Like others, I got excited at the prospect of Thomas MacEntee's 'Genealogy Do-Over', and immediately flung myself into the first three topics he is covering this week:
Part 1: Setting Previous Research Aside
There have been many ideas for paper, moving digital files from here to there, labelling things, committing not to look at them and so on. I realised I was wasting precious Do-Over time reading all the helpful posts on Facebook about what everyone else was doing with their files, and took a good, long, hard look at my files.
Paper
I don't actually have too much of this. The reason is not because I am super-organised and have scanned everything to within an inch of its life, but because, at the point where I was most fascinated by genealogy, I was also unemployed and in debt. This, unfortunately, continued for years - and meant that I could not afford to go to places and order things and buy things. So I have ended up with one box of bits of paper, two binders of BMD certificates (from my younger days, when I had money) - and that's pretty much it.
Software, electronic stuff, digital files
Here is my downfall. I can be researching in a very grown-up way, and as soon as I see a new piece of software/program which helps you catalogue your lists of Great-Aunt Ethel's recipes, I'm there, drooling over the keyboard as I download the free trial. It is only then that I realise I haven't got a Great-Aunt Ethel...
So, while others are (literally) 'setting aside' their research, I will be 'setting aside' my magpie-like longing for shiny new programs. I will be turning my 35+ years' worth of research into a reference library, rather than heaving it all into an encrypted folder on my hard drive and throwing away the password.
Part 2: Preparing to Research is for another day. Might even be tomorrow, if I don't get distracted by the latest-and-greatest genealogy software...*grin*
- Setting Previous Research Aside
- Preparing to Research
- Establishing Base Practices and Guidelines
There have been many ideas for paper, moving digital files from here to there, labelling things, committing not to look at them and so on. I realised I was wasting precious Do-Over time reading all the helpful posts on Facebook about what everyone else was doing with their files, and took a good, long, hard look at my files.
Paper
I don't actually have too much of this. The reason is not because I am super-organised and have scanned everything to within an inch of its life, but because, at the point where I was most fascinated by genealogy, I was also unemployed and in debt. This, unfortunately, continued for years - and meant that I could not afford to go to places and order things and buy things. So I have ended up with one box of bits of paper, two binders of BMD certificates (from my younger days, when I had money) - and that's pretty much it.
Software, electronic stuff, digital files
Here is my downfall. I can be researching in a very grown-up way, and as soon as I see a new piece of software/program which helps you catalogue your lists of Great-Aunt Ethel's recipes, I'm there, drooling over the keyboard as I download the free trial. It is only then that I realise I haven't got a Great-Aunt Ethel... So, while others are (literally) 'setting aside' their research, I will be 'setting aside' my magpie-like longing for shiny new programs. I will be turning my 35+ years' worth of research into a reference library, rather than heaving it all into an encrypted folder on my hard drive and throwing away the password.
Part 2: Preparing to Research is for another day. Might even be tomorrow, if I don't get distracted by the latest-and-greatest genealogy software...*grin*
Good luck, Ros, with Thomas's Challenge. I must admit when I first read about it I thought "sign me up", but on reflection I have decided it is not for me, and I am instead adopting Cassmob (Pauleen's) approach of "Revisit, Record, Revise". as my 2015 motto. I look forward to reading about your progress on your "Do Over".
ReplyDeleteI suppose I am what he would call a 'modified participant' i.e. I am not going to set all those years of research aside completely, but I am going to go through his 13 weeks and spruce up the way I do things.
ReplyDelete