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Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #13: Create follow-up notebooks to stay focused

January 22, 2021 By Janine Adams 8 Comments

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. This one has saved me from going down a rabbit hole many times.

Create follow-up notebooks to stay focused

I love playing detective, which is probably why I love genealogy research. So when I’m looking for information online it’s really hard to resist exploring every clue or idea that comes my way in the course of a research session. But if I do follow every lead, I often end up far away from where I intended to go.

That’s where follow-up notebooks come in. I have created follow-up notebooks by surname in Evernote. (This could certainly be accomplished in other platforms, in a tab in a spreadsheet, or on paper.) When I come across a clue or resource that has no bearing on the research question at hand, I just make a new note in the appropriate follow-up notebook. Later, when I’m researching that surname, the note is waiting for me. I don’t have to worry about forgetting it!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Filed Under: Challenges, Genealogy tips Tagged With: Evernote, focus, organizing aids, quick tips

Avoiding tunnel vision

December 28, 2018 By Janine Adams 10 Comments

Avoid tunnel vision in your genealogy researchI’ve been thinking quite a bit this fall about staying focused, since I spoke on that topic at the St. Louis Genealogy Conference. Focus isĀ  such an important element in making progress in my research. I’m easily overwhelmed by all the possibilities of things to research and I strive to maintain my focus so I can avoid both overwhelm and distractions.

But there’s such a thing as being too focused, I think. Recently I’ve been revisiting early sources in my tree that I found a half decade or more ago. I’m so glad I’m doing it because I’m finding all sorts of things I missed the first time around. For example, on more than one occasion, I’ve re-examined a census document I’d downloaded for one ancestor family to find that another ancestor family–unrelated to the first one–was also on the page.

That reminded me how important it is to examine the whole census page when you find one. And it’s a great idea to expand your scan to a page or two before or after. Our ancestors tended to live near one another and families intermarried. You might end up finding a relative who hadn’t been indexed correctly. Or you might just learn more about your family.

Another even more obvious example of the pitfalls of tunnel vision is the tendency to focus on direct-line relatives. I learned the hard way that it’s important to collect information on all relatives who appear on a census, not just those from whom you descend. I remember back when I was starting out that the idea of recording information on all the collateral relatives felt tedious and overwhelming. That may be true. But these siblings of your ancestors might play key roles in solving puzzles down the road or in helping prove a document applies to your relative’s family and not another family. Trust me, if you expand your exploration (and documentation) to include all your collateral relatives, you’ll be glad you did later.

I recently revisited a marriage document from 1905. The marriage book contained the record for my great grandparents on the right-hand page of a two-page spread. What I simply hadn’t noticed before was that the on left-hand page of that spread was the marriage license for my great grandmother’s sister! Way back then I might have not taken the trouble to record the information, even if I’d noticed it. But now, I’m excited to add this family to my tree and it’s been a springboard for further exploration.

Those are just a few small examples of the benefits of avoiding tunnel vision even while you stay focused. If you can think of others, please share in the comments!

Photo by Angel Origgi on Unsplash

Filed Under: Challenges, Genealogy tips, Reflections Tagged With: focus, getting started, research

about me

I'm Janine Adams, a professional organizer and a genealogy enthusiast. I love doing family history research, but I find it's very easy for me to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn next. So I'm working hard to stay organized and feel in control as I grow my family tree.

In this blog, I share my discoveries and explorations, along with my organizing challenges (and solutions). I hope by sharing what I learn along the way I'll be able to help you stay focused and have fun while you do your research, too.

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Speaker Badge: Rootstech 2017

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