Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Feeding my genealogy conference addiction

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I just love going to genealogy conferences. I try to go to one or more a year. This morning, I signed up for the Missouri State Genealogical Association’s conference August 4 and 5 in Columbia, Missouri. The theme is “Show Me the Way Around the Brick Wall.” Who isn’t interested in that? I have roots in Missouri going back to the mid-19th century, so I’m excited to learn more about Missouri resources.

I’ve never been to this particular conference before and I’m really excited. It’ll be about a two-hour drive for me and I’ll spend Friday night at the conference hotel. I love a genealogy getaway!

Why do I love genealogy conferences so much? For starters:

  • They allow me to set aside time away from home to focus on my genealogy research without distraction.
  • The learning! When the topics align with my research interests, I’m in heaven. And with this conference, they certainly do.
  • I get to meet genealogy enthusiasts like myself.
  • I often get to meet readers of this blog. Sometimes they become friends!
  • Conferences give me lots of ideas of things to blog about.
  • I often learn of new resources in the exhibition hall.

This will be my second conference this year. The first was RootsTech.

Do you go to genealogy conferences? What’s your favorite aspect? If you happen to be planning to attend the MoSGA conference, please let me know in the comments and we can meet up!

Have documents to scan? Join the Family Curator’s Scan Along!

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I was so delighted to get an email from Denise Levenick of The Family Curator about her Genealogy Scan Along, starting tomorrow. Denise is scanning her own old family photos with the intention of creating a family history photo book. And she wants you to join her!

Each week for four weeks, beginning Wednesday, June 21, she’ll post a tutorial and instructions for creating a family history photo book step-by-step using the techniques in her book How to Archive Family Photos.

I think this is a brilliant idea. I’m a huge fan of accountability and working alongside people who are working on their own projects (whether in-person or virtually). I’ve joined knit alongs in the path. And right now I’m part of a little group on Facebook doing a 30-day plank challenge together.

If you have photos you’d like to scan and especially if you’d like to create a photo book through a service like Shutterfly, now’s your chance! I think this is an amazing opportunity to actually get it done. And you get expert advice while you’re at it!

You can get more details (including about the Scan Along Facebook group and sign up on the Genealogy Scan Along page. Have fun!

How’s the 30 x 30 challenge going?

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For those of you who are participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, in which we’re trying to do 30 minutes of genealogy research every day for 30 days, please report in! Are you able to research every day? Or most days anyway? Have you found it to be beneficial?

This has been an especially good challenge month for me. I’ve been to carve out time first thing in the morning most mornings. I think it helps that it gets light so early, so it’s easy to get extra early to make time for research. So far, I haven’t missed a day. My timer has been really helpful, so that I don’t get lost in the research.

In addition to researching for 30 minutes, I challenged myself to log my research daily and note next steps at the end of each session. That has been hugely helpful, because each morning I turn to the previous day’s entry and I know what to work on.

Primarily I’ve been transcribing my great great grandfather’s Civil War pension file this month, but I have taken a few forays into investigating his son and granddaughter (the brother and niece of my great grandfather) to fill in some blanks in my ancestor’s timeline. The light is shining at the end of the tunnel: So far I’ve transcribed 106 of the pension file’s 138 documents. I’d love to be able to finish the transcription project in June. (I’ve transcribed 16 documents in June so far.) We shall see if that’s possible.

I love starting the day with genealogy research. I’m growing to love my (very informal) research log. And I’m feeling really connected with the research, which makes it easier to get started.

I hope those of you who said you were up to the challenge are seeing similar benefits! Even if you’re not managing to research daily, I think keeping it top of mind with the challenge can be very helpful. I’d love to hear about your experiences!

It’s my 5th blogiversary!

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I published the first Organize Your Family History post on June 14, 2012. I can’t believe it’s already been five years. In past blogiversary posts, I’ve cited some statistics about the blog but I figure that that has to be pretty boring to anybody but me. (I’m still tracking the data in a spreadsheet, so feel free to email me if you would like to know stats about numbers of posts, comments, and pageviews.)

