Genealogy Do-Over: The Go-Over 3.4

Even though this year's Do-Over is monthly rather than weekly, I still feel like I'm scattered in too many directions sometimes. It's very hard to ignore some of the BSO's that pop up. Irish parish records free for a week, a month of FindMyPast for $1.

I HAVE to look a them! I just have to!

But I am making some headway. Every day I see a little less chaos and a little more organization.

Those files that went missing last week? Found 'em.

In my OCD organizing frenzy I moved the files to a new folder on my computer, thus confusing FTM. All is good now. Things have been restored to some semblance of sanity.

My binder project is humming right along, things that have not seen the light of day for a decade or more are being housed out in the open where I can access them. Even found some death certs I didn't know I had!

My new family group sheets are offering some great research opportunities.

I am working on my own 'story', it will be ongoing I feel.

My mother does not want to play along at the moment, and she is the only one left, so the family interviews will have to wait until I can be more stealth about it. I have been in contact with a few second cousins who have some interesting tidbits farther up the tree. It all adds to the crazy quilt of my family history. And makes for some additional research topics being added to the list of research goals.

There is still so much to do, I fear I will never see the actual light at the end of the tunnel. (Or outside the Cave)

But, let's get real. This is genealogy! It's never done!

Genealogy Do-Over: The Go-Over 3.3

Month Three. Week Three. Like the time change, I feel like I'm leaping forward. In a good way. Things are starting to come together. I am getting a clearer picture, things are coming into focus.

Of course, I could be eating my words a little farther down the line. It's been known to happen.

So far I have started to sort through my "stuff". I purchased binders and have started to file things appropriately. I started to sort and label all my downloads, docs and photos - that is an ongoing process. I really liked Debra Monsive's Organizing Your Genealogical Records pdf in the File section of the FB group. I got some good ideas and spun my own version so it made sense to me. In the future I'd LOVE to get one of those big honkin' file folders, but alas I currently have no room for it. Binders will have to do.

I am still working on locating some of my "essential" documents. That goes along with my organization. It's a bit of a rat's nest in the computer - the paper stuff I'm better at keeping reasonably sorted (reasonably .... still can't always locate something immediately, I'm working on that).

I've created a nice little Personal Fact List that I can print or fill out on the computer. It will help me determine what I have and what I am missing.

Still can't embrace the spreadsheet. I try at least once a week. But, my distaste for it has led me to create other things that I WILL use.

I have decided to redo/update my family group sheets. I can get OCD when I start to organize.

I feel like I am still preparing to research and setting research goals. And some days I find myself hyperventilating at the ginormity of the task at hand. Hopefully I will look back and laugh when it all falls smoothly into place.

Today threw me a curveball. I was sitting down to do some more organizing and all my family trees have disappeared from FTM!! All of them!! I had to just walk away. They are gone from Legacy too. The FTM trees were half linked to Ancestry (so I can easily restore them) and half non-online trees (not so easily restored). I'm not crying yet, but perhaps the computer gnomes who took my files decided I really did need to do a complete Do-Over!

Made me realize I still need paper "back ups" as much as computer "back ups".

The work continues ........

Genealogy Do-Over 2016: The Go-Over 3.2

As we enter Week Two of Month Three of the Great Genealogy Do-Over, 2016 edition, I must make a confession ..... or three.

I thought I was humming right along. Keeping up. Following in spirit, if not in letter.

But then I started to really look at things.

On the side, I am doing a 30 x 30 challenge to organize my more immediate ancestors. I had gotten as far as my maternal grandmother when the wheels came off.

I thought I had a lot more on her (physically) than I apparently did. I rummaged through the box of stuff I had inherited when my dad passed.

Found zip.

On her.

Found a bunch of great stuff on other ancestors that I had not organized or classified yet. (How did I miss this box?)

Went to the files on my computer. The {apparently} very unorganized files on my computer. Sure the file says GENEALOGY and there are rudimentary subfolders. There's a lot of good stuff in that file, by the looks of it. But for the most part it's really just a big cyber genealogy junk drawer. Everything jumbled together, torn, folded, crumpled - bits of string, a stray paperclip ... oh, there's that old resume, how'd that get here?

How can you get any real research done with this sort of chaos?

Adding to the chaos, it dawned on me that there were files on at least three other computers around the house ..... three!!!

I've been bad.

But today I am making amends.
And a new plan.

I am stocking up on binders, plastic sleeves and a My Passport external hard drive that I will use exclusively for my genealogy files, photos, etc.

Yes, I do have an external HD now (two, actually). Yes, I do back up daily to the 'cloud' and monthly to the HD's. BUT the hard drives are not exclusive, and that is what I think I need.

I am still a lover of paper, and would prefer to print all my docs and put them in binders, but I am working to embrace the new. Perhaps this is why my computer files and folders are so neglected.

Don't even get me started on bookmarks.......

..... to be continued

Genealogy Do-Over 2016: The Go-Over - Month Three

Month Three.

Giving myself permission to do this challenge as a Go-Over this time around has really helped ease the pressure I was imposing upon myself to "get it right" last year.

Obviously, my stuff was pretty messed up or I would not have attempted the Do-Over to begin with. I needed help, and all I had been doing was avoiding the icky bits, stepping around the sink hole of "oh my gosh, what have I done", and basically just shutting my eyes to the whole situation. In the race to win genealogy one does make quite the mess!

But there were whole areas of research I was eager to tackle, if not for the mountain of confusion I had created all on my own. (With a little help from some confusing ancestors, I will confess .... Tidewater Virginia Families anyone?)

Anywho, where was I?

Oh, right - Month Three.

Last night I pulled out all the old family group sheets I had and compared them with my tree. The tree, as I suspected, was in much better shape and had more detail than the group sheets. Phew.

