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Quick Tip #11: Process each document as you download it

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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. When I don’t do what I suggest in this tip, I always regret it!

Process each document as you download it

I am always battling a backlog of documents I’ve downloaded that need to be processed. By “processed” I mean creating a source citation, going through the document and gleaning facts and adding them to my Reunion database, with each fact sharing a source citation. (I describe how I process a document in this post.)

I love processing documents, actually. But when I’m in a flurry of searching, I sometimes keep downloading without processing. (Though I always rename the document, as described in Quick Tip #1.) When I let that backlog build up, I end up trying to stop myself from doing additional research until I get rid of it. I often accomplish that during a 30 x 30 challenge.

But when I’m on my game, I process as I go and it feels great. (It makes me feel like a researcher, not just a searcher.) I encourage you to give it a try if you’re not already doing it!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

What’s hiding in your unprocessed documents?

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One of the mysteries I’ve been pondering for years is the whereabouts of my great great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1938-1945) after his divorce in McLean County Kentucky in June of 1920 and before he checked into the National Home for Disabled Soldiers in Danville, Illinois, in July 1922. I haven’t found him on the 1920 census and it’s been bugging the heck out of me. In the divorce, he was awarded custody of his 12-year-old son Wayne Horace Adams (1907-1976) and for the longest time I was looking for the two of them.

A few years ago, I found Horace (as he was known then) on the 1920 census living with his half brother. I blogged about how an indexing error kept his whereabouts elusive. But I still haven’t found George on the census. When I was at RootsTech this year, I did a free consult with a genealogist from Trace, seeking help on the question George’s whereabouts between 1920 and 1922. The genealogist asked me why I wanted to know. I didn’t have a good answer, but I still wanted to know. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any Eureka! moments in that short session, but she gave me some avenues to pursue.

In any case, as I was working through my backlog of downloaded documents during the August 30 x 30 challenge, I processed a couple of newspaper articles that shed some light! It was very exciting. (I found out an article about him visiting a son in Oklahoma in 1921 and returning to Kentucky in 1922, a month before entering the soldiers’ home, with his son, after an extended visit to Oklahoma. I don’t know which son, but it’s something.)

Those newspaper articles had been languishing on my hard drive for two years! If I were processing my documents as soon as I downloaded them, which is always my goal, I would have had this information years ago. This is an inconsequential example, but it shows how these newspaper articles–which can be a bit tedious to process–can contain important nuggets. (Here’s a post I did on how I process newspaper articles.)

Lesson learned. My resolve is stronger than ever to eliminate that backlog, which I’m working on once again in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge.

Time for me to address my backlog

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I hate it when I let a backlog of downloaded files build up. I know that downloading a file without gleaning the facts from it and adding it to my genealogy software does not further my research. And yet I struggle with backlogs. My most recent post on my struggle was in October 2018. That fall, I vowed to eliminate my backlog and I succeeded in doing it, sort of. I took a group of deeds I couldn’t face and moved them to a foldern unprocessed. But otherwise, I processed 79 downloaded documents by making backlog-busting my research focus.

Well, the backlog has built up again and it’s time to address it. I have 78 documents languishing in my Surnames folder, waiting to be processed and filed in their appropriate folders. I plan to announce an August 30 x 30 challenge next week and my focus in August will be to get rid of that backlog. Two years ago, I created a spreadsheet in which I kept a running tally of the numbers of files I needed to process. I found updating it every session to be quite rewarding. So I think I’ll employ that strategy again.

One reason for my large backlog is that I went on a sprint of newspaper research in June and July. I had a seven-day free trial of newspapers.com and then bought a 30-day subscription that expired July 22. I found myself downloading, but not necessarily processing, a bunch of newspaper articles. (I did process some of them, though!)

In organizing, we refer to this as backsliding. I know how to process documents. I actually enjoy processing documents. But when I let a backlog build up it quickly gets overwhelming and less enjoyable. I find that focusing on the backlog to get it back to zero brings me great peace of mind.

In order to succeed at getting rid of my backlog, I know I have to avoid downloading any new documents while I’m focused on the backlog. Any documents I do download, I must commit to processing in the same research session. That way the number of documents left to process goes down every day. (Come to think about it, that’s not unlike dealing with physical clutter, credit card debt or any number of other scenarios!)

I bet I’m not the only one dealing with a backlog of genealogy documents (either digital or paper) that have been collected but not dealt with. If you have a backlog, feel free to join me in backlog busting in August!

For more in-depth information on how I organize my own genealogy, including dealing with my backlog, check out  How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow, a 37-page downloadable pdf published in 2021 and available for $19.99.

My 8th blogiversary!

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On June 14, 2012, I published my first post on this blog. (It was called My quest to learn more about my family history.) When I started the blog, I had no idea what would become of it and I didn’t spend much time trying to visualize what it might turn into. But I’m really proud of what it has become. In eight years, I’ve published 588 posts, had 360,000 unique visitors and 725,000 views. And I’m still going strong. Amazing.

I tend to look at these numbers about once a year (on my blogiversary). But pretty much every day I think about how much I love my readers. You all are so wonderfully interactive and I love reading your comments. Your desire to help me and other readers, along with your kind, encouraging words about my contributions, has made this blog a joy. Thank you.

Last year in my blogiversary post, I listed six ways this blog has enhanced my life. Today seems like a good day to repeat them.

How this blog has enhanced my life:

  • I’ve learned so much from my readers! I’ve been fortunate to have such engaged readers who provide lots of great advice and input in the comments. And everyone is so kind. Thank you!
  • Some readers have become in-person friends. I’ve done some meet ups at genealogy conferences, which always adds to the conference enjoyment. I’ve even been recognized at conferences by people I hadn’t prearranged to meet!
  • I research more often. I’m confident that without this blog I would not research as much. My 30 x 30 challenges, in particular, really keep focused on the research.
  • I’m a better researcher. Because I’m researching more often, attending conferences, and benefiting from the wisdom of my readers, I’m most assuredly a better researcher than I was eight years ago and probably a better one than I would be today without the blog.
  • I’ve become acquainted with some well-known genealogists, which is always a treat. Through my How They Do It series, as well as Family Tree University webinars and just attending conferences, I’ve gotten to know some folks I admire
  • I’ve even made some money! I sell my Orderly Roots Guides and The Paperless Genealogy Guide (with Brooks Duncan) and I’ve earned some money through speaking, writing and consulting. I feel so fortunate for that!

I want to thank you, my readers, for coming along on this ride and for being such a big part of it. I can’t wait to see what the future holds!