost always help me get back on track. I found the accountability of the challenge to be really motivating.
If you’d like to join me in committing to doing daily research in January 2023, please comment below. Feel free to let everyone know what you’ll be working on (but don’t feel like you have to). In the middle of a month, I’ll have a check-in post where you can report your progress. And at the end of the month, we’ll have a wrap-up post.
January is always a good time for me to try to create beneficial habits. Not only am I excited by the 30 x 30 challenge, I’m also really excited about Yoga with Adriene’s 30-day yoga journey, which I’ve been doing every year since 2019. If you do yoga, or are curious about doing yoga, I invite you to join me in that challenge as well!
I totally understand your research being de-prioritised (not ignored) in the time since your loss. I also have de-prioritised my research this year, I had a bout of COVID which took some time to get over, then I made the monumental decision to return to New Zealand from the UK where I had been living for 7 years, as such my research very much suffered.
I am definitely going to join the 30×30 challenge in January. I am hoping to make some progress on one of my brick walls, my Great Grandfather who doesn’t appear to have existed before he married in 1910! I have family stories, but nothing substantial or documented to try and track him prior to his marriage. It will be very challenging, but gives me something to really focus on during January.
I hope you succeed in your goals for the month.
Thank you for reframing that, Missy! I think de-prioritized is much kinder (and accurate) than ignore, in this case. I’m so sorry to hear about your COVID bout and I’m impressed that you were able to manage an international move after your illness! I hope going back to New Zealand is a wonderful move for you. I’m glad you’re joining the challenge! I hope it helps you get through that brick wall.
You are welcome, :).
Thank you for your kind comments. All is going well with the move so far, and I am hopeful that good things will come from it.
My fingers are crossed for getting through the brick wall, I will see how my research goes, and hopefully I will make some gains.
I plan to start on a narrrative of my husband’s direct line families in the new year, an a 30×30 challenge is a good way to get it moving. Thanks, Janine.
That sounds like an amazing project, Marian! Glad you’re joining the challenge.
But first I need to run my end-of-year backups!
Please tell me more! Are you talking about backing up your data or something else?
Probably as a hold-over obsession from my career in IT, I keep annual back-ups of my disk. I export Gedcom files from my Reunion files before I do the back-ups. They’re intended to rescue me if I (for example) prune off some remote branch of my tree and discover 2 years later that I should have kept some of that pruned data.
I’m not as wildly careless about pruning as that sounds–typically it’s just a branch that I’ve concluded does NOT belong to my family, but several years later another researcher gets in touch and asks what I know about that unrelated group of people.
I make the Gedcom files as a way of future-proofing my data. Are you old enough to remember when a new version of Word couldn’t read a Word document created 5 years before? It doesn’t seem to happen these days with Word, but it could happen with genealogy software, especially if the manufacturer of my software goes out of business and I have to choose another. Or if I have to switch to (horrors!) Windows, which doesn’t support Reunion.
Whatever genealogy software is available in the future will have a decent chance of being able to load my 2022 Gedcom file. I know that the Gedcom standard is changing, but I expect that software of the future will be able to load data from the old standard, because the new standard seems to be an expansion, rather than a replacement, of the old one.
Thank you for the explanation, Marian! That sounds like a great practice. I’m off to make a Gedcom file right now!
I’d like to participate in your 30 x 30 challenge for January. I plan to focus on getting through the pile of scanning sitting near my desk.
That’s great, Traci! A pile of scanning is such a great thing to work on a little at a time.
Sorry for your loss.
I would like to/need to get back to organizing too! I plan on working on pictures.
Terrific, Kathi! I hope the challenge is beneficial for you! And thanks for your condolences.
Thank you Janine, I too stopped my research. For me b3 abuse I got stuck between using Family Tree maker and Reunion. I am going to stick with Reunion and learn how to use if mor3 effectively, especially downloading g and saving media both from Ancestry and my own personal information and images.
Glad you’re joining the challenge, Julie! I think choosing one software will make your genealogy life easier. I’m biased but I think you made a good choice in Reunion!
My condolences on the loss of your father, Janine. I too have suffered a recent loss – my husband, Sam Saxon, passed away on Dec 9 after suddenly collapsing on Dec 6. It was very difficult to update my tree to reflect his passing.
I am looking forward to the January 30×30 to refocus on my research on both of our families – complete the renaming and reorganization of my digital files; going through my paper files to see what needs to be digitized, what needs to be tossed, etc.; and listening to my genealogy podcasts more regularly.
Oh, Cecile. Please accept my sincere sympathy on the passing of your husband. After my father died, many wise people urged me to give myself grace. And that’s my wish for you, too.
So glad you’re joining the challenge; I hope you find it helpful. Please be kind to yourself if 30 days in a row feels like too much.
I am so sorry to hear of your husband’s death. I wish you well with this challenge.
for awhile now. My memories, my adventures, my growing up. I’ve been reading my old diaries and thought that I’d put them all together in a ” Story of Me” for my kids. How I would have loved to have something like this about my mom and dads upbringing. I would like to write a memory a day. Let’s see how that goes.
Crystal, putting together a story of you for your children is an amazing idea!! A memory is a nice bite-sized task. Enjoy this project!
