Two weeks ago, I started a 30 x 30 challenge in which I committed to working at least 30 minutes each day on my family history research for 30 days. My challenge goes from November 2 to December 1.
I’m happy to say that I’ve kept with my commitment, with the exception of Election Day, November 8. I was able to cut myself some slack over that (because: Election Day), especially since I spent the bulk of the day on November 6 working on my project.
During these past two weeks, I’ve been working on processing my great great grandfather’s Civil War pension file, which I received in the mail last year from the National Archives. What do I mean by processing? I detailed the procedure in a previous post, but in a nutshell, this is the drill:
- Put the documents in chronological order (they were in no particular order)
- Number the documents.
- Create a label for each with a source citation.
- Affix the labels.
- Scan the whole thing.
- Transcribe each document
- Abstract each document (that is, pluck out the salient data from each record).
I did this for the first of the three Union pension files I have, for my 3rd great grandfather, Richard Anderson Jeffries. The transcribing took place during an August 2015 30 x 30 challenge. It was a really beneficial effort.
For this current file, that of George Washington Adams, the task is more daunting. R.A. Jeffries had 27 documents in his file. G.W. Adams had 138. That’s right, five times as many.
I had already put the documents in order and started the labels some time in the last year. During this month’s 30 x 30 challenge I finished the labels, did the scanning and am now in transcribing mode. At least with the early documents, I find I can get about one document transcribed in 30 minutes. Sometimes I’ll also fit in abstracting a document in that time frame. So far, I have seven documents transcribed. Only 131 to go.
Obviously, if I do this 30 minutes at a time it will take several months of daily effort to complete. I’m going to try to put more than a half hour in most days. But I can tell you one great benefit of the challenge: If I hadn’t committed to 30 minutes a day, I think I’d have hesitated to get started because the task is so daunting. I have another couple of weeks in the challenge and by the end of it at least I’ll have a toe hold on the project.
The good news is that the information gets more interesting the further into the pension file I get. (There were some allegations of wrongdoing.) So a carrot is being dangled in front of my nose. And some of those later documents are really short so they shouldn’t take so long to transcribe.
I’m so grateful to have this focus and this time limit to get me through this somewhat tedious, if rewarding, project.
How about you? If you signed on to do the 30 x 30 challenge, how’s it going?
OH, I hate to say this, I failed miserably, a few days into it, I tripped up on a sidewalk and ended up with a fractured left elbow. I am only on the computer with great limitations. So, instead, I have spent hours reading, in particular about Evernote and using it for genealogy. However, I did manage to complete and get my accreditation through ICAP as a professional genealogist! A big accomplishment, it took me 5 years to complete the project. Whew! I rescheduled my 30 days for Jan 1, if I can avoid surgery! this is a fantastic idea and more of us need to do it!
Oh, Maria, I’m so sorry to hear about your injury!! I hope you heal swiftly and can avoid surgery. Congratulations on getting your accreditation! That’s fantastic. Let me know if you do a 30 x 30 starting January 1. Perhaps I’ll join you!
I totally missed the opportunity to join! Tell you what, I will pitch in as a 30×15 challenger and sneak across the finish line with you. And yes, for your huge project, “well begun is half done”. My goal is to get a “family narrative so far” for my dad’s side of the family before Christmas. I’m paralyzed because I want it to be SOOOO awesome that they will care about the family history.
A 30 x 15 challenge for you sounds great! Little by little you’ll get that family narrative done! Trust me that whatever you do on it–even if it’s not perfect–will be appreciated! Keep us posted as to your progress!
Janine,
I want to let you know that your wonderful blog post is listed in today’s Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-november-18_18.html
Have a great weekend!
Thanks so much, Jana! I hope you have a great weekend too, and a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I have stumbled upon your blog twice this morning! Thank you for all of the great inspiration and ideas. I have been interested in genealogy since I was in elementary school, much of which began during visits to my grandparents’ farm in Ohio. I have thousands of documents and vintage family photos. So when I recently (re)married, my husband knew very little about his family line because his mother kept many things a secret. I determined in my mind, with God’s help, I was going to find out the real stories, and it has been an exciting road of discovery. I said all of that to say that I’m working on a family scrapbook for my husband and my bonus daughter who knows even less about her dad’s side than he does! I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the information and “stuff” and wondering how in the world I would ever get it all on pretty paper 🙂 when you provided just the inspiration I need! Breaking it down into 30 minute increments, determining to do this daily, is just the push I needed! Thank you!
Judy, I’m so glad that the concept of the 30 x 30 challenge has been helpful! Breaking an overwhelming task into small bites is one to get past overwhelm and get to work. Thanks so much for commenting.
Would you mind sharing what a ‘label’ looks like?
Lynda, there’s a picture of the label at the top of this blog post: https://organizeyourfamilyhistory.com/processing-civil-war-pension-files/. I hope that’s helpful!