Planning your Genealogy Journaling

Photo by Midge Frazel, 2016

Planning your Genealogy Journaling Adventure

This upcoming year, I am going to improve on my genealogy in a new way that is really an old way. As I practice project based genealogy, I am going to plan what I write instead of doing it the way I have done it before. This means fewer blog posts but ones with a high energy approach. I've been testing this out at Facebook where I put some quick to read ideas out there and see if that is enough for people who want to read about genealogy from my perspective. 

After learning about bullet journaling, I decided that I needed to return to paper based calendars, diaries and planners. This is how I managed my life before computers. Nothing beats using the computer to write and communicate. Nothing beats using genealogy software to record and understand where your ancestors came from and lived. However, most of us only want to know how that is done and are not very interested in someone else's ancestors unless they are one they share those same people and places. People enjoy my New England gravestones and the methods that I use for finding, analyzing and recording genealogy.  People want to know what works. It is a bullet point way of life. 

I have spent several months setting up my projects. Some I will blog about and some I will not or I will just mention them on Facebook or in my blogs. 

I have test driven several types of journal systems and I have settled on this one. I put away my flat bed scanner to give myself more space in my office. At the end of my work day, I pick up and take just my journal and my notes downstairs and I put them back on my desk when I go to bed. My iPad and my iPhone help me with communication with other genealogists. 

The trio of photos above will show you my new journal system. My personal life has a different system. I am a calendar and diarist by nature. I love planning and order. I don't like keeping all my information in just one place. The biggest danger is losing information whether it be paper or electronic. My journals rarely leave my house. But, if you take anything with you, make sure everything has clearly written directions for for returning it to you if it is lost. 

I have decided that the notebooks I have been using with become my research journals. These are the basics you must think about, whether they are electronic or paper based.

• Calendar
• Monthly planner
• Task list or To-do list
• Notebooks or Surname Notebooks
• Research journals