I Need A Do-Over for My Genealogy Do-Over!

Well, I am so far behind...I need a Do-Over for my Genealogy Do-Over!!!

My husband, who has been deployed in Kuwait for the last 6 months, was injured in an accident at the end of December. He is home now and safe but things have been so crazy hectic around here for the past 2 weeks with his treatment & recovery...still a long road ahead of us. I am hoping to get back to the Do-Over soon, spending some time catching up will be a nice way to step away from the chaos of life right now.

So, here is my progress so far with the topics for week 1.

Step 1: Setting Previous Research Aside

So like I said in my first Do-Over post, setting things aside would be pretty easy for me. I only have two binders with research information in them. They are put away in a cabinet, only to be accessed when I begin my researching again after this do-over.

I did a file clean up on my computer, putting any documents and photos that I have in a new file in Dropbox that is labeled "Genealogy Do Over-DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 4/3/2015" --that's the end date of the Genealogy Do-Over and also my birthday! So it will be a birthday present to myself to dig in to those old files and binders with a new research plan.

While I was cleaning up my files I discovered that I have the Legacy software installed on my computer. Not sure when that happened! There were only about a dozen names in a tree, that didn't have any extensive documentation, information, or photos attached, so I deleted the tree. I haven't decided what software I am going to use yet, not til week 7, but I will just leave the Legacy there for now.


Step 2: Preparing to Research

I used to just do a little online research here, a little online research there...and usually in the late hours of the night or wee hours of the morning, when I was in an insomniatic (that's a word, right?) state, so my research notes were most often a mess of scattered-brained scribbles. So my plan for preparing to research is to set aside time each week to do my online research.

I still need to work on Step 3 of week 1...hoping to get to that this coming weekend.

Follow Jenny Morris's board All In A Tree ~ Family History, One Branch At A Time on Pinterest.

A Genealogy Do-Over!

I started researching my family history about 14 years ago. I had no clue what I was doing, so I just started pulling random information from the internet that I thought looked like it might be related to my family. Pretty soon I had a massive amount of information that was all over the place and quickly got flustered and overwhelmed with what to do with it all. I bounced from my paternal family to my maternal family, only briefly focusing on one surname at a time. I would stop when I hit a bare branch and couldn't find any information. I failed to get documented proof of events and stories. It was a mess!

Unfortunately, over the years I have only worked sporadically on my family history and with several moves I have lost some of my research, so I am starting over. It has been awhile since I last climbed our family tree, so I thought I had better start out with a little genealogy "training". So I set out on the internet to learn (again) a little about beginning my family history research. That's when I came across the Genealogy Do-Over.

Original Image Source: GeneaBloggers

This do-over program created by Thomas MacEntee from GeneaBloggers is exactly what I need to start over in my family history research. There are 13 weeks of Genealogy Do-Over topics, each week there will be a post over at GeneaBloggers with tips, advice, and resources to help build a firm foundation in my genealogy and family history research. There is also a Facebook group of over 800 members that are participating in the Genealogy Do-Over.

The topics for the first week of the Do-Over are:

Week 1 – 2-8 January 2015

• Setting Previous Research Aside
• Preparing to Research
• Establishing Base Practices and Guidelines

So far, setting aside previous research is pretty easy, while I have started and restarted several trees in Ancestry.com and/or FamilySearch.org over the past few years- it has been awhile since I have accessed them and I haven't a clue what the login information is - so, there ya go, it's been "set aside" - mostly because I am not going to waste the time trying to figure out how to access them. Besides those research files are such a mess that I wouldn't want to look at them anyway...remember I said I would just grab any information that looked like it fit...yeah well...

I also have a couple binders full of information, copies of documents, photos, and such that is completely unorganized and a mess, so until I get through the first couple of weeks in the Do-Over program to establish my research guidelines those binders will stay in the cabinet.

I will strictly be using good ole' pen and paper, along with EverNote and this blog, for my family history research notes until we get to week 7 (Reviewing Genealogy Database Software) of the Do-Over program - then I should be able to make an educated decision about which software I want to use to record & store my research.

Oh yeah...did I mention that this Genealogy Do-Over Program is completely FREE!

It is my intention to post my progress through the program at the end of each week here on the blog...this is my accountability statement...keep me accountable people, PLEASE!

Follow Jenny Morris's board All In A Tree ~ Finding Family, One Branch At A Time on Pinterest.