Sometimes we can get overwhelmed when doing our family history. It seems there is a never ending list of things to do and copy and paste and notate. It is easy to start getting burned out on the day to day research. We may feel like we arent getting anywhere, or we are at a dead end following the B-C-M-D trail.
Good news: You dont HAVE to do the same old stuff every day. There is so much that goes into doing family history that you have a choice of things to work on! Here is a list of easy ways to work on your family history.
update old information
GO THROUGH AND UPDATE ANY NEW BIRTHS/CHRISTENINGS/MARRIAGES/DEATHS: This is one of the easiest ways to be productive in your research. Every year go through your tree and add any new births, christenings/baptisms, marriages and deaths that occurred that year.
GO BACK TO YOUR PREVIOUS RESEARCH: Go back and see if there are any records you are missing. With so much indexing going what was missing last year may now be available online
Organize
ORGANIZE PICTURES: Scan your pictures! Many people have boxes of old pictures laying around, scan, edit and label. Arrange into albums and make sure you back up or save on external drive!
TRANSCRIBE ANY NOTES: If your research is all handwritten, invest in a laptop or computer and start typing out those notes and stories.
DIGITIZE OLD LETTERS AND RECIPES ETC. Like pictures, many people have boxes of old letters and newspaper clippings and old handwritten recipe cards. Get those digitized and organized!! You can scan and organize them, or if you are feeling particularly ambitious, type them out! There have been people who have created books of their ancestors writings or recipes and have had them made and given them as gifts to their family members.
Discover, list, interview and write
DISCOVER THE HOMELAND OF A RELATIVE: Find information on where your ancestors came from. Go online and google pictures. Have an address from a census record? Put it in google maps and see what comes up! You may be amazed!
NAME VARIATIONS: Go through your research and create a list of name variants for people. Remember scribes and census workers and indexers all make mistakes. From bad spelling, to misunderstanding phonetics to poor handwriting and faulty transcription, there are many reasons the spellings could be different on source documents. Cook/Cooke Fuchs/Fox Esch/Eche Broadway/Broadaway Wallace/Wallis…you get the idea
INTERVIEW A FAMILY MEMBER: Call your parent or grandparent. Talk to them about what they remember. Stories, photos, traditions, well that is all part of doing family history research.
RECORD SOME OF YOUR OWN PERSONAL HISTORY. Start writing your narrative. Write down memories and stories of growing up, places you’ve been, things you’ve done. Have pictures with the stories.
social media savvy
START A BLOG OR FAMILY FACEBOOK GROUP. Add pictures and write memories. Invite your relatives to do the same and you may be surprised what memories and information people will have to share once you start posting! You are on Facebook and Instagram anyways, might as well make it worthwhile!
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