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Time for January 30 x 30 check in!

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It’s almost the middle of our January 30 x 30 challenge. For those of you who signed up, how is it going? Are you managing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or organizing or scanning or whatever it is you set out to do)?

My challenge was made a little extra challenging by travel. I was in Walla Walla, Washington, visiting my dad from January 3 to 12.  I’m happy to say that I did manage to research every day, but one of those days barely counts. The day I traveled home (a 12-hour journey by car and plane) I thought I’d get research done on the plane, but when I started working I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind. So the ten minutes I put in was barely productive. I give myself credit for at least trying, but execution was not impressive.

One thing that’s helped me get back on track is that yesterday, back at my desk, I decided to pull out my 2nd great grandfather’s Civil War pension file, which I’d received way back in 2015. At the NGS conference that year, I heard Julie Miller talk about these files: what they contain and how to process them. I immediately requested the complete pension files for my three Union veteran ancestors from the National Archives. I’ve already processed the other two but had not focused on the file of Benjamin Franklin Igleheart. Since I’ve turned my attention to the Igleheart line, this is a natural thing for me to work on.

Once I pulled it out of the file (I haven’t yet scanned it), I saw that I’d started by putting the pages in chronological order and created a source citation for the whole pension file. The next step is to create a source citation for each individual document, print the citation on a label and affix the label to the paper document before scanning the whole document. After it’s scanned, I’ll start transcribing it. Yesterday I spent 45 minutes creating the citations and their labels and got through about eleven documents before having to move on to something else. For the near future, this will be the project I’ll be working every day.

I’d forgotten how great it was to have a project like this that I can break down into tiny bites. I love knowing exactly what I’m going to be working on and I love that there are lots of little milestones in this giant project so I can celebrate my progress.

Enough about me. I hope your challenge is going well and I look forward to hearing about it in the comments!

October 30 x 30 wrap up: How’d it go?

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It’s last day of October. (October felt very long to me!) For those of you who participated in the 30 x 30 challenge in which you committed to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research for 30 days in a row (or some variation, at your discretion), I’d love to hear how the challenge went for you!

As I mentioned in my mid-month update, I had a blockbuster first half of the month. The only day I failed to research in the first 26 days of the challenge was (ironically enough) the day I posted that update. I had two trips in October, one to Walla Walla to visit my dad for a week followed shortly by a five-day trip to New York City to pal around with my college buddies (which was heaven). I managed daily research all the way to my penultimate day in New York, which was October 26. But when I got home after so much travel I had to hit the ground running with appointments and other obligations for my organizing business. So I’m ending the month with a whimper.

But I’m very proud that I researched 25 out of the first 26 days of the month. I love how daily research keeps me connected with my ancestors and my research.

In November I’ll be working every day on my novel for National Novel Writing Month, so I’m thinking I won’t get a lot of genealogy research done. Maybe I’ll surprise myself. I think I’ll start another 30 x 30 challenge in January. I hope you’ll join me!

In the meantime, please report in, if you’d like!

October 30 x 30 mid-month check in

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It’s October 15 already and we’re halfway through the current 30 x 30 challenge. How’s it going? Please let everyone know in the comments.

I am  happy to report that I have not missed a day! I did so poorly in the August challenge that this month I was bound and determined to succeed in the challenge. So I made genealogy research a true priority. Mostly, I accomplished this by researching first thing in the morning. Most days I set a timer and researched for the full 30 minutes. Some days I went a little longer and some days a little shorter.

I am traveling now, visiting my dad in Walla Walla, Washington. I have still been able to keep up with the research, which is great. Mostly I’ve been processing the documents that I found in my June research trip to Kentucky. I’m almost finished with those. But I’ve also added to my backlog this month, so my initial goal of eliminating the backlog has gone by the wayside. But I’m still happy with my performance on the challenge.

One nice, motivating factor has been the opportunity to discuss family history with my 89-year-old dad. He did some reminiscing about his childhood and I was able to fill him in on some details of his grandparents’ and great grandparents’ lives. He really enjoyed that, as did I.  That’s been keeping me going with my 30 minutes of daily research each day while I’m here!

How about you? If you signed on for the challenge, how’s it going?

August 30 x 30 wrap up

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It’s the end of another 30-day challenge. About 30 of you signed on in the comments and maybe others took it on without commenting. How’d it go?

These challenges are so valuable for me because they elevate genealogy research on my priority list. Some months, I’m able to do 30 minutes of research all 30 days. Other months, I’m not so lucky. Unfortunately, this was one of the latter months. I did pretty well the first half of the month. But the second half of the month went cattywampus for me because of a perfect storm of injury (I tripped on the sidewalk in front of the post office and scraped myself up pretty well) + oral surgery + one outrageously busy week leading organizing teams that, unfortunately, immediately followed the oral surgery. This last week of the month, though, has been much more calm and comfortable and I have researched every day, except Tuesday. On Tuesday, I just plain forgot.

I’m still processing all the documents/photos from my June Kentucky research trip. But little by little, I’m getting through them. I think I’m going to have another 30 x 30 challenge in October because I’ll certainly need one.

So with my true confessions over, it’s now your turn. How’d the month go? Did you get in as much research/organization as you hoped? Was the challenge helpful? Please let everyone know in the comments!