Avoid The Family History Rabbit Holes
- Leslie Ryan
- Sep 3
- 2 min read
It happened again today, I went down a Family History Rabbit Hole. I had every intention of going through my new matches to sort them by ancestor to come back to another day, but I got sucked in by a new match in Ireland with the right surnames. Three hours later of trying to fit this ONE match in, I was nowhere with him and my plan for the day was shot.
We all want to go back as far as we can with our growing trees. That is the ultimate goal, right? The best way to avoid losing your valuable research time in a rabbit hole is to make A PLAN like an outline for a school paper. For example:
My Family History
I. Paternal Family
A. Grandfather Documentation
1. Birth
2. Marriage
3. Military
4. Death
B. Grandmother Documentation
1. Birth
2. Marriage
3. Military
4. Death
II. Maternal Family
As above, items 1 - 4.
Write your specific goal down on a sheet of paper, like "Find Grandfather Smith's Birth Certificate." Then begin your research log of where you look - what was the website or book publishing info? Did you find anything? What pages? See, we are keeping track of where we have looked, what we found, where we found it, and then added our found documentation to our Tree! We are being efficient and thorough genealogists!
Now, should you find something tantalizing you MUST research, the RIGHT thing to do, is to add a new sheet of paper, with that NEW goal, and come back to it in your next session. Track where you found this latest temptation, and the research you did to get there. Because that page could get wiped off your screen by a software update, and then you'll waste precious time trying to find it again. Ah, the sad but wiser girl speaking here.
How's your research going? Need some help getting out of a Family History Rabbit Hole? Did you buy any DNA tests over the weekend? Let me know if you need some help! Free, no obligation review of your Family History brick wall with just an email.
Happy start of Meteorological Fall! Three and one half months till gift giving season arrives! Let me help!
Thank you for your time and attention,
Leslie Ryan
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No copyright infringement is intended.
