May was brutal for me in terms of being able to do genealogy research. I had so many family obligations (among my living family members) that I couldn’t pay any attention to my deceased family members! But I really want to get some family history exploration done this month, so I’m having a 30 x 30 challenge. In addition to reacquainting myself with my family tree, I hope to be sifting through the boxes I sent myself last month from my father’s and aunt’s homes after they moved. In June, I plan to focus on the documents, putting the photos aside for later.

How about you? Would you like to join me for a 30 x 30 challenge? I am committing to spending an average of 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days on genealogy research and organizing. I want to at least something each day (even if it’s not a full 30 minutes) because I find daily effort so valuable in getting back into the swing of things. I’ll be keeping a spreadsheet and I’ll be really happy if I log 900 minutes (15 hours) over the course of the month. Actually, I’ll be happy if I do something every day, even if it doesn’t add up to 15 hours.

If you’d like in on the challenge, just say so in the comments. Mid-month, I’ll post an update post on my progress and invite you to share yours.

It’s the middle of the month. How’s your 30 x 30 challenge going? Please let us know in the comments!

I have to admit, I’m not having a great month for genealogy research. It’s disappointing, because I really do want to take in a bunch of RootsTech classes and I also want to prep for the 1950 census release in just a couple of weeks. But sometimes life gets in the way of enjoyable activities.

My 92-year-old aunt is having some health difficulties and I’m her Power of Attorney so I’ve been kept very busy arranging for and monitoring her care from afar. I’m glad to do it but after taking care of my aunt and my business I don’t have a lot of extra time.

I’m so glad I didn’t procrastinate too much on my census prep. I’ve been able to identify some enumeration districts for some of my people, in case the name indexes don’t give me what I need. I’ve managed to research or watch RootsTech classes only 10 of the last 15 days. Disappointing, but unavoidable. I’m just going to do what I can and not beat myself up.

I hope some of you have had a better go of it and that if you haven’t your being kind to yourself about it! I hope to take in at least a few classes before the end of the month.

Another 30 x 30 challenge is behind us. Did it help you get more genealogy research or genealogy organizing done? Please share in the comments!

I had a good month. I missed two days but did research the other 28 days. On four of those days, my research consisted of attending Amy Johnson Crow’s All About Ancestry webinars, which were 90 minutes to two hours long, so that helped with my daily average. Over the course of the month, I averaged 44 minutes a day for a total of 22 hours of research. That feels great!

One of my goals was to eliminate my backlog of downloaded documents I needed to process. On January 1, I had 77 documents in the backlog. During the month, I downloaded 23 new documents and processed a total of 90 documents, leaving me with a backlog of 10 documents still to process. Hooray! I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about my ancestors.

If you participated in the challenge, please leave a comment. Did the challenge help you get more done than you otherwise would have? Are you pleased with your progress?

I’ll probably do another challenge in March, so keep an eye out!