Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Why do you want to organize your research?

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As a professional organizer (and podcaster who pays a lot of attention to perfectionism) I know that getting in touch with why you want to get organized is invaluable. Instead of thinking, “I should get organized,” which isn’t very motivating, you can take a moment to reflect on why getting organized is important to you. When you do that, you can more easily take action. And you can get past perfectionism and know when something is good enough.

This is true of organizing your home, and it’s also true of organizing your genealogy research. Why do you want to get organized? Here are some possible reasons:

  • To fully benefit from the information contained in the documents you find
  • To trust your research
  • To have facts at your fingertips to share with others
  • To have your research in a format that you can easily share
  • To feel less overwhelmed and more in control of your research
  • To pass along your legacy to your descendants

Knowing why it’s important to you to make the effort to organize your research can help you select a system that will work for you and help you let go of the notion that your system has to be perfect. Trust me, it doesn’t. It just needs to serve your “why.”

I’d love to hear about why you want to organize your research. Just leave a comment. For me, it’s all about benefiting from my work and trusting my research.

If you sign up for my free Mailing List, you’ll receive a series of emails from me that touch on these issues. If you’re not yet on the Mailing List, I encourage you to sign up!

My simple 2021 genealogy goal

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I’m a big goal setter. I set goals for my business, some of which I actually achieve. I set goals for my personal life, too. (Creating a daily yoga habit is one I’ve actually achieved, and I’m working hard on drinking 64 oz of water a day.)

Every year, I set genealogy goals too. And I rarely achieve them. Last year I blogged about my tendency to set up complex goals and I detailed what I thought were achievable goals for 2020. But once again, I didn’t look the goals I’d set. (Despite that, I did pretty well with the ones that involved creating good habits.)

So this year I want to keep it very simple. My word of the year for 2021 is ease and I want that to saturate every aspect of my life. I really would like to do genealogy every day. (And for that reason I’ll probably have six 30 x 30 challenges this year.) In the interest of ease, I’m going to set up a single genealogy goal for the year, one that I can turn to whenever I’m in doubt about what to work on and one on which I can make progress just a few minutes at a time.

My genealogy goal for 2021 is to review all my source citations and source documents. Back in 2016, I exported my sources and created a checklist in Evernote. (I blogged about that here.) In 2018, I added to the list, which now has 834 sources in it. Of those, I’ve checked 86.

So my go-to activity in 2021 will be to make my way through the sources, checking them off as I go. I anticipate learning a lot and making a lot of notes for further follow up. Will I get through all 748 remaining sources? I don’t know. It’s possible.

I actually have 1195 sources now, having added 461 since the last time I updated the checklist. I’d like to think that perhaps those more recent sources don’t need checking since I’ve become a better genealogist. But if I get there and it feels productive, I’ll keep going.

Right now, this sounds like an interesting project. It remains to be seen whether it will stay interesting. In any case, it will be a nice starting point for the year. I like having a single goal so simple that I’ll remember it.

How about you? What are your genealogy goals for 2021?

Reminder: You can let go of “should”

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It’s natural to ask about questions about organizing (your genealogy or anything else) that start with the word “should.” Should I organize my documents this way or that way? Should I store things here or there? Should I focus on this or that?

When I try to answer a question that starts with should, the answer is almost always, “It depends.” Because it’s all about what will work for you.

I encourage my clients (and anyone else who will listen to me) to let go of the word should. And to also let go of asking questions that start with, “What’s the right way to…” or What’s the best way to….”

Because here’s the thing: I can’t tell you what you should do. Only you know what’s right for you. It can be much more beneficial to think in terms of what you’d like to do, or what you think will work best for you, rather than what you should do. Especially when it comes to organizing your genealogy research, the thing you should do (in my opinion) is the thing that works well for you and that you can keep up.

For example:

  • Maybe you’ve always heard that you should store your paper documents in binders, but you have trouble keeping up with that. Let go of that should and consider using file folders or scanning your documents.
  • Maybe you think you should print every document for the sake of posterity but you’re overrun with unfiled paper. You can let go of that should, particularly if your electronic documents are already organized.
  • Conversely, maybe you’ve heard you should scan every bit of paper and store files electronically, but you’re overwhelmed by the prospect. Bye bye, should. You can let your paper files be sufficient. Or just start storing new files electronically and leaving your papers unscanned.
  • Maybe you’re told you should keep a research log, but you just can’t get yourself to do it. A research log can be hugely beneficial. But don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have one just because you think you should.

In other words, set yourself up for success and do what works for you. Decide what your priorities are (accessibility for you, accessibility for others, ease of use, etc.) and focus your organizing systems on those priorities. Don’t do something just because someone told you you should if it doesn’t seem like it will work for you.

All that said, there are some genealogy shoulds that I think you should pay attention to:

  • You should cite your sources so you can find them again and know where your facts came from (but you don’t have to cite them perfectly if that’s getting in the way of citing them at all).
  • You should back up your electronic data in case of a crash. (I use an external hard drive and automated cloud storage.)

Genealogy is supposed to be fun. Don’t let the shoulds drag you down. Make your own choices and own them. And keep yourself open to new ways of doing things. (See what I did there? I told you all sorts of things I think you should do, without using that word. Take what works for you and let go of the rest.)

[If this is feels familiar, it’s because I initially published this post on May 17, 2016. Then I published it again on November 6, 2018 with a different title. It’s a message that really resonates with me right now, so I wanted to repeat it.]

My 2020 genealogy goals

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I have a confession to make. I’m good at setting genealogy goals at the beginning of the year but I’m very bad at paying attention to them. One of the problems is that in the past I’ve set up complicated (though measurable) goals that I’m not able to keep top of mind. I set a complicated goal chart as part of my 2015 goals and I’m pretty sure I didn’t look at it all year. Another problem I’ve encountered is that my genealogy goals were sometimes unrealistic. In the post linked above, I wrote, “I’ve learned that when I create unrealistic goals I tend to ignore them.” That is so true.

So this year, I’m keeping it simple. I’ve decided to focus on my paternal great grandmother’s line, the Iglehearts, after having spent a couple of years researching her husband’s line. It’s full of opportunity because I have a Civil War Union veteran in that line (Benjamin Franklin Igleheart, 1845-1913) whose Civil War pension file I haven’t yet transcribed or analyzed. I can also trace myself back to the Mayflower on that line, but I haven’t verified everyone in that path. I’m excited to shift gears a little and focus on some different people.

Here are the goals I set out for myself for 2020, which I wrote in Evernote on an airplane ride on January 3. They feel gentle and realistic.

  2. Transcribe Benjamin Franklin Igleheart’s Civil War pension
  3. Trace myself back to the Mayflower by Thanksgiving
  4. Eliminate the downloaded documents backlog
  5. Create habit of processing documents as I download them
  6. Keep logging each research session (including next actions)
  8. Consume purchased learning resources
  9. Watch at least one webinar a week

If I can build a daily-research habit and a habit of watching a webinar every week, this will be a huge win. I think the practices outlined above will help stay in touch with my research and give me focus if I flounder. My goal of cultivating a daily research habit probably will mean lots of 30 x 30 challenges in 2020!

I tend to select a word of the year at the beginning of each year and this year’s word is INTENTION. These genealogy goals feel full of intention and I really think my word will bring me back to them every day.

How about you? Did you create genealogy goals for 2020? If so, feel free to share them!

 

Photo by Hobbies on a Budget via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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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.