I’m a big fan of the Yoga with Adriene YouTube channel. I’ve been doing at-home yoga via free videos hosted by Adriene Mishler for just over two years. I haven’t missed a day since April 1, 2020. This month I’m following her February calendar (called Bridge), doing the video she’s selected for the day.
Why am I mentioning this on my genealogy blog? Today’s video was called Yoga for Self Doubt. It was a lovely practice with an encouraging and empowering message. I love Adriene so much, I often ask myself how I can be more like her. I walked off the yoga mat today with the intention of being more empowering for my clients and the people who read my blogs. So I decided to simply express encouragement and empowerment on the blog today.
If you came to this website because you were confused or overwhelmed about how to organize your genealogy research, I’m here to tell you that as challenging as it might feel, you can do it. It it feels confusing, just get started and the confusion may clear up for you.
Try to let go of any fear that you’ll do it wrong. First of all, there isn’t a right way to organize your genealogy; there’s just the way that works for you. Secondly if you start on a path that doesn’t work for you, you can always tweak it.
Sometimes it can be helpful to do a do-over. Purchase some software, and start entering in your family tree, including only verified facts and citing your sources to back up those facts. That’s what I did when I abandoned my over 100 pages of hand-written (unsourced) five-generation pedigree charts about ten years ago. I take great comfort in knowing I have a solid tree (and I’m improving my source citations and gleaning more information as I work on my source documentation project this month).
If genealogy ever gets you down, please don’t beat yourself up. Remember you’re fully capable of getting back on course. Take a class. Sign up for next week’s Rootstech virtual conference so you can have access to hundreds of free educational sessions for a year. Keep reading genealogy blogs. Use social media to get advice or find cousins who can help.
If you have specific organizing questions related to genealogy, feel free to reach out to me via email and I’ll see if I can help.
Genealogy is an amazing hobby, but I know from experience it’s easy to feel bogged down or overwhelmed. Please don’t feel discouraged. You got this!
Thank you. Today’s message was just as helpful as your quick tips.
Thanks so much, Betsy!
Janine, Thanks for the words of encouragement. I sure need them after completing the Family Tree Magazine’s Mastering Family Tree Maker and Mastering Ancestry.com online courses this month and last! I have been working on my genealogy for 49 years (18 four-drawer file cabinets full of documents for over 600 identified families); have used Family Tree Maker for 32 years (110 trees made with over 86,000 individual people); and have been on Ancestry.com for 20 years (69 trees with over 38,000 individual people). I started a genealogy do over in 2019 after reading your articles and others and realizing that was my best course to actually complete my work correctly. After I sure learned a lot of tips and hints I never knew after completing these two courses, but it turns out I haven’t done a thing right in my program or on Ancestry. I was so disheartened, dismayed and depressed to learn I had to correct 110 trees, then download and merge the 69 trees and over 38,000 people individually!! Your message came just as I needed it and I feel better now, HUGE THANK YOU!! Of course, I also realized I will have to live to 200 years old in order to get this all done…LOL
Oh, Diana, I’m so glad you found my post helpful. This sounds like a big project you have in front of you, but you got this. I urge you to think about what’s important to you. That knowledge can be such an amazing guide in making decisions about how to proceed on things. I wish I could give you hug!
Janine, A great idea and I have thought long and hard many times about why I feel my genealogy is one of the most important things to me. I feel the genealogy helps ground our rather fractured family and give us all something to be proud of in many ways. I have already used it to build self confidence in my daughters, grand daughters and great-granddaughter (8 generations of all girls, and 15 generations of strong women in our direct maternal line so far) and in my three great-grandsons – the first boys born in 8 generations (SURPRISE), so special! It’s true this is a big project for a basically lazy person (lol) but one step at a time, with the many life lessons your articles have taught me helping to make it easy. Oh, and I consider the zen hug you wished to have been caught and treasured! Thank you for that. :-))
Diana, thank you for this second comment! I love that you’re empowering your daughters, granddaughters and your great grandchildren. I so appreciate your taking the time to write this sweet comment.