I’ve been asked by MyHeritage to do a Facebook Live presentation on their Facebook Page about organizing your family history. When I asked them for a specific topics they’d like me talk about, they said that they’re open to any ideas I might have. The presentation will be 40 minutes of Powerpoint, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A. I have some ideas, but I thought I’d turn to you smart people, since I know you are interested in genealogy organizing, to see what you think would be a good topic for this presentation.
In case you want to attend and ask questions, the Facebook Live will be on Monday, February 7, at 12 noon Central Standard Time. I’m pretty sure the recording of it will remain available. I’ll be sure and post again about that.
I’m excited by this opportunity to reach MyHeritage’s huge audience and I thank you in advance for your input!
Two things come to mind that I have struggled with, in the past: How do you ‘physically’ organize the research you’ve completed? Which ‘pathways’ of researching do you find most effective (to keep from bouncing here, then there, etc.)?
Thanks so much for those suggestions, Trish!
I would like some clue on organizing places. Since I have Swedes, English, German, American, Scots, Canadians it gets confusing. Everyone wants to organize the people, but I haven’t found any organization for the places.
Great idea. I’m not sure I’m very knowledgeable on that. I do know that Amy Johnson Crow organizes some of her research by place…you might check out her blog and see if there’s any help for you on that topic there. Thanks so much for posting.
Do you have one research log or a research log for each person? Is there a way to make the logs searchable so as not to repeat searches?
Thank you, Karen! (Fwiw, my research log is in Evernote, so it’s searchable. And I just have one log.)
try to encourage people to keep going, to take a break when discouraged. I think trying to keep up one’s spirits is super important.
Interesting, Terry. I’m all about encouragement! And I agree that our research can be discouraging and it’s important to keep up the spirits.
How about “Shifting from paper to digital”. May still use paper.
‘may’ should be ‘many’
Thanks, John. That’s a subject near and dear to my heart.
This is such a good question. All I can say to you is I listened to a talk recently from my local society about preparing your family history for donation to the society (if that’s what you want to do) OMG! Talk about a wake-up call. It really made me think about what would happen if I died and my poor family had to deal with this enormous mess that I currently have. The Society spoke about how their volunteers have to go through everything and try and sort it all out. There was the usual advice about removing paperclips and staples and discarding scrappy notes, but also requests for surname trees and so on to help guide them.
Everyone else who has commented on your blog is right too. The physicality of the task – the paperwork it produces and that you then have to organize and then the discipline required to stay on task, despite delightful distractions is tricky to manage. And yes I have folders for places that I don’t know where to put them. And yes finding the perfect research log is a challenge. I’m trying Thomas MacEntee’s Excel spreadsheet and will let you know how I go. And how not to be dispirited and stay motivated in the face of the elephantine task in front of us.
I am so delighted with my cleaner tidier study since I spent a couple of days sorting through all my stuff so I think having a clean tidy environment helps. I just make such a mess when I get going though. And I feel I am a bit of a dinosaur. Still wedded to printing stuff out when I should just keep it all digital. So in the end I do think it is all about process and being disciplined in our process. Sorry for blathering on but these are important questions. All the best with the talk Janine. I’m sure it will be fabulous!
I appreciate the time you took in this response, Alex! Lots to think about.
I would like to know how to organize and utilize all of the research information and DNA matches from My Heritage and even other DNA companies like Ancestry. I’m really liking the color coding although it and the notes could be more efficient.
That is such a good suggestion, Lesley. I would like to know that too! 🙂 That’s something I would really like to become knowledgeable about, but it won’t happen that soon. Thanks again.