Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Do you use Ancestry Academy?

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Ancestry has always been my go-to resource for genealogy research. I think I’ve had a subscription for more than a decade and, for me, the annual subscription fee (currently $189) is well worth it.

When I first subscribed, I explored the courses at Ancestry Academy but wasn’t willing to pay extra to take the classes. But earlier this year I learned that the Ancestry Academy courses are now included in the subscription.

It took me awhile but today, I finally checked it out. I was really impressed with the variety of topics addressed in these video lessons, as well as the variety of lengths. You can watch a five-minute video or take a one-hour video lesson (or something in between).

I’m curious whether any of my readers have tried it and what you thought! If you have any particular classes you thought were great, I’d love to hear about them!

On Thanksgiving, we’re creating history for our descendants

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Two years ago, I wrote this Thanksgiving post. I ran it again last year and now I’ve decided to make it an annual tradition. Enjoy!

This Thanksgiving week, I’ve been thinking about how the ordinary lives of my ancestors are endlessly fascinating to me. As I slowly plow through my great great grandfather’s Civil War pension file, I get very excited when I come to a form he filled out 125 years ago that has a little extra information in it (like the names and birth dates of his children). Any peek into what his life was like is a special treat.

It got me thinking about how mundane aspects of our lives today might be really interesting 100 years from now to the people below us on the family tree.

Of course, we fill out fewer paper forms now. And genealogy will probably look very different in the twenty-second century. But I think photos and records will always be valuable.

This year, as we celebrate Thanksgiving (or really just go about our lives), we have the opportunity to create history for our descendants. We can be mindful of our legacy as we’re taking pictures. We can take care to label them (or add metadata to digital photos) so future generations know who the people in the photos are. We can do oral history interviews and carefully preserve them with labels for future generations.

If you have older relatives around your Thanksgiving table, I urge you to ask questions and preserve those conversations for generations to come (as well as for your own genealogy research). I sure wish I had. Wouldn’t it be great to put your hands on a recorded interview with one of your ancestors? You could be the person making that possible for your descendants.

Thanks to smartphone technology, it’s so easy for us to record conversations and take videos. Let’s do that while we can and mindfully tag and back up those recordings. (And hope that the medium will still be readable decades from now.)

As much as I urge my organizing clients to part with paper or other items that don’t serve any purpose any longer, I do sometimes encourage them to hang on to documents or photographs that might be of interest to their descendants. I encourage you to be mindful of that and store those items that so that they might be passed on to family-history-minded descendants when you pass.

Remember: Every day we have the opportunity to create history.

Photo by Robert and Pat Rogers via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

A special gift for a genealogy lover

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I’m not a big gift giver and I when I do give gifts, I prefer to give experiences, rather than stuff. (I see how hard it is for my clients to let go of items that were gifts and I don’t want to burden anyone with that.)

But I dearly love one piece of jewelry that I bought myself as a gift. It’s the Original Family Tree Necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs. She creates custom, hand-stamped jewelry. This necklace is meant for moms, I think, to include the first names of their children. But I chose to have my grandparents’ surnames printed on the necklace.

I think it’s pretty and when I wear it, I feel connected to my family. If you ever see me at a genealogy conference, you’ll probably see it hanging around my neck.

As the gift-giving season approaches, I thought I’d mention it now in case you have a genealogy lover on your gift list. It also makes a good gift to give yourself!

When I bought mine (pictured here), it was being offered in pewter. Now it’s in sterling silver (and therefore more expensive). Lisa Leonard offers discounts all the time. In fact as I write this, there’s a 30 percent discount available, which brings the price down to $90 for the shorter chains. I love mine so much I just had to share!

Just say no to “should”

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It’s natural to ask about questions about organizing (your genealogy or anything else) that start with the word “should.” Should I organize my documents this way or that way? Should I store things here or there? Should I focus on this or that?

When I try to answer a question that starts with should, the answer is almost always, “It depends.” Because it’s all about what will work for you.

I encourage my clients (and anyone else who will listen to me) to let go of the word should. And to also let go of asking questions that start with, “What’s the right way to…” or What’s the best way to….”

Because here’s the thing: I can’t tell you what you should do. Only you know what’s right for you. It can be much more beneficial to think in terms of what you’d like to do, or what you think will work best for you, rather than what you should do. Especially when it comes to organizing your genealogy research, the thing you should do (in my opinion) is the thing that works well for you and that you can keep up.

For example:

  • Maybe you’ve always heard that you should store your paper documents in binders, but you have trouble keeping up with that. Let go of that should and consider using file folders or scanning your documents.
  • Maybe you think you should print every document for the sake of posterity but you’re overrun with unfiled paper. You can let go of that should, particularly if your electronic documents are already organized.
  • Conversely, maybe you’ve heard you should scan every bit of paper and store files electronically, but you’re overwhelmed by the prospect. Bye bye, should. You can let your paper files be sufficient. Or just start storing new files electronically and leaving your papers unscanned.
  • Maybe you’re told you should keep a research log, but you just can’t get yourself to do it. A research log can be hugely beneficial. But don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have one just because you think you should.

In other words, set yourself up for success and do what works for you. Decide what your priorities are (accessibility for you, accessibility for others, ease of use, etc.) and focus your organizing systems on those priorities. Don’t do something just because someone told you you should if it doesn’t seem like it will work for you.

All that said, there are some genealogy shoulds that I think you should pay attention to:

  • You should cite your sources so you can find them again and know where your facts came from (but you don’t have to cite them perfectly if that’s getting in the way of citing them at all).
  • You should back up your electronic data in case of a crash. (I use an external hard drive and automated cloud storage.)

Genealogy is supposed to be fun. Don’t let the shoulds drag you down. Make your own choices and own them. And keep yourself open to new ways of doing things. (See what I did there? I told you all sorts of things I think you should do, without using that word. Take what works for you and let go of the rest.)

[I initially published this post on May 17, 2016 with a different title. I came across it on my blog recently and liked the message so much I wanted to share it again for newer readers.]

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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.