I will say that the blog readership continues to grow and I’m on track to hit 150,000 pageviews in 2017, which is about 50 percent more than 2015 & 2016. I’m really thrilled about. that Comments are up, too–thank you so much to all of you who comment. I really enjoy the interaction.

Instead of spouting statistics on this blogiversary post, I thought I’d write a little about how I’ve evolved as a genealogy researcher over the last five years. The great thing about having a blog is that your history is at your disposal. So here’s my evolution as a genealogist over the last five years, as documented on this blog:

  • I’m almost completely paperless. On August 12, 2012, I wrote, “I’m a paper person. I know I could (and perhaps should) save documents, like census images, as pdfs and just organize them on my computer. But I really like printing them out and keeping them in files. So that’s what I do.” Wow. Nowadays I almost never print anything out and the documents are beautifully organized on my computer. I’ve developed an awesome digital workflow that works really well for me. And I’ve even coauthored (with scanning guru Brooks Duncan) The Paperless Genealogy Guide. What a difference five years makes.
  • I now understand that researching away from my desk can be really beneficial. Five years ago, all my research was done online, from my desk. And that was great. But now I’ve gone on some great research trips, both library trips and cemetery trips. (I need to start doing courthouse trips!) They enhance my research so much. Trips that take me to where my ancestors lived make me feel closer to them. I can’t wait to go on my next one.
  • I’m finally keeping a research log. In 2012 I wrote about keeping a research log. I had the best of intentions, but it didn’t stick. At least once a year, I would resolve to try again. And I would fail. At the end of 2016, I set a goal of creating a genealogy research log habit in 2017 and I set up a Facebook group for those who also want to create the habit, Genealogy Research Loggers. (Feel free to join us; it’s a pretty quiet group.) I’m proud to say that almost halfway through the year, the habit feels engrained. Part of my success is the simplicity of the log I keep. But it’s doing its job of keeping me focused and helping me remember what I’ve researched and where I am in my research. It’s very rewarding.
  • I’m researching more frequently. Thanks to the 30 x 30 challenges I started in 2015 (in which I challenge myself and my readers to do 30 minutes of genealogy research each day for 30 days), I’m getting a lot more research done. And since I have a research log in which I write next steps, I don’t have the barrier of deciding what to work on when I sit down to start a research session. The result is more frequent researching, though the sessions may be shorter. It keeps my head in the game and keeps genealogy top of mind.
  • I’m more focused. One of the challenges I find with genealogy research is that as the family tree grows, there are so many opportunities to explore new things (or shiny objects). At the beginning of 2014, I created a scheme in which I would focus on one family line (that is the ancestors of one grandparent) each quarter. That helped me maintain some focus. In 2017, I decided I would spend the whole year focused on one line, my paternal grandfather’s line. I imagine that might sound boring to some, but I love it! It happens that my grandfather’s grandfather has a Civil War pension file that is rich with information and offers lots of clues to explore. (I’m making progress on transcribing that pension file…I’m on document 107 of 138.)  I’m not the least bored with limiting my research to this one family line this year. I love the focus.
  • I went from a conference attendee to a conference speaker! I love conferences, especially genealogy conferences. Since 2013, I’ve been to a dozen genealogy conferences, ranging from smaller local or regional conferences to RootsTech, which draws some 10,000 to 20,000 attendees. This year I was thrilled to be a presenter at RootsTech. I co-presented, with Brooks Duncan (my Paperless Genealogy Guide co-writer), a session called Go Paperless: Streamline and Digitize Your Research. I’d like to speak at other genealogy conferences in coming years. (Feel free to suggest topics you think would be good to hear from me!)

Bloggers are really fortunate in that reading blog archives can bring to mind long-forgotten memories. I’ve enjoyed putting together this post to remind me how far I’ve come in the last five years. I want to thank you for reading the blog and give thanks those of you who comment and especially those I’ve met in person. This blog has enhanced my life and I’m very grateful!

Join the mailing list!

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.