Finally Get Organized! -Week 4

First of all I want to thank DearMyrtle for taking a slight break from our getting organized and looking at “pay back time”. See her blog for this week at http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2016/01/finally-get-organized-24th-31st-jan.html.

Her first two suggested tasks this week involve FamilySearch.org.

1 – Volunteer at FamilySearch Indexing – helping with indexing is easier than you think. If you only volunteer one hour a week, that would end up to about 50 hours a years. Or volunteer one week a year for about 20 to 30 hours. I find the one hour a week is easier and keeps my work fresh. Trying to index too much in one day can be exhausting. When we get exhausted we make mistakes. So try your hand at Indexing and “pay it back”, this was the main reason I started volunteering.

2 – Learn to browse the image collections at FamilySearch.org – this is a feature that many don’t realize they can do. Before a collection is index, you can only access the collection by browsing. For those of you who don’t know about browsing, it is similar to viewing records via microfilm. In this electronic age of genealogy, many “new” researchers get spoiled by thinking they can find everything on-line via an index. I have spent many an hour at the library, scrolling through microfilms. See Ol’ Myrt’s blog for wonderful examples on how to tell which collections you can only Browse. This was a wonderful reminder for me, since I too, rely too much on indexed collections.

3 – Create surname binders for yourself (if female) and your mother’s maiden name, but leave them at that for the moment. Again, I am working with folders, I totally understand handing a binder to a non-genealogist family member is a wonderful idea, but I and binders don’t get along real good. Plus I have started that folder system years ago, and I am not willing to give it up quite yet.  

4 – Update your genealogy program to include your siblings – with birth and marriage information. Make sure photos and documents are transcribed and cited before attaching to the appropriate individuals as well.

Even though I still haven’t gotten caught up on my previous tasks that need to be done, I just add these additional people to my to-do list and continue working on the list.

So back to Finally Get Organized! Checklists.