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Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #13: Create follow-up notebooks to stay focused

January 22, 2021 By Janine Adams 8 Comments

Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This one has saved me from going down a rabbit hole many times.

Create follow-up notebooks to stay focused

I love playing detective, which is probably why I love genealogy research. So when I’m looking for information online it’s really hard to resist exploring every clue or idea that comes my way in the course of a research session. But if I do follow every lead, I often end up far away from where I intended to go.

That’s where follow-up notebooks come in. I have created follow-up notebooks by surname in Evernote. (This could certainly be accomplished in other platforms, in a tab in a spreadsheet, or on paper.) When I come across a clue or resource that has no bearing on the research question at hand, I just make a new note in the appropriate follow-up notebook. Later, when I’m researching that surname, the note is waiting for me. I don’t have to worry about forgetting it!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Filed Under: Challenges, Genealogy tips Tagged With: Evernote, focus, organizing aids, quick tips

Comments

  1. Jean VanLeeuwen says

    January 22, 2021 at 9:43 am

    What a simple, but helpful idea!! You must have been looking over my shoulder yesterday when, as I was searching for information on one ancestor, I came across some possible clues for another. I wasted so much time trying to figure out where to put this obscure information so I could locate it again at a later date. Thanks for the “quick tip”.

    Reply
    • Janine Adams says

      January 22, 2021 at 10:13 am

      So glad my tip was helpful and timely, Jean! Thanks for commenting. Your comment made my day.

      Reply
  2. Annick H. says

    January 22, 2021 at 12:00 pm

    I have a OneNote folder for each known ancestor name. In each I have a page that I call OTHER by that same name. I stuff things I find in there on yet unrelated people. I have been able to complete fratries and find new generations thanks to these nuggets waiting to be put in the right places.

    Reply
    • Janine Adams says

      January 22, 2021 at 4:01 pm

      That’s a great idea, Annick! Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
  3. BookerTalk says

    January 22, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    A great idea and much better than the ‘system’ I use which is to create an email and send it to myself and then move into an email folder. Which I always forget to look at 🙂

    Reply
    • Janine Adams says

      January 22, 2021 at 4:01 pm

      Yeah, email folders are really hard to remember to look at! Glad you found this helpful.

      Reply
  4. Kay Arnold says

    January 22, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    Great idea. My Ancestral Quest db uses s Research Manager that should work for this – I just have to use it and remember to keep checking it.

    Reply
    • Janine Adams says

      January 22, 2021 at 4:02 pm

      I can never remember what I stored in my follow-up folders, so it’s kind of like Christmas when I do take a look!

      Reply

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about me

I'm Janine Adams, a professional organizer and a genealogy enthusiast. I love doing family history research, but I find it's very easy for me to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn next. So I'm working hard to stay organized and feel in control as I grow my family tree.

In this blog, I share my discoveries and explorations, along with my organizing challenges (and solutions). I hope by sharing what I learn along the way I'll be able to help you stay focused and have fun while you do your research, too.

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