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: Recap or How I Got HERE: Part Two

And now for some good news.

I've spent a lot of time dragging my heels, complaining, weeping.

But I have actually accomplished a few things.

This Do Over has been hard. Harder than I imagined. Mostly because of my own inability to stay focused. Stay on task. Allow enough time.

And, there's the wanting to do it all. NOW.

And, of course my squirrell like attention span when there is something I don't want to do because it is not F.U.N. (ahem ... spreadsheet anyone??)

So, here is what I have accomplished over these past seven weeks.

• I set all previous research aside on the portion of my tree that needed the do over. I isolated the branch and am in the process of stripping it bare of all frivolous willy-nilly 'ancestors' I have no proof of. I decided to keep the original research my grandmother had done in tact and build from there - correctly this time. (Week 1)
• I already had some good base practices set from my experience working my paternal line. I had learned a lot of what to do and what not to do and have become a much better researcher because of it. (Week 1)
• My research goal was/is to clean up and well document my maternal line. (Week 2)
• I have been tracking searches with notes and comments attached to the individual ancestor's information page - this seems easiest for me, but I did create a series of notebooks to also do some written documentation. (Week 4)
• I have a nice bookmark "tool kit" going in a subfolder under my Genealogy bookmark tab - so I felt pretty good when this topic arrived! (Week 5)
• I also have been very meticulous at citing sources more recently, learning the hard way what happens when you think you'll "remember". A practice I will carry forward! (Week 5)
• I have also been very good at evaluating evidence. So I feel good about this one too! (Week 6)
• I have begun another bookmark with online education opportunities and have attempted to watch at least one podcast a week. (Week 6)

Huh. Look at that. In reviewing my accomplishments at this 'half-way' point I realize I actually have made some progress. The "hard" stuff (for me) is still left to do, but I seem to have a good handle on some of the other topics and assignments. Alright. Ok.

Yet I still feel lost.

Behind.

Overwhelmed.

I have hours and months of work ahead of me cleaning up and removing "ancestors" that never should have been claimed in the first place. It is a daunting task - one I tip-toed around for years. I still believe it is easier (if easier is the right word for this sort of tedious task) to remove than to re build. Who knows, I may chuck it all in a fit of frustration one afternoon, but for now I plug away like an assassin killing off long dead un-relatives. 

And there's the whole spreadsheet thing (let's not go there, I was feeling so accomplished!).

To be continued .....

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 .....

Tool Kit? Yes, I Have a Tool Kit: Genealogy Do Over Week 5

Well now!! Finally one I have accomplished! Or  have the beginnings of anyway. I just got done organizing my genealogy email inbox, setting up folders and sub folders to park all my interesting tidbits; correspondence, good link lists, etc. Now it's time to clean up and organize my bookmarks!

And what great advice Thomas gave about making sure the links still work. Brilliant. That is one I may not have thought of. This week is going to be easier for me, this is something I can do. (Really. I know I've said it before, but this time I mean it) This is something I don't have to learn. And I love to organize!

The second task this week is to begin to cite sources if you have not done so already. This is something I have actually been going back and redoing little by little over the past year or so. For the Do Over I vowed to re look at my grandmother's Big Box of Stuff and make the appropriate notations in my research where I have acquired the information from her years of sleuthing. I then hope to go back and reprove her findings if she has not listed her source. (I must admit - she was very good at listing sources, I am not as good at reading through all her notations ...) I have not been using a log up to now, I have just been writing notes on each ancestors profile. The log is something I would like to get up and running. It will make it much easier to see where I'm good, and where I need to do further research. All in one place.

So much to do!!

After my melt down and subsequent epiphany last week, I feel I am in a much better place. With the realization that this 13 week Do over is a course of learning, and not a list of tasks that need to be ticked off and accomplished that week I am able to take a breath, take notes, evaluate my strengths and weaknesses and move forward.

I'm still going to use notebooks. I like to write things down. I will start to play with the Research Log and Project and Task Log. It may end up being on paper too .... we'll see. I will make no promises and will undoubtedly change my mind several times.

But I'm beginning to see a light where I once saw darkness.

Sure hope it's not a train ......

