Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Time for a new 30 x 30 challenge!

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30x30 challengeIt’s been ten months since I implemented a 30 x 30 challenge, in which I challenged myself to do genealogy research for 30 minutes a day for 30 days. I started this new challenge on Wednesday, so my 30 days will go from November 2 to December 1.

I did this in August 2015 with great results. My attempt to do another one in January 2016 was ill-fated, thanks to the potent combination of a new puppy and a typically busy January for my organizing business.

For many people November is a busy time, what with Thanksgiving and the December holidays coming up. That’s not really the case for me; I don’t have to do any work for Thanksgiving and my Christmas responsibilities are limited to holiday cards. I will be enjoying a visit from my brother (who lives in Australia) during this time, but he won’t prevent me from doing genealogy research.

Thanks to my moratorium on bringing in new information, I’m newly focused on processing the rather complicated pension file of my great great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938), who fought with the 35th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. While living in the U.S. National Home for Volunteer Disabled Soldiers in Danville, Illinois, in the 1920s, he was turned in for not being as disabled as he said he was on his pension application. Investigations  and appeals ensued (he even got his senator involved). That made for a lot of documents to process–more than 150 pages worth! But it’s a true treasure trove of information and paints quite a picture of my ancestor.

I don’t think I’ll have a problem putting in 30 minutes (or more) a day, if life stays on an even keel.

Would anyone like to join me on a 30 x 30 challenge?

ETA: Commenter Maria asked for a photo of my puppy Bix, who just turned one. Here’s a favorite: celebrating victory after removing a squeaker from a toy. He loves destroying toys!

bixsqueaker

January 30 x 30 challenge update

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30x30 challengeI’m halfway through the 30 days of my 30 x 30 challenge. Back in August when I last did this, I was able to post about my wonderful progress and how I hadn’t missed a day.

Alas, that’s not the case this time. I underestimated the impact of our puppy, Bix, on my productivity and available time. As I mentioned a month ago, Bix joined our family on December 13 as an eight-week-old puppy. He’s now 13 weeks old and growing up to be a very well behaved puppy. But during those five weeks he required a whole lot of attention to keep him out of trouble. Couple that with January being my busiest month for my organizing business (which I should have taken into account) and I find I’m doing little but working with clients, watching and training Bix, and handling essential admin tasks for Peace of Mind Organizing.

In other words, I’ve barely done any genealogy research in the past two weeks. I’ve managed 30 minutes just a few days. If I didn’t have the challenge going, I’m confident I wouldn’t have done any!

But I’m not throwing in the towel. Instead I’m regrouping and thinking about the lessons of the month so far:

  • My genealogy research isn’t going anywhere, but my puppy is growing up fast.
  • Serving my organizing clients obviously has to be a priority.
  • The fact that I’m not researching daily doesn’t devalue the research I’ve been able to do.
  • Fear of failure shouldn’t stop me from starting challenges like these. It’s okay not to succeed.
  • I’ll be starting up a new challenge as soon as the time is right. I love these challenges!
  • Next time I do a 30 x 30 challenge I want to take a close look at the calendar and consider competing factors. This was an ill-timed challenge, despite it being the first of the year
  • Some research is better than no research. I’ll keep doing what research I can.

I’m thrilled that some of you are taking part in the challenge and reporting on your successes on the blog. Please continue doing so!

I imagine it will be at least a couple of months before Bix is less labor-intensive. Until then, I’m going to cut myself a break!

Join me in a 30 x 30 challenge?

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30x30 challengeLast summer, I did a personal 30 x 30 challenge, in which I committed to doing 30 minutes of family history research for 30 days. It had a number of benefits, the most obvious of which was that I accomplished 15 hours of family history research that month!

With the holiday season, travel, and the addition of a puppy to our family, I got precious little family history research done the last month or two of the year. So I decided that the new year was a great time to start a new 30 x 30 challenge.

I intended to start it on January 1, but I woke up on New Year’s Day with a cold (and a bit of a hangover), so put it off until January 2. I did research on the 2nd and 3rd and completely forgot about it yesterday.

So today, I’m starting a new challenge, which will run from January 5 to February 4. I’m working on my Adams line this quarter, so I will be focusing on the Civil War pension file for my union ancestor George Washington Adams, as well as checking my sources and making sure my electronic documents are properly filed for my other Adams ancestors.

Let me know if you’d care to join me in a 30 x 30 challenge this month!

Update on my 30 x 30 challenge

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The 30 x 30 genealogy challengeTwenty-five days ago, I started my 30 x 30 challenge. My goal was to work on my genealogy research for at 30 minutes for 30 days. I’d been frustrated at my inability to take the time to actually do the research I found so rewarding. I felt like I needed some sort of special motivation to keep me going.

So I decided to make a short-term commitment to stay on task. I chose 30 minutes because it’s short enough to be realistic for a daily goal. And it’s also not intimidating. If I’d said I was going to do it for a year, I’d have probably quit by now.

I knew from past experience that having some sort of commitment and goal would be really motivating for me.

It’s turning out great–I think the number 30 has been magical. I’m proud to say that I’ve not missed a day yet, and in just a week, I’m confident I’ll be able to report here that I succeeded in my goal.

One thing that has made this easier is that I’ve had a project to focus on, transcribing the Civil War pension file of my 3rd great grandfather, Richard Anderson Jeffries. That meant I didn’t have to give much thought to what I was going to work on each day. That quandary is probably the single biggest barrier I have to getting started with research in any given session.

Almost all of the 25 days so far I’ve worked on R.A. Jeffries’ file. Today, I finished transcribing the entire pension file of 27 documents (woot!) and will start extracting the data next. It’s crazy how much I’m enjoying this.

The big question I’m having is whether I’ll continue with the 30-minute-a-day habit when the 30 days are up. I’m guessing I might give myself a break for a few days, but I think I’d be well advised to start another one soon. The commitment has proven to be truly powerful for me.

Edited to add: I did make it to 30 (in fact, 31) consecutive days of at least 30 minutes of genealogy research!

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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.