Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

How you can profit from daily research

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I’m planning to start a new 30 x 30 challenge on January 1. I’ve been doing these challenges periodically for eight years and they’ve been helpful to many people (including me). Come January 1, I’ll be asking you to commit to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or genealogy organizing, or really anything you want to commit to) for 30 days in a row. What’s the value of the commitment? If you’ve done a 30 x 30 challenge already, you probably know. But if you haven’t, you might be inspired this post, which I originally wrote on November 3, 2017. Watch for an introductory post to the challenge on New Year’s Day!

The benefits of dailiy genealogy researchI know some of you work on genealogy research every day. But I think the majority of folks are like I once was. I’d wait until I had a free day or half day on the weekend before I’d do any research. And sometimes when that day finally came I’d be paralyzed with all the choices of things to research and very slow to start. Very occasionally, I wouldn’t get anything done because I couldn’t decide!

This year, I’ve been trying hard to research daily. As I mentioned in this introducing a new 30 x 30 challenge, I haven’t missed a day since August 1. That feels great.

It got me thinking about some of the advantages to short, frequent research sessions over long, infrequent ones. Here’s what I came up with.

  1. I’m more connected with my ancestors. Because I’m thinking about them every single day, I don’t have to review everything in order to get started.
  2. I forget less. In addition to researching daily I’m also keeping a very informal research log in Evernote that helps me stay on top of what I’ve researched.
  3. I keep a “next steps” list in my  research log so I know exactly what to work on when I sit down to research in the morning. Overwhelm and paralysis is a thing of the past!
  4. I stay focused. I don’t have the luxury of going down rabbit holes when my timer is going and I know I’ll have to stop before long. This does a great job of keeping me focused. When I’m tempted to get distracted, I just add the bright shiny object to my genealogy task list.
  5. I’ve created a habit! Doing 30 minutes of genealogy research is a great way to start the day. It used to be I’d forget to research. No more. It’s part of my routine and I love it.
  6. It’s easier for me to find 30 minutes a day (3.5 hours a week) than a weekly half day or biweekly full day to research. Taking a whole weekend once a month feels pretty much impossible. I still love having longer sessions–it’s truly a special day when I spend the whole day researching. (Thankfully, I have had a few of those this year.) But daily research means that researching is getting done without my feeling like I’m sacrificing other things.

I really do enjoy longer sessions and I consider those a bonus. This year’s daily research, which is usually a minimum of 30 minutes, means that 2017 will be my most productive year yet when it comes to family history research. And from a time perspective, it’s been really easy!

 

Get Legacy Family Tree Webinars membership for half price

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If you act quickly, you can purchase a one-year membership to Legacy Family Tree Webinars for only $24.98. The offer is for new members only at it expires on December 17, 2023.

The membership gives you unlimited access for one year to Legacy Family Trees archive of recorded webinars. The speakers list is like a who’s who of the genealogy world.

There are over 2,000 webinars in the library and there are eight upcoming live webinars between now and the end of January. (Some of those webinars are available free of charge to watch live.)

I have had this membership in the past and found the information presented to be terrific. It’s a really economical way to hone your genealogy skills from home.

 

Should you hang on to paper documents after scanning them?

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Very little paper comes into my genealogy life since do almost all my research online. But in 2022 I cleaned out my parents’ home (they have both passed away) as well as my aunt’s (she’s in a nursing home) so I have some paper to think about. I wrote about this last year and in reviewing that post, I thought it valuable enough to run again. My feelings on the matter have not changed in the intervening year and a half!

I do most of my research online, so this hasn’t come up a lot. But this week I’m going through documents that had lived in my parents’ home and my aunt’s home and some of them are original vital records. I did my first group of ten a couple of days ago and scanned and processed them. And then I had to decide what to do with the originals.

This morning I went through the little stack one by one and followed my gut about those I wanted to file into the paper files I have left over from before I processed everything digitally and those I would feel comfortable discarding.

In truth, I could discard any of them, since I’ve captured the images. But my gut tells me to hang on to those documents that have original writing or signatures. An example is my parents’ marriage certificate, shown above. They were married by father’s uncle and I think he filled out the form. I don’t have a good, logical reason for this decision. It just feels right because these documents feel special. I have the space in my file cart and the files are already created, so it will be a simple matter to file them. If I have to create a new file folder label and put it on a folder to file something, I might feel like more trouble than it’s worth.

This is a matter of personal preference and I understand that my preferences might change. (And you may have a completely different preference.) If I end up with a lot more and it feels too laborious, I may revisit this criterion!

My gift of gratitude: 25% discount on Orderly Roots

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Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and on my long list of things to be grateful for is you, my Organize Your Family History community. I’ve been writing this blog for a dozen years and I am so grateful for its wonderful readers.

As an expression of gratitude, I’m offering 25% off my Orderly Roots Bundle. It’s normally $39.99 but if you use the promo code THANKS, you’ll get $10 off until Sunday, November 26, 2023 at midnight central time.

If you subscribe to my mailing list, you should have received an email at noon central with this offer.

Thank you for reading, commenting, and supporting Organize Your Family History! I hope you have a wonderful time with your family history research this weekend!