Search Results for: research log

My genealogy research plan for 2017

December 20, 2016 By Janine Adams 8 Comments

I’ve been giving some thoughts to the goals I want to set for my genealogy research for next year. I’m a big goal setter and I’ve written posts about my genealogy goals for 2013, 2014, and 2015. (I guess that I didn’t set any for 2016. I blame my puppy, Bix, who completely disrupted the 2015/2016 transition.)

I reviewed those posts this week and was struck by the fact that while I’m pretty good about setting genealogy goals, I’m pretty bad at achieving them.

So this year, I decided to keep it painfully simple. I’m setting only ~~three~~ four goals. And I’m narrowing my focus, in a big way.

I know that I do better with fewer options because I’m easily overwhelmed by choices. In 2014 I addressed that by coming up with a plan to focus on one family line per quarter.

In 2017, I’ve decided to take this a step further and focus on a single family line the whole year. 2017 is going be the year of the Adams family. This feels big to me–simultaneously exciting and weirdly scary. But I feel if I keep my focus on the Adams family (starting by finishing the transcribing and abstracting George Washington Adams’ giant pension file), I will stay more focused and dig deeper. I’m a little concerned it might get boring, but I don’t think so.

You can bet that I’ll let you guys know how it goes.

The ~~three~~ four goals I’ve set (in concert with limiting my focus) are:

Research at least five days a week
Take at least one research trip
Attend at least two genealogy conferences, to avoid tunnel vision and keep me sharp. (One of those will be RootsTech, since I’m speaking there. I haven’t yet determined the other(s).)
Create a habit of logging each research session. (I added this goal after my ruminations on December 27 that led to this post.)

How about you? Do you set goals for your genealogy research? If so, do you care to share them?

10 Secrets to Organizing Your Genealogy Research

Do you feel overwhelmed when it comes to organizing your research? Do you have piles waiting to be filed? Documents scattered all over your hard drive? Do your organizing systems tend to fall into disarray? That’s stressful, and genealogy research is supposed to be fun! Get your genealogy life in order and you’ll enjoy your genealogy research more.

Over the last 15 years as a professional organizer I have helped hundreds of clients get organized. I’ve gleaned organizing truths that apply to all aspects of our lives, including our genealogy research. With this Orderly Roots guide, updated in 2020, I let you in on those secrets.

This guide includes information to help you:

Make it easy to find documents you’ve filed
Let organizing be easy, not a burden
Deal with your backlog
Discover helpful technology

There’s no perfect organizing system, just the one that works for you. This Orderly Roots guide can help you create that system.

10 pages. $8.99

When do you do your genealogy research?

February 24, 2015 By Janine Adams 8 Comments

I love doing genealogy research. I just have a hard time finding the time to do it. When I was at RootsTech two weeks ago, I was immersed in genealogy talk for three days and it was divine. Trouble is, I went from there to visit family members with health issues and was immediately immersed in that. I’m back home now, but have been booked solid with organizing clients. So I have yet to do any research, despite my getting all jazzed up in Salt Lake City.

I realize that the time to do genealogy research is not going to just present itself. I need to set aside time in my busy schedule to do it. I think I’ll set a goal of doing research at least once a week. That feels realistic. Given my work schedule of late, working on family history on a weekend is probably going to be easiest.

I’ve learned through my blogging that if I want to get something done, I should do it first thing in the morning. So I think that for the next month or so I’m going to try hard to do family history research (for as long a period of time as I’m able) first thing on Saturday mornings. If I’m seeing a client on Saturday (which is fairly often the case), I’ll shift to Sunday. It’s rare that I have both Saturday and Sunday clients.

Maybe you can help me. When do you do your genealogy research? Do you schedule it or does it just happen when you feel like it? I’d love to learn from your experience!

Two new-to-me resources: Power Your Genealogy Research with Technology Flipboard Magazine & 4YourFamilyStory.com

February 20, 2014 By Janine Adams 2 Comments

flipboardmagazine Today for some reason I googled “Flipboard for genealogy.” Flipboard is the iPad app that creates beautiful magazines on your iPad (or other tablet, I believe). I don’t really have my mind wrapped around it completely (and when I do, I’ll write about it here, I promise), but the top hit in my google search was Power Your Genealogy Research with Technology, a Flipboard Magazine put together by Caroline Pointer. It pulls together various articles and blog posts related to genealogy. Flipboard is a really enjoyable way to experience the web. You can access it from your mobile device on the Flipboard app, but you can also access it on your computer via the web.

One frequent source of information on the magazine was 4YourFamilyStory.com. Each day, 4YourFamilyStory.com’s blog creates a list of X number of genealogy things you need to know this morning (might be six, might be seven, whatever that day brings).

The listings include what’s added to various online databases that day and links to interesting genealogy-related articles. Everything is timely and clearly presented. I really feel like I’ve stumbled upon a treasure trove!

The discovery of these two new-to-me resources will prove to be valuable when I’m trying to think about what to write about and what to research. I thought you might enjoy learning about them too.