I plan on joinging the 30×30 Challenge; this sounds like a great project. My first priority is to digitize / organize documents and pictures I already have. My second priority is to work on the Find A Grave backlog – taking pictures of grave markers and uploading them to the F-G website.
I’m so glad you’re joining the challenge, Diane! I wish you the very best with your goals!
Hi Janine- My mom has been sick this year and I have been very distracted from my research. She’s doing much better now and so, I am planning to get back into the swing of things and 30×30 sounds like a great way to start. Thanks for sharing it and your story. Susan
Susan, I’m so glad your mother is feeling better! I hope you’re being kind to yourself. That kind of stress is so difficult. I’m so glad you’re joining the challenge!
I plan to clear emails, reorganise my education folder and create a workflow. I can then start a family line and review and sort, record all the records and information I have found
Terrific, Michaela! I’m sure the workflow you create will be very beneficial. Welcome to the challenge!
I am in for this challenge. It has been hit and miss over the past few months. To start with I have a few obits that I need to enter and than work on the 1950 census.
Yay, Jerry! I’m glad you’re joining the challenge. I hope you find it very helpful!
I send compassion to Janine and Cecile during your mourning times. A thank you to Missy. I appreciate your positive attitude towards life. Priorities are constantly shifting. Our de-prioritized passions become a breath of fresh air when revisited.
In 2019 I decided to begin anew my genealogy research. I’m a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR. My motivation was to focus on my paternal lineage. I shifted to my maternal lineage in fall of 2021. December 2021, we decided to build a new home. 2022 began strong, focused on my maternal lineage. Brickwalls, construction, and packing usurped my research. We moved in June. Unpacked and settled in.
Late August I elevated my research to priority status, motivated having received notice of two new DAR approved Patriots (total @5) and two pending, My de-prioritized period allowed me to pickup my research with fresh ideas. Since September, I’ve built or continue to work on five maternal lineage supplemental applications. I even finished a lingering paternal lineage supplemental. My DAR Chapter has a lineage research chair. I’ll have her review my collection of what I think are completed applications before submitting them to National.
I used past 30×30 Challenges. This is a great opportunity to join this challenge as I work on a couple possible maternal lineage Patriots.
Cheri, thanks for your kind comments. I’m so glad you’re joining the challenge. It’s great that you have such clear goals! I love how the DAR has allowed you to stay focused and jump right back into your research.
Awww… You are welcome. ☺️. I wish you all the best with your research and also Happy New Year.
Janine, my sympathies on the loss of your father. Getting back into a regular routine can be comforting. I’ll be joining you in both the genealogy 30-day challenge and in starting a yoga program. My plan for genealogy is to finish writing a report on my great-grandparents including documentation and photographs. Zenda
Thanks, Zenda. So glad you’re joining the 30 x 30 challenge AND the yoga journey!
This is my first time participating, but I’m looking forward to it! I’ve been away from my research for awhile (pre-COVID), so I’ll be using the time to reaquaint myself with everything and figure out where I want to go in the future.
Jenn, welcome to the challenge! I think visiting your research daily will be so helpful in getting you back into it. That time spent reaquainting yourself with your research is time well spent!
That’s what I’m hoping! Thanks for creating this challenge and hosting it!
You are more than welcome!!
I’m in!
My condolences to you, Janine, on the loss of your father. My mother passed away in November after a difficult year of declining health. My happier distraction in 2022 was the arrival of Lily, our first grandchild. All the way around, my brain was in a bit of a fog last year.
I’m feeling pretty scattered, so I’m not sure what I’ll focus on this month. I keep intending to work on the lines of enslaver ancestors and sorting out my relationships with DNA matches descended from enslaved ancestors. There’s also a brick wall 2nd great grandmother who somehow connects to a huge number of descendants of a pioneer Mormon ancestor—no clue how they connect!
Thanks for the nudge and encouragement and good luck to everyone this month.
Oh my goodness, your loss is so recent. Sending deep sympathies. What a wonderful distraction to your difficult year Lily must be!
Grief- and stress-induced brain fog is real. I’m so grateful to be coming out of it. I hope your genealogy research will come easily, though I definitely urge you to cut yourself some slack. I really couldn’t do any research for four months after my father’s passing. Welcome to the challenge!
Thank you, Janine. It’s all very recent and I’ll go slowly. I’m not going to put any pressure on myself. There are some projects that need less brain power than others.
And Lily is a total joy.
Thank you so much for putting this 30 x 30 challenge out there at the first of the year. I’ve been wanting to join one, but made excuses in the past, so Iʻm committing to this one. I will be scanning, updating my software, and starting a research log.
Sarah, I’m so glad you’re committing to this one! Daily action will be very satisfying, I bet. A bonus: Daily habits are the easiest habits to create, so maybe a month of daily logging your research will help your research log habit stick!
I’m in too! After spending a good portion of 2022 taking genealogical classes, I hit a bit of burn out, something I never expected with genealogy. I’m ready to get back to my own research and writing. I’ll finish writing up a research report on my 3rd great-grandmother which I started in November but never got back to it.
It’s good you took a break if you were burning out, Mary! I hope this month proves to be a productive and enjoyable one. Welcome to the challenge!
I need to revisit my files (paper and digital), update my trees, and make my research a bit more routine. There have been too many other projects that have gotten in the way of writing blogs too.
Those are great tasks for daily effort, Angie!