Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Amy Johnson Crow’s WANDER method for genealogy

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If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I’m a fan of Amy Johnson Crow. She was one of my first How They Do It interviewees. She’s interviewed me for her podcast a couple of times. She’s one of my favorite genealogy speakers. And we like hanging out at conferences.

When I read her first blog post/podcast episode about her WANDER method, her description of the genealogy research process, I was really impressed. First of all, coming up with a viable acronym isn’t easy. And it so succinctly describes a really smart way to think about the research process.

WANDER means:

Amy creates a blog post from each episode of her podcast, so you have two ways to consume her information. You can read about it or listen to it. (These links give you access to both media.) She first described the WANDER method in this post, called The Genealogy Research Process: The WANDER Method, which provides a general overview. And then she goes in-depth into each step in subsequent posts/episodes. I’ve linked to those episodes above, in the bullet points. As of this writing, Evaluate Everything is her most recent post. I couldn’t wait for the final one before writing about it here!

I encourage you to read and/or listen to these posts/episodes for inspiration for doing some solid research. (She offers a printable method to remember the steps on the overview post!)

Favorite RootsTech session: Do Something with that Box!

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Stacy Julian

I heard a lot of great sessions at RootsTech this year. But the one that really blew me away–because of the quality of its content and presentation–was Stacy Julian’s Do Something with that Box! Stacy is a blogger and podcaster and superstar in the scrapbooking world. You can learn more about her at www.stacyjulian.com.

“That box” that Stacy refers to is the box of family history papers, photos, ephemera and (sometimes) junk that so many of us have been given. It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by that box, isn’t it? In her talk, Stacy took us step by step through her methodology to make the stuff inside that box accessible “so that when you want to find something you can and when you have time to take action you know what to do.” As a professional organizer, this made my heart sing.

One of the things I loved about her approach is that it makes the process of dealing with a box of family-history stuff less overwhelming. Stacy has you sort everything into one of five broad categories, then go through each category and assess the value of each item. You’ll be discarding lots of stuff during this process, undoubtedly. Stacy makes the point that scarcity creates value–if you are discerning about what you keep, your family members are more likely to look at and enjoy the items.

After sorting and assessing you’ll assign an action to each item that requires one (digitize, transcribe, share, etc), using a sticky note. The final step is to file the stuff into a file box using the same broad categories you started with. As you go through the documents, you’ll put those that excited you into an Action folder. Once you have ten items in the Action folder, you take action.  An optional step in the process is to create a timeline, as you go, for each generation of the family represented by the box.

The system gets you to a “good enough” place where your stuff is easily accessed–by you or other family members–without expending a huge amount of effort. And when you have an itch to take action, you’ll know just what to do. Genius.

Stacy was kind enough to give me permission to make the handout that she gave to RootsTech participants available to you. At the bottom of this post are images of each of the five pages. Click on each to see a larger version.

The handout is great because it gives you the bones of her fantastic method. Hearing her speak about it was even better–there were videos included in her presentation and her energetic style was so enjoyable (and effective).

I have some great news: Stacy is developing an online course on this topic! So you’ll be able to get all the great content those of us in her RootsTech audience experienced (and probably more). I’ll be sure and post when that’s available.

In the meantime, take a look at this handout and see whether you might be able to take some steps to tackle one of your boxes while you’ve got extra time at home.

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.

The beauty of a genealogy buddy

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The joy of a genealogy buddyLast month, I had a genealogy play date. My friend Vickie Sheridan, whom I met through this blog, and I met at the History and Genealogy department at the St. Louis County Library headquarters. The library has great resources. But that’s not the only reason we met. There are many benefits of having a genealogy friend to research with–even if you share no common research interests. These benefits include:

  • Setting aside time for research. By putting a six-hour (including lunch) genealogy date on my calendar, I elevated genealogy research on my priority list that day. In a month where I got precious little research done, this day was a stand out.
  • Getting out of the house. I appreciate an excuse to go to the genealogy library, rather than researching online at home. I have more resources available to me at the library (including access to documents on Family Search that I can’t access at home). Having a dates gets me away from my desk.
  • Keeping me focused on my research. When I’m researching quietly beside a friend who’s also researching, I tend to stay focused, rather than let my mind (or feet) wander.
  • Having someone to brainstorm with. It’s so nice to be able to pick Vickie’s brain (or vice versa). We’ve been genealogy buddies for five years now, so we’re a bit familiar with one another’s research. We try not to interrupt each other’s research, but when we do have questions, it’s really helpful.
  • Our mutual interest in genealogy. Some (most?) of my friends outside the genealogy world really don’t want to hear about my little genealogy victories. But Vickie does!
  • Having company. Genealogy can be such a solitary pursuit. It’s really nice working on my own research in the company of someone else. Vickie is also my genealogy conference buddy. We’ve attended more than ten conferences together–we even drove to Indianapolis together this summer to attend Midwestern Roots. It’s great to have someone to hang out with at conferences.

If you have local friends or family who are also genealogy enthusiasts, I encourage you to get out to a library or cemetery or conference or other genealogy site together. Genealogy buddies are real treasures!