Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Making time for family history research

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I love doing family history research. I really do. I’m also trying to figure out ways to integrate it into my organizing business, so technically it’s work. So why haven’t I done it in more than a week?

I can make excuses for why I haven’t made time to do any research. A week ago I returned from a week-long trip and I jumped right back in to full client load. My desk is a mess. (Embarrassing, but true.) But here’s the thing: since I’ve been home I’ve managed to catch up on most of the TV shows I recorded in my absence. I finished reading a book. I watched a couple of college basketball games.

It really does come down to priorities. (Priority management is a more accurate phrase than time management.)

As I contemplated the fact that I frequently close up shop and leave my desk for the day before I do any research, I realized a few things:

  • The messy desk really does get in the way. (Note to self: Clear it off every night like you used to!)
  • The time I thought I’d try to do it every day, 5 pm, isn’t conducive. Now that it’s winter, it’s dark at that time. I like a lot of light when I’m squinting at old handwriting.
  • If I’m running late trying to get the rest of my work done, I continue working past 5 pm and research is sacrificed.
  • I need to make it very, very easy to start doing the research. One way I might do that is to outline for myself at the end of each research session what I want to research at the start of the next one. Then it’ll be as simple as grabbing a file from the cart stored in a closet a few feet away, rather than rolling out the whole cart. And it gives me immediate focus.
  • I need to examine my priorities for my time and see where this research fits in. Is it more important than keeping up with social media or whittling my inbox down to zero? If so, I should do it before I do those daily tasks.
  • It’s important to recognize that I don’t need hours at a time to do research. As little as 30 minutes can glean some great results.

The process of writing this blog post has given me new resolve. I have a lighter day tomorrow and I’m going to make sure I do some research, earlier in the day. And I’ll make a note at the end of the session about how I want to start the next session.

I think I’ll take a few minutes to clear off my desk right now.

Taking stock of my records

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My genealogy file cartI love the last couple of weeks of the year. This is when I set goals and resolutions. And I also typically try to do some decluttering and organizing around my house. I’ve already started the goal-setting process for my genealogy work. But I realized this morning that I needed to spend some time organizing my genealogy records and see where things stand.

I started doing genealogy research back in the first part of the 21st century. My records then were all paper. In fact, I hand wrote my ancestry charts. Since taking up the research more seriously this year, I’ve done more electronically (my family tree is now entered into software), but I do have a tendency to print things out and file them. I blogged awhile back about how I organize my genealogy files.

Above is a photo of the file cart that holds my genealogy files. As you can see it’s looking a little unruly. During that lovely week between Christmas and the end of the year, I think I will go through those files, see what I records I have and what’s missing and tidy things up. I’ll also explore the contents of the files I created years ago called “Census possibilities,” “Places to go,” and “Research tips.” By the end, I hope to feel like I know where things stand with my research. I suspect I’ll end up with a list of things to research, mysteries to solve and holes to fill.

If time allows, I’ll also spruce up my electronic files. They’re in decent shape, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I’ll write a post when that process is over and share the benefits I gained from this effort!

Overwhelm strikes again

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My genealogy mind map

Today’s mind map

Today I had a little time to work on family history research and, once again, I got all tangled up in my head on what to work on. A tiny bit of perfectionism reared its head as I considered the best use of my time.

When I start to feel like this, I frequently get nothing done. And that’s what happened today–no genealogy research has taken place.

But what I did do was this: I got out a blank piece of paper and I did a little mind map, trying to get a big-picture view of my research. I thought about whether it was more important to grow my tree or to have as much information as possible on the ancestors who are already in my tree. (I’m adding only verified ancestors to my tree, but in the system I’ve created for myself it takes only one verified fact for me to enter someone to my family history software.)

In the course of creating the mind map (pictured above), I realized that, right now, I want my focus to be adding ancestors. I’m hoping in 2013 to take one or more research trips and the more ancestors I have on my tree at the time of such a trip, the better. (Or so it feels today.)

Of course, now I’ve run out of time to do any research today. But when I turn my attention to it later this week, I’m hoping the overwhelmed feeling will be gone.

Planning a genealogy research trip

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I live in St. Louis and my maternal roots go back to western Missouri. My mother was born in Jefferson City, but moved to Spokane, Washington, in 1936 with her family. I grew up in Washington and always knew I had Missouri cousins. Though I’ve lived in Missouri for 23 years, I’ve yet to seek out those cousins, nor travel to the area (some four or five hours away) to try to track down genealogy records.

But now that I’m back into the family history research, I’m itching to go on a genealogy research trip. Looking at my calendar, I see that I have three free days next week, so the thought occurred to me that that might be just the time to take a little road trip to look into the Browns and the Jeffries.

Of course, as an organized person, I know that such a research trip will require some planning if it’s going to be productive. But I have to admit that when I think about planning it, my head starts spinning a little. So I figure what I need to do before I take such a trip is the following:

  • See how many of the four western Missouri counties in my database I can realistically fit in a quick trip
  • Choose the counties I’d like to visit
  • Figure out what family members I’d like to research, what records I already have and what I’d like to track down
  • Locate the cemeteries where I know folks were buried, based on death certificates
  • Create a list of other family members who might be buried in those cemeteries
  • Find out where I might be able to obtain the records I seek
  • Know just what I’m looking for when I go to courthouses or libraries
  • Figure out where to stay
  • Figure out driving routes
  • Ask my mother for names of cousins I might reach out to

When I write it all down like that, the spinning in my head slows down somewhat. I need to remind myself that I don’t have to get everything done in one visit. I can take plenty more road trips. But I do want to put some planning into my first one so that it’s at least somewhat productive.

This sounds like great fun. I will post the results (and some photos) here, after the research trip takes place!