Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Who’s ready for an October 30 x 30 challenge?

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I’m feeling the need again for a 30 x 30 challenge so that I make daily research a priority again. In my 30 x 30 challenges I challenge myself (and anyone who wants to join me) to doing 30 minutes of genealogy every day for 30 days.

I find that when I have a challenge going I’m much more likely to prioritize doing research and get it done first thing in the morning. When I don’t have the outer and inner accountability that a 30 x 30 challenge brings, I sometimes put genealogy research on the back burner.

I love doing my research each day in small bites because it keeps me engaged in my research and usually means that I don’t fall down a rabbit hole in marathon research sessions.

So who would like to join me on October 1? You can work on an organizing task or just do research or whatever else feels beneficial.

Let me know in the comments if you’d like to join me!

Update on my backlog busting

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A month ago today, I wrote a post called searcher vs. researcher, in which I talked about how I’d accumulated a backlog of documents I’d downloaded but done nothing with. I vowed that until I had processed that backlog (using my digital workflow) I would not search for any new documents.

Then I had to amend that vow a little when I realized how difficult it was for me to completely stop searching. I decided that I would search on occasion, but I would process anything I downloaded so that I wouldn’t add to the backlog

Since I started this process, I’ve been diligent about chipping away at my backlog, I’m happy to report. In my informal Evernote research log, I note which documents I processed and the day’s contribution to the backlog reduction.

I even created a simple spreadsheet (of course) that I store in Evernote and update after each session. That little burst of accomplishment keeps me going. Today’s spreadsheet is pictured above; you can click on it to make it bigger if you’re interested.

As of today, September 25, I have processed 62 of the 103 documents in my backlog. I have just 41 to go and am looking forward to the great feeling of finishing. All along, I’ve been making follow up notes (in Evernote), so I’ll have plenty of searching to do when I finish. I’m going to try hard not to let a backlog build up again!

My pause on searching: Easier said than done

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Just over a week ago, in my post called Searcher vs. researcher, I vowed to get through the backlog of documents I had downloaded but never processed and to do no online searching until the backlog was gone. I’ll confess to you that my resolve not to search dissolved the very first day.

My curiosity about certain things that came up while I was processing my backlogged documents could not be satisfied by merely jotting down a note on my follow-up task list. So I quickly amended the vow I’d made to myself. Now, I try not to do any searching and downloading but when I do, I process the new document during the session in which I download it.

This is working out well. I have managed to resist the temptation to search but every now and then I go for it. (For example, when I’m processing a Washington state marriage certificate and I know that Washington marriage license applications, which have more interesting information, are also easily found.)

Today, in processing an 1880 census, a grandchild appeared living with his widowed grandmother and I need to verify whose parent that grandchild is before I can add the grandchild to my genealogy software and consider the census document processed. That’s going to require a little searching online tomorrow and I’m okay with that.

So far, this backlog-busting project is going well. I’ve reduced my backlog by 25 documents in the last ten days and have 78 documents in my backlog remaining. It’s feeling good!

Searcher vs. researcher

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between being a genealogy searcher and being a genealogy researcher. It’s so much fun to go online and track down documents and attach them to a tree or download them. (I know some people like to print them, but not me.) Because so many searchers attach documents to Ancestry trees without evaluating them we end up with an alarming number of inaccurate trees there.

That’s being a searcher. In my opinion, we’re not really researchers unless we analyze the documents we find so that we know they pertain to the person we’re researching, then go through them with a fine-toothed comb, extracting information and storing that data somewhere–with a source citation.

As I’ve written in my post on how I process a downloaded document, I have a digital workflow for the documents I find online, after I determine they belong to my ancestor. In short, I create a source citation and analyze and extract all information from the document and enter that information into my genealogy software. (I use Reunion). I then file the document. On a good day, I process each document as soon as I find it. That’s always my goal.

But the reality is that, especially since I tend to research in short spurts (like 30 minutes a day), I sometimes end up with documents on my hard drive that I’ve downloaded but not yet processed. That’s been happening a lot recently. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I have over 100 documents that I have downloaded that are hanging out on my hard drive, waiting for me process. (At least I changed the file name when I downloaded the documents, so I know at a glance what they are.)

The thing is, these documents won’t do me any good until I process them. I need to read and analyze them and add all facts (with source citation) to my genealogy software in order to benefit from them. But it’s so hard to resist searching, especially when search possibilities pop to mind as I read the downloaded documents.

I want to be a researcher, not a mere searcher. So here’s my vow:

Until the backlog is gone, I will not download any more genealogy documents to my hard drive. I also won’t go to any libraries and bring home paper documents. When searches pop to mind, I will store them in the appropriate follow up notebook in  Evernote to look at when the backlog is gone.

I’m hoping to take a research trip to Kentucky in October. This adds extra urgency to my resolve to get rid of my backlog. You can bet I’ll post here when the backlog is gone!

Do any of you have this particular challenge? Let me know if you’d like to join me in resolving to do no more searching until your backlog of documents you’ve already found is gone. I’d love the company!