Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Now what?

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Where next?

When I initially dipped my toe into the enticing pool of family history research, I just started clicking backward on familysearch.org. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was able to create over 120 pages of handwritten four-generaton Ancestry Charts.

I don’t know which data on these charts are correct. I’m sure there are mistakes, since I took what I read at face value and have very little in the way of verification, beyond some census forms I found. Rookie mistake, I know.

So now I’m trying to figure out where to go from here. When I think about sitting down and doing family history research, I feel overwhelmed. I have so many names on my charts. Where do I begin?

Some options

These are some of the options that occur to me. (Almost all the ancestors I know about were born in the United States.)

  • Try to find as many people as I can on censuses, starting with Chart 1 and moving forward (or back, as it were).
  • Study a period of time or an event and track my ancestors in it. For example, I could try to trace the involvement of all the ancestors I know about in the Civil War
  • Hone in on one particular line and learn as much about it as I can
  • Try to connect with relatives in discussion forums
  • Come up with some mysteries (I’m sure there are plenty to choose from) and try to solve them
  • Choose some software and transcribe all the handwritten data into it

I’ll keep you posted as I figure out what course of action to take. And, of course, I’m open to any advice anyone might have!

My quest to learn more about my family history

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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.

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.