There Will Be Weeping And Gnashing Of Teeth: Genealogy Do-Over Recap: Weeks 1 - 4

What have I gotten myself into? I like a good challenge as much as the next gal but I am really feeling in over my head here. In my other (non-genealogy) life I am in the middle of leaving one position (read steady paycheck) and beginning a new chapter in my life as my own boss. (Again) Not much stress there, right?  Throw in the Mercury Retrograde, a colonoscopy, scheduling cataract surgery. winter, old dogs, not one, but two genealogy challenges, and a slew of other everyday stuff we all have to deal with, and there will be weeping. And gnashing of teeth. And more weeping.

There is so much information being discussed in the facebook Do-Over group that I can't keep up. And so much of it is over my head! I admit to being a technology toddler. I though I had a pretty good knowledge of genealogy, I've been at it since the 70's, but it's all on paper and hurts my head to think of how I am going to get it all into the programs people are talking about.

I downloaded Dropbox. I downloaded Evernote. Now I have these cute icons on my computer! Yay me! I have a new Win8.1 laptop that I can't figure out. I had hoped to install FTM (latest version) on it and finally learn how to use the darn program. But when I did it made the computer all wonky. So I uninstalled it. And installed it on my Win 7 desktop. GREAT. Now all my Ancestry synced trees have at least three entries for each Timeline item. Awesome. More weeping.

I love genealogy. I would do it 24 hours 7 days a week. I don't love all the stuff I'm not understanding. It is making me angry. And frustrated. And really, really stressed out. Which is the opposite of what a hobby is supposed to be.

My ultimate goal (from Week 2) with this Do-Over is to have a true, clean, sourced and correct pedigree. This will take some time. Perhaps lots of time. Perhaps years of time. It won't/can't happen in just 13 weeks. And I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to.

I got so caught up in the excitement, the flood of new information, the possibilities of doing it over. Of imagining that it would be just that easy, that I could undo all my mistakes in 13 weeks and come out the other side with a sparkly new true and genuine pedigree.

But here's the thing ....

That will never happen. It's not supposed to.

My Aha! moment came this afternoon, after both weeping and gnashing of teeth. This 13 weeks is a classroom to learn new things. To take notes. To try some new techniques. To do a little or a lot. To take what you like and leave the rest. NOT to redo your pedigree. That comes later. After the learning.

I feel like I have been in a wrestling match these last four weeks. Trying to figure out what was right for me. Trying to keep up. Trying to master everything that was being presented, immediately. Spending untold hours on facebook reading post after post until well into the night. Weeping.

Clearly I had become gluttonous, I had attempted to eat the entire elephant in one sitting. I had  forgotten what I had vowed here,
and here.



The clouds parted, the sun shone, and the angels sang this afternoon when I had my epiphany. I am taking a deep breath, a giant step backward and a hands-off approach to the remainder of the Do-Over. I will still lurk in the Do-Over group, but I will not become overwhelmed. I will read the assignment/lesson plan/syllabus for the week and make notes, but I will not become overwhelmed. I will start at the beginning, again.                   And take
                                One bite at a time ......

That is how you eat an elephant.

Not Enough Hours In The Day: Genealogy Do-Over Week 4

ARGH!!!! I am feeling the effects of information overload coupled with way too much to do in my non-genealogy life.

Thirteen weeks? Not nearly enough time!! The next two months I'll be lucky to get even two hours a week alone in my Genealogy Cave. My organization has turned to chaos as I write post-it after post-it of need-to-do's.

I feel my digital files are not well enough organized. I'm still finding the odd photo or document not in it's proper place. (post-it to make time to sort through all docs and pics on computer) My interviews? Well, how am I supposed to interview everyone on my list in a week!? (post-it to find email address of relatives, draft email, send email) I have committed to learn to use the dreaded spreadsheet. (post-it to learn how to use a spreadsheet) I want to create a set of documents to store notes, to-do's, etc. on my computer instead of hand writing everything (post-it to created docs for plan, to-do list, etc) Learn to use Dropbox (post-it to learn to use Dropbox) .... well, you get the idea.

I feel like I'm swimming against the current. Working hard and getting nowhere.

