I am in a genealogy slump right now. For the past few weeks, I was really getting into a good groove but I am officially burned out! Lately I have been finding documents right and left, things I have been looking for a long time. Now I have a briefcase full of copies and no energy to enter them into Family Tree Maker! I hate that! I am sure these papers will end up in some “to-do” stack and probably never make it into my family tree. Maybe one day they will get processed, but not today!
How many of you out there are in the same place? You get all excited about finding a certain document and when you do, you turn around and get too lazy to properly catalogue and digest it? That seems to be the story of my genealogical life! I love doing the research but I cannot stand the organization. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very organized. I have an excellent filing system and 90% of my data is properly entered and put away. It is that last ten percent that really gets to you and keeps you too depressed to get over the hump.
My usual rule is that I do not go to the archives again until I have entered the data I found last time. However life gets in the way, you know the wife, kids, work, and time slips away. When the next Saturday comes, you pull out the brief case and realize that lasts weeks finds are still in there! You are not going to cancel your trip because of some extra baggage so you haul those papers back to the archives and add them to next weeks organization project. After a few revolutions of this cycle, you can no longer close the briefcase and have to do something, even if it means putting the documents into another “to do” folder.
The best solution I can come up with is to find a genealogy buddy, some close relative that likes data entry and is less interested in the research aspect. I have never found someone like that, mostly because my wife does not trust herself to read old handwriting. The rest of my family could care less about genealogy so I am stuck doing it myself. If anyone is going to catalogue and preserve the family tree, it is going to be me alone. With that in mind, I have to stay motivated, stay organized and take a break once in awhile. This hobby is not meant to be stressful. Stop when you must and restart by cleaning up the old mess when you return, before jumping into any new projects.
How many of you out there are in the same place? You get all excited about finding a certain document and when you do, you turn around and get too lazy to properly catalogue and digest it? That seems to be the story of my genealogical life! I love doing the research but I cannot stand the organization. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very organized. I have an excellent filing system and 90% of my data is properly entered and put away. It is that last ten percent that really gets to you and keeps you too depressed to get over the hump.
My usual rule is that I do not go to the archives again until I have entered the data I found last time. However life gets in the way, you know the wife, kids, work, and time slips away. When the next Saturday comes, you pull out the brief case and realize that lasts weeks finds are still in there! You are not going to cancel your trip because of some extra baggage so you haul those papers back to the archives and add them to next weeks organization project. After a few revolutions of this cycle, you can no longer close the briefcase and have to do something, even if it means putting the documents into another “to do” folder.
The best solution I can come up with is to find a genealogy buddy, some close relative that likes data entry and is less interested in the research aspect. I have never found someone like that, mostly because my wife does not trust herself to read old handwriting. The rest of my family could care less about genealogy so I am stuck doing it myself. If anyone is going to catalogue and preserve the family tree, it is going to be me alone. With that in mind, I have to stay motivated, stay organized and take a break once in awhile. This hobby is not meant to be stressful. Stop when you must and restart by cleaning up the old mess when you return, before jumping into any new projects.
3 comments:
I'm glad I'm not the only one in the same slump once in awhile. I have been doing this since 1999 and in the beginning I didn't enter my research as quickly as I should and I'm still finding some of the info now 10 yrs later. My goal this summer, before I go back to college, is to get my backlog entered into my FTM.
Best advice I can give you...when you make a copy or find some new info, enter it right then into FTM. If you do not, it will pile up quick. I try not to go back to the archives until I have processed what I found on my last trip.
I have two file drawers full and six books full and about 12 folders full. I have started an FTM, but haven't come anywhere close to completing it. I guess I just need to spend some time on it a little at a time.
Jim
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