Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

How’d your February 30 x 30 challenge go?

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The February 30 x 30 challenge is over (or almost over depending on when you started). How did it go? Did you work on your goal every day? Did you find that the challenge helped keep you on task?

I did pretty well. My plan was to work every day, even if it wasn’t for 30 minutes, and I was going focus on going through my source documents, making sure that I had plucked all the information from each document, attached it to the source record and properly cited it. I hoped to get through 30 documents.

It didn’t quite work out that way. I was able to work every day until February 25. That’s when RootsTech started and when I went off the rails of my 30 x 30 challenge. But I was okay with that, since with RootsTech I was at least thinking about genealogy. I thought it would be quick to go through my source documentation but what ended up happening was that the source documents sparked more questions (typically about collateral relatives who early on I wasn’t researching). So I pursued more information, rather than putting aside these bright shiny objects for later. The result? I had an enjoyable 26 days of daily research. But I verified only 10 sources! (Sources 91 through 100.) I still call it a successful month, though.

I hope you were even more successful than me. If you participated in the challenge, please let us know in the comments how you did!

February 30 x 30 mid-month check-in

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Sunday marks the half-way point in our February 30 x 30 challenge, but I though I’d start the check-in a little early. If you are participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, now’s your chance to give us an update in the comments.

I’ve had a good month so far. I’ve researched every day. (I started on January 30, actually, so I’d get 30 days in by the end of February.) Typically, my goal for a 30 x 30 challenge is to do 30 minutes of genealogy research for 30 days in a row. But this time I decided to cut myself some slack. Instead of 30 minutes a day, my goal is to get through 30 source citations in my source documentation checklist. I’m going through my sources in numerical order and checking to make sure that all the information I now put into a source is there (spoiler alert: so far all the source records have lacked information). Also, I’m looking at each source record to see whether I gleaned all the possible information I could from it (not usually). When I set the goal of going through 30 source citations in 30 days I figured that would be very easy to achieve.

It’s not exactly going as planned. I started this 30 x 30 by checking Source 91. Now, 14 days later, I am on Source 98. For a number of the sources, I needed to do some further research in order to verify the information. And you know what? That’s just fine with me. In my research log each day, I’ve written down the next steps I need to do before I’m comfortable moving on to the next source. Since I’m looking at early sources (documents downloaded in 2012 when I was quite new to serious genealogical research), the going is slower. It should pick up when I get to later sources.

Will I manage to get 30 sources by the end of the month? Maybe. But as long as I’m putting in at least some effort each day, I will feel very satisfied. And I’m really enjoying the work. One of the things I love about this challenge is that we can each set our own rules and our own standards for satisfaction.

So please tell me: How’s your personal 30 x 30 challenge going so far?

Who’s up for a 30 x 30 challenge?

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February 1 is on Monday and I am itching for a 30 x 30 challenge. Would you like to join me? For the uninitiated, the 30 x 30 challenge is where I challenge myself (and you) to do 30 minutes of genealogy research a day for 30 days in a row. February has only 28 days, so I plan to start tomorrow (January 30). But I think anyone who does daily research (or organizing or whatever other genealogy-related thing you want to do) every day in February can call it a success.

My focus this month will be going through my source documents, which is my goal for 2021. I have an especially long (non-genealogy) task list right now, so I’m giving myself a little grace this month. Instead of asking myself to do 30 minutes of research a day, I’m asking myself to go through one source each day, making sure all the information in it was recorded and that it has a good citation. I’m confident I’ll get more than one source record done a day, so I certainly hope to have more than 30 checked off by the end of this challenge. But it’s daily work that I’m after and I want it to feel easy to accomplish.

How about you? Would you like to join the challenge? Just comment below that you’re in and what you hope to work on (if you’d like to share). I’ll post a mid-month check in and an end-of-the-month wrap up post. I hope the challenge gives that you little push you need to have a wonderfully productive month!

 

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?

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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.