I have one foot in the genealogy world and one foot in the “family passed this along” world.
What is one of the biggest challenges to both?
Organization. And for more reasons than the obvious one.
For genealogy-focus folks — did you just make a trip to a library with a family history focus? You have slips of paper, copies of census records, some birth and death certificates and lots of “notes to self” about clues you ran across. Are these still in the same stacks or box you brought home from there?
Even more scary, have you made several ‘research’ trips and just never found time to “sort it all out”? So we are talking MANY boxes. (yes, my name is on that problem too!)
Or in the “other” world, your family helped you clean out your parents’ home but they insisted you were the “perfect member” to take the family history items (and they listed several reasons). No matter how much you protested, those boxes and items ended up in your car heading to your house.
Biggest challenge – organizing it all: I just listened to a genealogy expert who said exactly what I am going to tell you, no matter which family history world you are in – you have to get all those things digitized.
You have to get out of the paper business. Now, don’t get me wrong, save the original documents and records and photos that need to be saved, but all those notes on slips of paper, etc. you can scan and pitch the scraps of paper.
Here’s one I KNOW you will run into – as you organize, you will run into duplicates (ok, even triplicates). Our memory fails us – we see a document and wonder if we have that, so we copy it (once again).
Digitized? Yes, put into a digital form. Convert them – either yourself or use a company that does that. That is the best (and I dare say ONLY) way you can make a system of organization work well – things must be accessible – and the items need to be connected to the persons referenced in them. One birth certificate involves multiple people with rich information about each one – connect that one digitized item to all of them.
If you don’t, you are wasting time looking for things, lose focus (and energy) because of the overwhelm, or go down rabbit holes that take you away from productivity. And I am not just talking about genealogy-focus folks. Any of us with any amount of family history items need them organized.
When one is in the research zone, ready to follow up on one of the big research questions (if you are a genealogist)….
….or you are ready to show your grandson the photo of his great-grandfather who came back from the war in France and married his sweetheart in his WWI uniform (if you are the designated holder of the family history)….
….then you will be ever-so-grateful you walked through the organization steps I am promoting.
OK – maybe you started to organize, but quickly got overwhelmed. I get it – and I hear it said often. But what if you were organized and could find what you need right when you need it? All those records and all those details at your fingertips.
Organization? It helps you solve your ancestor mysteries or questions – as things fall into place, you get a bigger, living picture of that ancestor. It helps you get a sense of the life lived by the family that came before you – and you can pass that along as the family legacy, inspiring others down the line.
I learned, after my parents and all older generations had passed, what really happened just 3 generations ago in my father’s line that changed our surname. My mother had made oblique references to it (“You’re not really a Mudgett”), but I never asked or got the full story. Until I got into family history research.
The full result? I learned so much about the character and values of the related family who took in my great-grandfather and raised him and changed his last name. Plus explanation of the grit and strength of character he developed as I also recognized them in his son, my grandfather (the WWI veteran).
Are you mumbling something about not having time, ability or resources but you sure would like to have your family history items organized? Have them accessible and easy to enjoy?
Are you saying you would just be happy if it was in chrono order so you could view a slideshow style of it? Or are you more of a scrapbooker who would like to create a surname photobook to share? Or anything else rolling around in your mind as to what would make your family history what you want it to be?
Yep, I have a Challenge for you. Whether your goal is clear or you would like to talk it through to figure out what really would work for you, just click HERE and set a time to connect with me – let’s noodle it through to find what is important to you and what is possible.
