Organize Now to Alleviate Stress
Brenda Kellow
November 10, 2013
Researching family history is what we enjoy. It is much more exciting than filing, writing reports or even keying it into our genealogy software database. We have to do these things as well as take care of our family and home, medical appointments, meetings, etc. Even with good intentions, sometimes the time for doing all of this just gets away from us. Add the activities of the approaching holidays and we feel the need to clone ourselves to keep all our commitments. Our stress levels mount. Enter time for time management. Making time for ourselves is certainly my problem, but I am trying to correct this as I ‘mature.’
We want people to like us so we often say yes when we know full well it is going to cause a kink in our on free time, or time we committed to another project or event. We must all learn to say no. It is difficult, but it is necessary. You can just say you are already overcommitted or tell them you will review your schedule and commitments and get back to them. Practice before the mirror saying this with a smile. Then, actually make one of these comments next time you are asked to volunteer for something.
I am certainly guilty of taking on more than I can adequately do in a days’ time. To keep on schedule, write down everything you do and must do for each day. Even though I try, I have never seemed to map out my time as well as Cheryl Smith at the Genealogy Center. My responsibilities seem to take me into the night much of the time.
These days, I am trying to work on writing family histories. By scheduling my time into an eight-hour day, things are done much faster and certainly much more accurate. Besides writing books, columns and an occasional journal article, I try to participate in a couple of volunteer projects. I have an actual job that has to be done within the normal workday.
Organizing my files helped because I do not look for hours for a paper I left laying on my desk or on top of my filing cabinets. Getting rid of paper files has helped time management considerably. These days my office trash collects only a sheet or two of paper a week. I honestly seldom use my printer. If I need to save something I have created I save it as a PDF file. Even less seldom do I use my flatbed scanner, opting instead to use the scanner on my iPhone.
Keeping organized also includes your home. It is much less stressful to keep an organized home. I keep my book shelves organized according to novels, writing mysteries, art books and genealogy source books. I organize these by topics. Then I have the genealogy research, history and indexes by state, then by county. My family history books are organized by surname. My research I have in three-ring notebooks from before computers are first. Next, I keep the family histories by others followed by the ones I have written.
If you are not organized, begin soon to spend an hour or two of quality time becoming organized. You will appreciate it as the holidays approach. Oh, by not taking on anything else until I finish my current commitments has been the best thing to keep me organized.
BROWSE CZECH REPUBLIC RECORDS FREE: FamilySearch.org has many Czech records to browse, and as always, you can hunt free. These records include birth records from 1637-1889; census records 1843-1921; church books 1552-1948; civil records from 1874-1937; land records 1450-1889; marriages 1654-1889; Northern Moravia Opava archive church books 1571-1905; Southern Bohemia, Trebon, Nobility Seignorial records 1579-1859. There is a guide to help you with your research and it is at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Czech_Republic. Use it to find many online databases, and read the Beginner’s Corner.
ANCESTRY DNA: If you want to know your ethnicity and connect with ancestors, Ancestry.com suggests their DNA technology can do this for you. They try to match both the male Y-DNA and the female mtDNA. The Y=DNA goes back through the generations from father to son. mtDNA goes back through the female line. I was impressed that they even have a place for you to enter your DNA findings from other testing sites. My husband and I did find our DNA ancestry interesting, but because of the extensive search on our families the path lead us into the countries we expected, except for mine that ended in Southeast Asia. That was a surprise. The Ancestry testing costs about $99 but entering our numbers from another testing agency seems to be free. Keying in your DNA information into the Ancestry site is certainly intriguing. Where it might lead is fascinating!
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a Certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].
