Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Motivated by a little star

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I’m in the midst of this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, where I’m trying to do 30 minutes of genealogy research a day. I’m also trying to whittle my backlog of unprocessed documents down and to remember to enter my work in my research log each session.

I’ll be posting a mid-month update next week, but today I wanted to tell you about a little tweak I made to my workflow that has proven to be very helpful in getting to me use my research log.

Four or five years ago I created a spreadsheet where I can keep track of my backlog and also log how many minutes I researched. I usually use this spreadsheet during 30 x 30 challenges and I just start a new tab for each challenge. (You can read more about this spreadsheet in my post Keeping track of my backlog busting from a year ago.)

This year I added a column where I place a little star after I log the day’s research. It’s crazy to me how rewarding having that little star is. (You can see it in the close-up above.) It not only provides a visual reminder to log the session log, but it also gives me a little jolt of happiness because I’ve earned a star.

I love it when I can come up with easy way to motivate myself!

 

Keeping genealogy goals attainable

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I’m a big goal setter. Am I a big goal achiever? Not so much when it comes to genealogy goals. Every year I set them (and blog about them) and then I never look at them again. This year, I created a vision board (we recorded a podcast episode about that) and “Little and Often” is part of my vision board, to remind me to work on genealogy frequently.

So this year, in an effort to actually remember and attain my genealogy goals I am making them very simple. Here they are:

  • Research little and often
  • Take one genealogy webinar or class a week
  • Have no documents in my backlog on the last day of every month

Those goals feel attainable and easy to remember. I am going to have a 30 x 30 challenge for the month of January, which will help me stick with the little and often part of it. (Watch for a post about that next week.)

How about you? Do you set genealogy goals? If so, do you achieve them?

 

My 2022 genealogy goals

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Are you a goal setter? I sure am. Every year I set aside a day to work on my personal and business goals. This year, I did it on December 16. But I ran out of time to consider my personal genealogy goals, so I did that this morning.

I sat down with a pad of paper and I did a little brainstorming session with myself. I achieved some clarity really fast. The release of the 1950 census on April 1 creates a natural break in the year. I decided to focus the first quarter of the year on preparing for that day and cleaning up my existing research. The latter three quarters will be about new research and avoiding a backlog.

So here’s what I decided:

First quarter 2022:

Rest of 2022:

  • Glean as much information from the 1950 census as possible
  • Shift my family focus to the Jeffries line (that’s my maternal grandmother’s line)
  • Do a deep dive on my Civil War ancestor Richard Anderson Jeffries

One overarching intention for the year is to try harder to do daily research. For the last few years, I’ve found that in the absence of a 30 x 30 challenge, I ignore my research. Sometimes, I’m able to sustain daily research for months at a time, but that’s fallen by the wayside. In 2022, I’m going to try to do at least a little something every single day to keep my mind in the game. I know that, for me, that means researching in the early morning. Perhaps I’ll try to go to bed a little earlier so I can get up earlier to accomplish this. I plan a 30 x 30 challenge starting January 1, 2022, so I’ll have that support as I kick off the year.

I realize that I didn’t so much set goals this year as clarify my focus. And that’s good enough for me. It feels great. The plan for the year feels simple and attainable.

If you’ve set goals that you feel like sharing, please share in the comments. I’d love to hear them!

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Why do you do genealogy research?

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What’s your why? In our podcast Getting to Good Enough, my co-host, Shannon Wilkinson, and I frequently talk about the importance of knowing why you want to do something. Taking a moment to focus on that why can help you make decisions about how you want to spend your time, money and energy.

So sometimes I think about why I do genealogy research. Why do I spent countless hours and, face it, quite a bit of money ancestor hunting? I do it for the fun of it. I absolutely love playing detective. I love getting to know my ancestors. (And I love getting to know the people I’ve met through being a genealogist.) I even love organizing my research. The whole kit and caboodle is my idea of fun.

I don’t have kids, so I’m not doing this for my descendants. I’m doing it for me. I hope that my research will outlive me, but I’m okay with it if it doesn’t. But I think that might make me atypical.

So I’m curious: Why do you do genealogy research? Please share in the comments!

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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.