Working, My Way

Everyone finds their own way of doing things. Each one different. If you try to follow someone else's method to the letter, it usually does not work. I started Thomas MacEntee's "Genealogy Do Over" a couple of years ago. My goal was to find my own way of doing things while cleaning up the mess of 30 plus years of learning how and researching, mostly old school. People are going paperless now. I won't do that. I do keep everything on an external hard drive and in the cloud. I don't trust electronic anything enough to put all my work into it without a hard copy backup. I work better seeing things in print, holding it in my hands. I was never able to go Kindle for pleasure reading. I love books around me. I love their feel. So, I know me well enough to know what I need to work well. I knew before-hand that I would be mirroring my files off-computer with my files on computer. Everything in the folders would match. I also know if I type something, I will not remember it. If I write it down on paper I remember. Something about seeing it on paper does something to my brain. It's just me, or maybe magic.

I watch for blogs and stories online about organizing research and read it closely. Perhaps I will find a little tidbit that I can incorporate into my system that will make it work even better. In Drew Smith's book "Organize Your Genealogy", Chapter Five settled my question on whether I would use binders or file folders. I had been leaning toward binders until then. Binders might look nice and store nicely, but folders are mobile. I had not thought about it quite that way before. His file naming system is one I have decided to use. But I don't agree with him on everything. To me an empty desk is an empty mind. My desktop on the computer and off is a mess when I am working. It's a comforting mess (to me). Anyway, his book stays nearby. I pick it up when I need advice on how to organize something. It's been very helpful, even though I don't use all his ideas. There are still things in it I intend to do. Email set up, mind-mapping, and organizing goals, things that never occured to me. I definately recommend this book for anyone trying to get their genealogical materials and work habits organized. You don't have to follow all his ideas, only the ones you can work with.

I'm trying to log all my research. I have a couple of GenWeb sites that I coordinate and I keep careful log books to know when I put data online, what it was and the reaction to it. I check the counter to see what makes page loads uptick. Is it obituaries or cemeteries? I check my logs for my search engines to see if one name pops up over and over. I can manage what I need to try to get online now, by those factors. Now, I need to apply that kind of thing to my own research.  I should have been doing so all along, but was not. Now is the time!

I use RootsMagic for my main work. I really like to have a 2nd program, and I bought Heredis for that purpose. I updated it to the 2018 version recently and it would not import a gedcom file. Useless to me under that circumstance. I tried to get a fix and they did release one, but it did not make a difference. What a waste. I need to find a second program. I am not fond of Legacy, but I have already wasted money on Heredis, so a free option would be nice.

What to do, that is the question. I am pleased at the way things are going right now. The files are looking nicer, my tree is neater and sourced better. Still much to be done, but things are looking up.

Source:
Smith, Drew. Organize Your Genealogy; Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher. Family Tree Books, 2016.

MacEntee, Thomas: The Genealogy Do-Over Workbook Paperback 2015