Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Getting back in the saddle

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I wrote a novel last month, as part of National Novel Writing Month. It was a fun challenge that I do every five years. But this year, my November was particularly busy with organizing clients, so my time was very tight. In order to fit in 1700 words a day, something had to give. And that something was genealogy research.

So the novel is written and put away forever and now I get to think about my ancestors again! But when I sat down to research today, I realized that I had no idea where to start. The question of what to research today has plagued me for years and one way I overcame that challenge was frequent research and the “next steps” question in my research log.

Today, I feel adrift because it’s been more than a month since I researched that I can’t even remember what I was working on. That’s where my research log came to to the rescue. I read the last few entries (from late October) and was reminded what I’d been working on and how I might pick up the threads of my research. These were the choices I found:

  • Continue working on reducing my backlog of downloaded, but not processed, documents;
  • Read the book I’d checked out through interlibrary loan about the Mentelle family, from whom I’m descended. (On my Kentucky research trip, I’d made the connection between me and this relatively famous family.) That book is due to be returned later this month;
  • Listen to some of the talks from the NARA Virtual Genealogy Fair.

I literally had forgotten about the talks from the virtual fair that I’d wanted to listen to. And despite being in physical possession of the library book, reading the book had slipped my mind as well. (I do know where it is, though!) I’m very grateful for my very informal research log, which is helping me jump back i n.

In case you’re curious, since my library book is due this month, it has become more urgent and is therefore commanding my attention. So my research time this week will be spent reading and extracting information from that book.

I’m looking forward to getting back to daily (or at least almost-daily) research. And I plan to start a new 30 x 30 challenge in January, so stay tuned!

Take action now to fight rate hike for genealogical immigration records

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I follow genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn on Twitter and through her learned that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS, which used to be called the Immigration and Naturalization Service) is proposing a substantial rate hike for genealogical records.

You can read all the details at Records Not Revenue, but the Reader’s Digest version is that, under the proposal, digitized genealogy records will cost $240 and paper copies will cost $625. The current rate for those same documents is $65. Prior to 2016, the rate was $20 to $35. Obviously, this rate hike would have a big effect on many genealogists’ ability to access these records, which include naturalization files, alien forms, visa files and registry files.

Records Not Revenue, an effort of “coordinated by an ad hoc group of genealogists, historians and records access advocates,” points out that this rate hike is relevant to all genealogists, not just those with immigrant ancestors whose records might be available through the USCIS. The website states, “If USCIS finalizes a rule to make these records much more difficult to access via significant fee hikes, who’s to say other governmental agencies won’t follow suit? Attempts to make one record set less accessible should make any researcher in any field nervous.”

I’m bringing it up now not to worry people but rather because there’s something those of us who are worried can do. Records Not Revenue urges us to read the proposed rule, and submit comments to the Federal Rulemaking Portal, copying our Senators and Representatives, before 16 December 2019. The provide all the links necessary, along with suggested conversation starters. They’ve made it as easy as possible.

To learn more, check out Records Not Revenue, as well as this article on Medium by Jennifer Mendolsohn. That article gives real-life examples of how these records can help people with their genealogy.

Please help with my RootsTech talk

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How does perfectionism get in your way?Back in late September, I created a post asking for your input on the impact of perfectionism in genealogy as I worked on my RootsTech talk, “The Imperfect Genealogist.” I was surprised when I didn’t get much of a response and I then I discovered that an updated security package with my GoDaddy account had turned off commenting as a default and I didn’t realize it.

I’m getting back to work on my talk (it’s due next month!) and thought I’d try again. Thanks very much to those of you who replied to the September post after I got comments up and running! I’d love to hear more from others in comments to this post. Here’s what I wrote in September.

I think about perfectionism a lot. It’s the topic of the podcast I co-host with my friend and life coach Shannon Wilkinson every week. But lately I’ve been thinking about it particularly in relation to genealogy, since I’m working on my RootsTech talk next year, called “The Imperfect Genealogist.”

Here are some ways I have seen perfectionism causing genealogists to stall in their research:

  • You don’t know how to do source citations correctly, so you don’t do them at all.
  • You haven’t come up with the perfect way to organize your research, so you just keep doing research without organizing it.
  • You don’t have a whole weekend to devote to your genealogy research, so you don’t do any research at all.
  • You don’t know the very best way to preserve your archival documents, so you let them languish in an unsafe, non-archival environment. (We discussed this very thing on Episode 20 of Getting to Good Enough.)

It’s your turn. Can you help me out and let me know  how perfectionism can get in the way of your genealogy life? Please share the things you tend to get perfectionistic about and the impact it can have. (If you’ve figured out strategies for getting past that, I’m all ears!) Just leave a comment on this post. I’m sure you’ll contribute things I haven’t even thought of!

 

Don’t forget to check the next page on the census!

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Recently, I was doing some research with the 1850 census and almost missed a 10-year-old child in the family because he was listed on the next page. I’ve developed the good habit of always looking to the next page when the family I’m researching is on the last line of a census page. But in this case, though the family was last, there were two blank lines on the page, so I didn’t bother to click ahead. (That’s a snip of the page at the top of this post.) I’m not sure what caused me to look about a half hour later, but I’m glad I did!

That’s such a easy mistake to make, I thought I’d mention it here. Of course, even if the family you’re researching isn’t the last family on a census page, it’s a good practice to look at the next (and previous) page to observe their neighbors and see whether there are other family members living nearby. Lesson learned!

ETA: I had a feeling that there would be some great comments to this post that would provide additional advice and information and I was right! Please be sure and read the comments. And thank you to those who have commented!

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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.