BUT, I am missing quite a bit of 'basic' information that may still be available to me through speaking with family. I say may as my mother is the only family still living and she has a bit of a memory problem. The missing information is mostly on my dad's side of the family and, lucky me, he was an only child! No aunts, uncles or cousins there. In a cruel twist of irony, my dad's uncle was an avid family historian and sent my dad bits of family lore that were kept tucked away. He left a good summary on earlier generations that I was able to add to, and a brilliant write-up on himself, but nothing, nothing, on his sister, my grandmother. The one who is missing serious amounts of information! Guess he figured my dad already knew everything .......

My mom's mom, the Genealogy Queen, has left a good collection of family stories that I started to go through last year. I'll relook at those and ask my mom if she has anything to add. At Christmas I did get a little more information out of her than I knew before.

As they say, the genealogy bug tends to skip a generation and that is certainly the case with my mom. She likes to hear about what I discover, but she has no real interest in it herself.

I'm still working on organizing and labeling my digital media. I have a huge dump folder labeled "GENEALOGY" and then sub folders to sort to. The sub folders are a work in progress as I go and contain their own sub folders. It works for me. At least for now.

I am also still tweaking my paper folders, and truth be told, still have a bunch of scanning to do - just came across my grandmother's stenography diploma (I knew I had it .... somewhere) Now it is in the "to scan" pile.

But I have a plan and I am making progress!! Little by little, bit by bit.

This go-round I feel like I can breathe.

Genealogy Do-Over 2016: The Go-Over, Month Two

Well here we are. The end of Month Two. How's everybody doing? I feel pretty good this go-round, actually*. The month-long mosey, instead of the week-long sprint is suiting me just fine!

For this month of the Do-Over: Go-Over I have a pretty good handle on my base practices, seeing as I was so wildly out of control previously. I learned the hard way what not to do, and what to always do. I did not always make notes as to where I got some of my information when I first started out (insanely thinking I would actually remember - years later!!!), but in the last several years I have developed the habit of leaving notes and comments on each ancestor profile so I can easily see what I have and have not done, still need to do, or why I did it. Also, a big one, taking enough time with each document as to squeeze all the juice out before moving on to the next. The relatives, as it turns out, are not going anywhere! Genealogy is not a race! Adding more "trophies"  to the tree just makes for a lot of unnecessary, miserable work later. (Believe me, I know!)

I have initiated a side challenge, the 30 x 30 research challenge, which dovetails perfectly with the second topic for the month: Setting Research Goals. I intend to focus on one ancestor a day, for 30 minutes only, and determine what facts, documents and information I already have and what I am missing. I am planning on starting with my third, fourth and fifth generation ancestors - looking into some sixth generation ancestors if needed to fulfill my 30x30 goal.  I already know I will have a long list for all of my grandparents, there are many gaps in the information I have. I've already researched some of my great- and second great-grandparents for the 52 Ancestors challenge, but I will relook at everyone on my list by month's end.

Oh, reading that just now kinda overwhelmed me.

*In all honesty, even with the month, instead of the week, to pursue these goals/topics I still get a flush of panic when I think of all that I would like to accomplish AND still have a life outside the Cave. (What? You have a life outside of genealogy? Do tell!)

Baby steps. One task at a time.

Rome did not get built in a day.

Ok, I can do this. Phew.

Looking ahead to the Month Three and Month Four topics, this plan seems to set me up well for what will be required in the next two months. Fingers crossed and with a little help from the genealogy fairies (yes, I do believe in them) this ship should sail smoothly forward .......

Genealogy Do-Over 2016: The Go-Over

Last year I jumped in with both feet and fully embraced the Do-Over. I signed up, and showed up on Day One, bright-eyed and eager to fix the big gaping mess I had created in my race to "win" genealogy. I started off strong and made some good headway.

I also did a great deal of weeping and a fair amount of gnashing of teeth.

I finally hoisted the white flag of surrender somewhere around Cycle 3 - Week 7. Each round of the Do-Over got me further along, but there was so much everyday life minutiae getting in my way that I just gave up. The pace was too frantic, my life too hectic.

I dabbled, secretly, in the Cave when time permitted. I lurked in the shadows of the Facebook Do-Over Group. I followed a few BSO's down their rabbit holes. I realized that I HATE spreadsheets .... and that's OK. The one I created will most assuredly go unused, collecting cyber-dust. I love my notebooks and more importantly I will USE my notebooks.

Along about mid December I made a bold decision to "rip the band-aid off" and just prune the living bejezus out of the wildly out of control tree I had been avoiding since around 2009. The decision probably was made post Wine O'Clock, like most good brash decisions, but I ran with it - fueled by the claret courage of Merlot.

Do not be alarmed!!

I made a full backup copy first. (I hadn't that much "courage")

Once I got started - man did it feel good! I felt like a ninja assassin, hunting down unattached names and family groups that had no business in my tree to begin with. I went "hunting" nightly for almost 5 weeks (yes, it was that out of control - and truth be told I felt a little like Katniss). I trimmed that tree down to a third of it's original size! I came out the other side with a thing of beauty. Much like pruning a rose bush to encourage growth, just like I did to my ancient lilac bush last year.

I bought the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook in preparation of jumping in again in 2016, and actually finishing this time! As I began to skim the contents I was delighted to read of the Go-Over. Yes! The Go-Over! Brilliant - exactly what I needed. Now that my tree is slim and my sources good my next course of action is a good going over.

Hooray!

Month One is nearly finished up. My files got organized last year and the documents I have been downloading as I pruned are almost all categorized and labeled. I still need to make a 'research areas and improvements' list, but I have a fairly good handle on things.

All in all I am feeling pretty darn confident that I will see this through to the conclusion this time around.