So today I decided to be realistic. This is not a competition. This is a learning process. I want to take my time, slow down and really focus on each step for as long as it takes. My ultimate goal with the Do-Over is to have a well sourced, true pedigree. One I can proudly upload publically knowing it is 100% correct.

And that will take some time.

This afternoon I made a fresh pot of coffee and dialed up the Genealogy Do-Over web post from Legacy. I felt a great weight lift from my shoulders as Thomas reassured us that this will take time. That life will happen. That it might take 13 weeks, 13 months or 13 years ..... and that's OK. 

Yes, yes it IS OK. I'm OK. It's all good. (and I can throw away that post-it about spreadsheets!)

So, I'm back at the beginning, taking one bite at a time, doing what I can, when I can. The difference is now I have a support group and some great tools to use, so when life takes my attention I'll have a documented place to again pick up the quest. No more two steps forward, one step back for me! I've got all the time I need .....

I think thirteen months is quite doable.

Pruning The Tree: Genealogy Do-Over

Since I began the Genealogy Do Over on Jan 1, I have been working on cleaning up some bad info I had linked to my tree early on in my genealogy adventure. I have decided the best way, for me, to address this issue is to break down my tree into four mini trees. One for each of my grandparents. My paternal side is mostly good, and doesn't need a complete genealogy do-over overhaul. I have set those two mini trees aside. For now.

My maternal side ..... whole different story entirely. It desperately calls for a complete re-do. BUT I did not want to mess with anything on my main tree, so I left that intact and just set it aside. I have created two sets of mini trees for my maternal grandparents. One with collateral and one direct only. I started with the direct only and began ruthlessly pruning anyone that was not either a) in my grandmother's original research or b) sourced with legitimate sources 

First to go: everyone collected from Public Family Trees. I had "relatives" as far back as the 1100's! What was I thinking? Eager newbie. Now I'm paying the price of being an enthusiastic clickophile. This will take some time.

Public Tree Hints - Oh My!!!

One problem solved.

What I am discovering is that I really like the clean, neat, direct line I am creating. I can work it. It makes sense. And I really don't care about all the offspring of my 6th great grandparents. Sorry. I just don't. I had an epiphany last night as I was pruning. With all the "One Trees" out there now, that might be the way to go for collateral relatives. Once my direct tree is cleaned and sourced I am thinking of uploading it to FamilySearch or WikiTree and using THAT as my collateral tree. 

It's a thought in progress. I could change my mind. Probably will a few times before I settle on a direction I feel most comfortable with. But it is making sense to me for the moment.

I am beginning to see a light at the end of this crazy ancestral maze I have built over the last 10 years. I wish I hadn't been so afraid of a little pruning earlier on, I might have saved myself some time and been on to better things. Ah well. Lesson learned. The hard way. This time. 

Grandma's Big Box Of Stuff: Setting Research Goals: Genealogy Do-Over

This week we are asked to set research goals.

As my Do-Over is a complete redo of my maternal lineage, this is fantastic! I inherited a big box of all my maternal grandmother's hand written research dating from the 1940's to the 1980's, when she passed away. Her handwriting is terribly hard to read so I have been putting off this task, for years! But it is the place I need to start. It has so overwhelmed me that I have ignored it, until now.

The only person who can really make sense of it is my mother. Brilliant! Why? Because we are also asked to conduct family interviews. What better way to "kill two birds" as it were, then asking my mom to read the research to me while I interview her!

This will most likely not happen this week as she lives a good distance from me and would require a long car trip to visit.

ETPT - Genealogy Queen

But I do plan on going through all the papers and making two files. One I can read, one I can't (that's where mom comes in). The research goal I am setting this week for the Do-Over, is to thoroughly document, enter, or otherwise read every shred of my grandmother's research to set a solid foundation on which to build.

My grandmother was a lot like I am. She had the entire family in her head. She could rattle off facts and knew who married whom, when, where, etc. BUT it is all written by hand or badly typed and stored in paper folders, aging very ungracefully. There is correspondence to cousins, a collection of obituaries, letters to counties and states, newspaper clippings, more. She had made a 5 gen pedigree, but her research goes back so much farther. I am grateful that she made such thorough notes. My goal is to get it all together and recorded digitally.

She would have loved this new digital age of genealogy! I know she is with me in spirit.