Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Making good use of my time at the Family History Library

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An aisle of microfilm at the Family History Library

I leave for Salt Lake City on Wednesday, to attend the RootsTech conference. I arrive noonish and have decided to spend the afternoon and early evening at the Family History Library. I’m finding myself wishing I’d opted to go a day early to research, but I didn’t, so I’m trying to make good use of the fairly narrow window of time at the library.

I’m really fortunate because professional genealogist and Organize Your Family History reader Maria Tello has offered to meet me at the library and get me oriented and off to the right start. Thank you, Maria!

I’m looking to keep myself focused on one nuclear family; I have some questions I’d like to get answered. But I don’t want to have such tunnel vision that I might miss out on opportunities to learn about other families.

I’m wondering if any of my readers have any advice for me. I bet I’ll be there five hours or so. I’ll have my laptop. Is there anything you think I should bring along? Anything at the library that is not to be missed? Any pitfalls to try to avoid? I’ve been there once before, when I attended RootsTech in 2014. I remember being unfocused and overwhelmed and hope it will be different this time!

Also, if you’re attending RootsTech and would like to meet up, please comment here or send me a note from the Contact page. I’ve always had such a great time meeting readers!

A final note: Tuesday I’ll be posting my next installment of my How They Do It series. Keep an eye out!

RootsTech’s livestream schedule

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RootsTech has announced its schedule of sessions being streamed from next week’s conference. If you can’t make it to Salt Lake City, you can at least watch some of the keynotes and breakout sessions. (Alas, my session on Friday morning, Go Paperless: Digitize & Streamline Your Research, isn’t one of them.)

Here’s the schedule. The sessions will be streamed live on the RootsTech homepage and then afterward recordings will be posted on the website for a limited time.

Visit the Sessions page on the RootsTech website for descriptions of each of these sessions.

Wednesday, February 8

9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | Innovator Summit General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Liz Wiseman

10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m. | Industry Trends and Outlook
Speakers: Craig Bott and Guest Panel

11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Innovation—Best Practices and Applications
Speaker: Cydni Tetro

Thursday, February 9

8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Jonathan and Drew Scott

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Getting Started in Genealogy
Speaker: Kelli Bergheimer

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | DNA: The Glue That Holds Families Together
Speaker: Diahan Southard

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | DNA Matching on MyHeritage
Speaker: Dana Drutman

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Jewish Genealogy: Where to Look and What’s Available
Speaker: Lara Diamond

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Family History Is Anything but Boring
Speakers: Crystal Farish and Rhonna Farrer

Friday, February 10

8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Levar Burton, Special Guest Panel

10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. | RootsTech Innovator Showdown Finals

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | Mothers, Daughters, Wives: tracing Female Lines
Speaker: Judy Russell

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Censational Census Strategies
Speaker: Mary Kircher Roddy

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Big 4: Comparing Ancestry, findmypast, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage
Speaker: Sunny Morton

4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. | Cross the Atlantic with Religious Records
Speaker: Jen Baldwin

Saturday, February 11

8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Cece Moore, Buddy Valastro

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Journaling Principles That Work
Speaker: Steve Reed

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. | Don’t Just Be a Searcher, Be a Researcher
Speaker: Crista Cowan

3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. | Creating Google Alerts for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Katherine R. Wilson

That’s a lot of free information! I hope you can take advantage of it.

Please weigh in on your biggest organizing challenges

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On December 1, 2015, I published a poll here asking you what your biggest challenges are with regard to organizing your genealogy research. As readership has changed, I’m curious whether the answers remain the same. So I created another poll. It’s almost identical to the last one, I just added a couple of choices.

Please take a moment to weigh in. If you completed the last poll, please feel free to do it again–I’ve closed the last poll and I’m interested in comparing the two results. So repeat answers are welcome! As are multiple answers–select as many of the choices as apply to you.

Thank you!

Using a calendar to introduce variety in your research

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Over on the Genealogy Research Loggers Facebook group, member Laura Aanenson posted her 2017 research plan and the brilliant method she uses to select the ancestor to research each session. I thought it was a such a great idea I asked her permission to write about it here.

She uses Family Tree Maker software that has a calendar function. Each day the calendar shows her the names of the ancestors who were born, died or married that day. Each session, she focuses on the ancestors that are listed that day, filling in blanks, answering questions and carefully logging her research, including her observations and further areas for investigation.

Laura wrote, “I find if I concentrate on just one branch of my tree, the others get neglected and I miss opportunities to connect with prospective cousins. My calendar-based log helps me turn nearly every leaf in my tree several times a year and move everyone at least one step forward.”

I find myself really excited by the idea, despite the fact that my 2017 research plan has me focusing me on a single line all year (and so far this year, I’ve just been working on one couple). I’m enjoying the focus, so I’m going to stick with it. But what I love about Laura’s method is the unpredictability of which ancestor will be researched each session. I think that makes everything more fun and exciting!

I imagine many family tree software programs have the calendar function. I checked Reunion, the software I use, and there is a calendar function I could use for this purpose, though it’s a little clunkier than what Laura is describing.

Feel free to join us at Genealogy Research Loggers if you’d like to learn other great ideas like these!