Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Going through my box of inherited items: step one

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On November 13, 2020 I wrote these words in a blog post about Stacy Julian’s method for going through a box of family photos, documents and memorabilia.

“When I drove to Walla Walla in September, I took the opportunity to bring home a box of family stuff. It’s not so much documents as photos, but I intend to use Stacy’s framework as I go through it.”

Nine months later, I finally opened that box this past weekend. I was excited to use Stacy’s method, which I had first heard about in her terrific 2020 RootsTech presentation. I decided to go through each of Stacy’s five steps and blog about each step after I finished it.

The first step is to sort the contents of the box into five categories:

  1. Picture Stuff
  2. Written Stuff
  3. Document Stuff
  4. Memorabilia Stuff
  5. Dimensional Stuff

I had an unused Elfa rolling  file cart and I rolled it to my workspace. I used sticky notes to label the folders. Here’s how it looked right before I started sorting:

It took me only 30 minutes to sort the entire contents of the box. As I had expected, the box contained primarily photos. I was able to tell by the handwriting on the back of many of them that at least some of the contents of the box had come from my grandmother, Susie Jeffries Brown, after she passed away in 1999. It was so touching to handle these items and remember my grandmother. (Today is my grandmother’s birthday! She was born 24 Aug 1908.) Some of the photos were framed in paper folders or wood or metal frames and I created a second Picture Stuff folder to contain those.

In addition to photos, there were some newspaper articles, as well as some other written items, including my parents’ wedding vows. (Those went into Written Stuff folder.) There were a few books, including an illustrated edition of Aesop’s Fables that had been given to my grandfather, Crawford Brown (1906-1996) in 1914. It was a Christmas gift from his grandmother, Antoinette Garlock Brown (1855-1922).

There was also a collection of the embroidery pieces I created as a kid and gave to my grandmother. She had framed them and hung them on the wall of the apartment she shared with my grandfather in their retirement home. (How sweet is that?) That’s a photo of one of them at the top of the post. The Elfa file cart has two drawers on the bottom and I ended up using both of them to hold all the dimensional stuff.

I worked hard not to spend a lot of time on individual items. The goal was to simply sort them to make them accessible. And it felt great. I can’t wait to dig in to the individual pieces.

In the next step, I will take a closer look at each document and assess value and usefulness of each item, according to Stacy’s methodology, which is detailed in her post, How to BEGIN with the BOX, on StacyJulian.com. I’ll blog about step two as soon as I finish it!

Here’s my post on step two!

Check out Stacy Julian’s How to BEGIN with the Box

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Back in April, I wrote an enthusiastic blog post about my favorite RootsTech 2020 presentation, Do Something with That Box from Stacy Julian. She kindly gave me permission to reprint her helpful handout because she hadn’t written about it on her own website.

I was delighted to see that last month she published a robust blog post on the topic that fleshes out what I wrote about. It’s called How to BEGIN with the Box and I urge you to check it out, even if you’ve read my post. It provides great detail and it includes the downloadable pdf of the handout, along with photos and explanations.

When I drove to Walla Walla in September, I took the opportunity to bring home a box of family stuff. It’s not so much documents as photos, but I intend to use Stacy’s framework as I go through it. (The box been sitting unopened for almost six weeks now…I think our stay-at-home holiday time will be a good time to address it.)

If you have a box of family memorabilia to go through, do yourself a favor and check out her terrific post. You can thank me (well, really, Stacy) later.

The benefits (and challenges) of cleaning up your research area

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Over on my organizing blog, I’m doing a Tiny Projects challenge, in which each day this week I am accomplishing one tiny organizing project in my home and blogging about it. Today, I tackled the reach-in closet in my office. (You can read about it and see the before and after pictures here.) That closet holds mostly genealogy stuff.

Since I don’t print or download genealogy documents, I don’t have a lot of paper genealogy clutter. But when I spent a half hour creating order in that closet I realized that I have some genealogy-related projects lurking in there that weren’t even on my radar.

I discovered that I had a bunch of photos of ancestors–I didn’t look at them carefully but they look to be 50-100 years old or more. I’m sure they were passed along to me by a relative and my intention is to scan and file them in my genealogy filing system. They were scattered on the surface of the main shelf in the closet. That closet is equipped with an Elfa system (I blogged about that back in the day when I installed it). There is one larger shelf that could serve as a desk. So while I was tidying and organizing, I gathered up the photos and put them in a container that I labeled “photos to process” and placed it on the main shelf so it can’t hide from me.

I also have a container full of genealogy journals to read. I added to it today. It’s really just the two publications that the National Genealogical Society sends to its members, as well as the Missouri genealogical society’s journal. Back in January 2019, I vowed to skim them, but in fact I haven’t.

I feel I need to fish or cut bait here. Either I carve out some time to read them (perhaps during an October 30 x 30 challenge?) or decide I’m not going to read them and then find them a home with someone else.

I rather like the idea of devoting 30 minutes a day for a month (or less if it goes more quickly) to see what I can glean from these publications. But it can’t be this month!

I’m really glad I cleaned out this closet, but I’m a little sad that two big projects emerged (the photos and the journals). I can’t believe I’m complaining about it, though. These are treasures I’m fortunate to possess, not burdens to be dealt with!

If it’s been awhile since you cleaned up your genealogy space, you may have some pleasant surprises hiding in there!

Stacy Julian reopening her 20in20 online course (for a good cause)

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I became a huge fan of Stacy Julian when I heard her speak at RootsTech. After RootsTech, I shared details of her talk Do Something with that Box! here and I referenced it in my own talk, The Imperfect Genealogist.

Stacy is all about helping people tell stories, particularly family stories. I’m on her mailing list and I received an email this week that she is her reopening her yearlong online course, 20in20. Here’s a short video about the course.

In a nutshell, participants will create 20 projects over the course of a year. It was originally intended to take place in the calendar year 2020. Enrollment closed months ago. But that changed this week. Stacy wrote in her email:

“As I have contemplated current events—especially those that have exposed racial inequality in the United States—I have made the decision to reopen 20in20 and donate ALL of the proceeds to organizations and efforts making a difference for people of color.”

I was very impressed by this and I asked her if I could share the information here. Here’s another great piece of news. The price has been cut in half–to $60–to encourage enrollment. See the 20in20 page on Stacy’s website for where and how she’s donating the proceeds and to sign up.

This strikes me as an amazing opportunity to create some wonderful projects, with the help of an amazing teacher, at a big discount and to do good at the same time. I just had to share.

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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.