Genealogy Do Over: Recap or How I Got HERE: Part One

Genealogy Do Over - Restart Button

Well, well, well. Here it is Week Seven. Where am I?

Stuck somewhere back in Week Three or Four.

I lost it. Lost total control. Everything was moving way too fast and my mind was reeling. I kept a paper bag on my desk in my Cave for the increasingly frequent bouts of hyperventilation.

And I wept.

Genealogy is hard ...... When you do it right .....

But here I am. Back in the Cave. Reviewing the topics of the previous weeks. Making yet another checklist of what I did and what is still left to be done.

And, as providence would dictate, these past two weeks I have been flooded with replies to old (some very old) message board posts and new DNA matches - BSO's that distracted me, caught my eye, sucked me in. Took me off course and down the rabbit hole.

Why is it so easy to follow that darn rabbit!?!

Seems I need to recommit. Seems this is a recurring theme. Seems I need to learn some focus.

Or make another checklist.

So. Back to the beginning I go. To the beginning of the year and my grandiose plan of cleaning up my maternal lineage.  I have been avoiding this for several years, as you may know from reading some of my previous posts. The Do Over was my savior. The thing I needed to kick my butt into action. Alas, it is a self-guided course, and I am famous for guiding myself to the coffee pot, facebook, pinterest, what the neighbors are doing next door .......

The beauty of this is that with each "restart" I have made a bit of progress. Each time I "restart" I am a little farther along. I have a bit of new knowledge and a new technique or two under my belt (or should I say in my tool kit).

As I review the past seven weeks I feel terribly lost. Terribly behind. Terribly inadequate. I glance at my paper bag feeling the twinge of overwhelmedness. I pull it together and begin to make a list of all I still need to do:

• Interview the living / conduct self-interview        (Week 2)
• Stupid spreadsheet - stupid, stupid spreadsheet, er, I mean Research Log (Week 3)
• Another stupid, stupid spreadsheet - um, Project and Task Log (Week 4)
• 
  

Wait? That's it?

So what has clearly been holding me up and creating undue anxiety and pig-headedness is the SPREADSHEET!  The elephant in the room that I am trying very hard to ignore as I squeeze past to get to my comfy Cave chair.

Well, if that's all it is maybe I need to just turn my focus on creating this Spreadsheet. I already have the template on my computer...... I'll just go grab a cup of coffee .....

And take a quick peek out the window .....

The Sinking Ship - Genealogy Do Over: Week 6

The SS Genealogy Do Over is going down!

So here it is Week 6. The ship is seriously taking on water, or is it the Kraken? I can't be sure at this point. After weeks adrift I believe I am beginning to hallucinate. For a stretch of time there last week I believed I was pointed in the right direction and that my compass was working. Today however I fear I may never reach shore.

The spreadsheet Kraken takes the ship.

Alright. It's not really that bad. Really. I have made some progress. And I have digressed. I have decided to quite genealogy altogether in a momentary lapse of reason, only to have my hopes renewed by something someone said in the Do Over Group. It is very much akin to sailing a choppy sea.

This week I feel is sort of a breather. I have been reviewing my sources and evaluating my evidence already on the new trees I am building, so I feel I am on track there. I dropped the ball on citing sources last week, I was so busy playing with my tool kit. I have a long way to go, and oh so much to do!

This week I hope to make a little headway on creating (and actually using) my Research Log and Master Project Spreadsheet. I am still balking at the spreadsheet. It's a brand new animal for me (a Kraken?) and I'm having a hard time beginning.

A very hard time.

A painfully hard time.

I'm a pencil and paper kind of gal. I think I might use these PDF forms instead. I can do that. I will do that.

You can hold me accountable.

And toss me a life jacket.

I will not go down with the ship!