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!

I try to space out my 30 x 30 challenges. The last one was only two months ago, but I find myself in dire need! Is there anyone out there who would like to join me?

June was a genealogy-rich month for me. I spent most of the month planning my research trip to Kentucky and then going on it. Upon my return in late June, I tried to process everything I’d learned on the trip, but real life kept getting in the way. I got some of it done, but not all of it. Then, on July 18, I drove to Indianapolis with my OYFH friend, Vickie, for the Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy Conference. It was great! (I encourage you to make plans to attend the next one, which will be held July 30-31, 2020.)

When Midwestern Roots was over, I took an obscenely early flight from Indianapolis to Seattle, where I started a five-day vacation. I met my husband there, along with four friends from St. Louis, and we drove four hours to Walla Walla, Washington, where I grew up. Walla Walla is now a wine destination, so we had a lovely time drinking wine and enjoying the quaint town. I returned obscenely late on Friday night and ever since I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things.

Each day since my return I’ve had “family history research” on my task list. And each day I’ve done none. That is why I need a 30 x 30 challenge. I know that if I pledge to you that I’ll do an average of 30 minutes of research a day for 30 straight days (notice how I snuck “an average of” into that description) then genealogy research will skyrocket to the top of my task list.

Is there anyone else who needs the accountability of a 30 x 30 challenge this month? You can, of course, adapt it to your needs. If you’re in, please let me know in the comments! In the middle of the month, I’ll post a progress report for my work and you can tell us all how it’s going for you.

June is behind us, as is another 30 x 30 challenge. How did things go for you? Did you manage to meet your goal of 30 minutes of genealogy research/organizing for 30 days (or whatever your alternate goal was)? If not, did you do more than might have done without the challenge? Please report in!

My month didn’t go exactly as planned, due to competing responsibilities. But I definitely put in more than 15 hours, thanks to my genealogy research trip. I had hoped to expend daily effort on planning the trip, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, the planning went in spurts of larger amounts of time. And then, of course, I had the trip itself, which I took the last week in June. That week alone, I spent more than 30 hours doing genealogy research. So I’m calling this challenge a success, even if my approach wasn’t exactly 30 x 30esque.

I’ll write about my trip in Friday’s post. In the meantime, those of you who took on the challenge please use the comments to let us know how it went!