Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

How far on the branches do you go?

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Five years ago, I blogged about my quandary over whether to research my collateral lines, rather than focusing on my direct-line ancestors. That I even hesitated to explore collateral lines amazes me because the benefits are now obvious. These collateral lines provide valuable clues. They help verify that the person I’m researching is my person. My family tree is very obviously not complete without them.

Two years ago, I blogged that was rededicating myself to the task of adding siblings; that is, I going back to the censuses or other information I’d downloaded previously and filling in the blanks.

Now I have a new quandary on the other side of the spectrum: Should I limit my research when it comes to the collateral lines? In 2017 and so far in 2018 I’ve focused my research on my Adams line, barely even looking at the other three lines. In doing so, I’ve been able to really explore the collateral lines without feeling any pressure to return to my direct-line ancestors. It’s been really rewarding and fun.

This has added a little complexity in terms of organizing, but nothing I can’t handle. A year ago, I simply had a Collateral subfolder in my Surnames folder with all the source documents I’d downloaded for collateral relatives mixed together–I didn’t have enough to merit subfolders. But when the number of documents started to grow, I created subfolders for the surnames and the individuals, like I do with my direct-line ancestors, except that they fall under the Collateral folder. So the path looks like this:

Genealogy/Surnames/Collateral/[Surname]/[Name of Ancestor (YOB-YOD)]/Document name

I just checked. I have 419 documents in the Collateral folder.

I’m going to the library this afternoon, where I can access certain documents on Family Search that I can’t access at home, because the library is affiliated with the Family History Library. As I was creating the list of look ups in Evernote I realized that they’re for ancestors that are a bit far afield:

  • A marriage document for my 2nd great grandfather’s stepdaughter
  • A marriage document for my great grandfather’s half-brother’s wife’s parents

So I’m wondering whether I should ratchet things back closer to my direct-line ancestors or just continue happily exploring the folks who cross my path.

I thought I’d turn to you and ask. Do you limit who you research, or do you research anyone who is somehow related to you?

Photo by Anders Sandberg via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

New year, new 30 x 30 challenge

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Happy new year! I don’t know about you, but I love starting new habits at the beginning of the month. The beginning of the year is even better! So now seems like a great time to start a new 30 x 30 challenge.

The original intent of the challenge is to challenge yourself to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research for 30 days in a row. I’ve done probably a half dozen of these challenges over the last 2.5 years and the August 2017 one finally stuck. I’ve done research every single day since August 1.

The challenge doesn’t have to be for 30 minutes of  research. Perhaps it’s 30 minutes of genealogy organizing or scanning or whittling away at a backlog. Whatever type of genealogy-related work you’d like to do for 30 minutes a day is perfect for this challenge.

For me, I have a lot going on, so I’m sticking with the original 30 minutes of research. I want to set myself up for success.

Please comment below if you’d like to take on the challenge and let us know what you’ll be working on.

November 30 x 30 check in

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For those of you who signed on for the November 30 x 30 challenge, how did it go? I’d love to hear whether you were able to research/organize for 30 minutes a day during the 30 days of November. If not, did you get more done than you might have without the challenge? I think that setting the intention can be really powerful even if you’re not able to fully keep the commitment.

As for me, thanks to the August 30 x 30 challenge I’ve actually developed the habit of doing genealogy research every morning. I almost always do it for at least 30 minutes, though occasionally I’m so pressed for time that I can’t devote even 30 minutes to it. But I still do something. I haven’t missed a day since August 1 and now it’s built into my morning routine. In case it’s interesting to you, here’s that routine:

  • brush teeth
  • empty dishwasher
  • make coffee
  • take coffee to computer
  • scan email
  • set timer for 30 minutes
  • do genealogy research until the timer goes off
  • get dressed and walk my dog

I build the 30 minutes of research into the calculation when I decide what time to set the alarm to go off. It feels part of my natural rhythm and it’s a wonderful way to start the day! I blogged last month about the benefits of daily research. Building this habit is definitely one of my favorite achievements of 2017.

I’d love to hear how the November challenge went for you. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in a January 2018 challenge!

The value of daily research

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The benefits of dailiy genealogy researchI know some of you work on genealogy research every day. But I think the majority of folks are like I once was. I’d wait until I had a free day or half day on the weekend before I’d do any research. And sometimes when that day finally came I’d be paralyzed with all the choices of things to research and very slow to start. Very occasionally, I wouldn’t get anything done because I couldn’t decide!

This year, I’ve been trying hard to research daily. As I mentioned in my last post introducing a new 30 x 30 challenge, I haven’t missed a day since August 1. That feels great.

It got me thinking about some of the advantages to short, frequent research sessions over long, infrequent ones. Here’s what I came up with.

  1. I’m more connected with my ancestors. Because I’m thinking about them every single day, I don’t have to review everything in order to get started.
  2. I forget less. In addition to researching daily I’m also keeping a very informal research log in Evernote that helps me stay on top of what I’ve researched.
  3. I keep a “next steps” list in my  research log so I know exactly what to work on when I sit down to research in the morning. Overwhelm and paralysis is a thing of the past!
  4. I stay focused. I don’t have the luxury of going down rabbit holes when my timer is going and I know I’ll have to stop before long. This does a great job of keeping me focused. When I’m tempted to get distracted, I just add the bright shiny object to my genealogy task list.
  5. I’ve created a habit! Doing 30 minutes of genealogy research is a great way to start the day. It used to be I’d forget to research. No more. It’s part of my routine and I love it.
  6. It’s easier for me to find 30 minutes a day (3.5 hours a week) than a weekly half day or biweekly full day to research. Taking a whole weekend once a month feels pretty much impossible. I still love having longer sessions–it’s truly a special day when I spend the whole day researching. (Thankfully, I have had a few of those this year.) But daily research means that researching is getting done without my feeling like I’m sacrificing other things.

I really do enjoy longer sessions and I consider those a bonus. This year’s daily research, which is usually a minimum of 30 minutes, means that 2017 will be my most productive year yet when it comes to family history research. And from a time perspective, it’s been really easy!

Join the mailing list!

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.