What To Do In Those Research Lulls

I'm currently at a bit of a lull in my research.  This can happen. You find that nothing grabs your attention long enough to pursue it.  So what do I do when this happens?  I always find this is a good time to review my research.  There's many ways of approaching this but this is about how I approach it.  This is a working progress.  Every time I begin one of these reviews I also assess how I review things.  This blog post is about how I am currently working.  

I prefer to have physical files.  I love paperwork.  I do have a tree in a digital format on Ancestry.Co.Uk (This is private but that is another story) but that is more for ease of access when researching rather than actually storing information.  I also have an old copy of the recently defunct Family Tree Maker but again this is for functionality of splitting gedcoms rather than an actual research tool.  This is not to say that this is the most effective way.  For some people it probably isn't very effective at all.  However, for me, I find that physical folders help me organise my research much better. 

I must point out that in my tree I have over 3500 people and many of these have not been researched in great detail because they are either very tenuous links or I just haven't felt a need to research them in more detail.  So the examples I am about to show you are pretty much just for my direct descendants although there are some others in there too.  I have looked at taking part in the Genealogy Do-Over, however, because many of my ancestors have been researched to the death (pardon the pun!!) I feel that to set aside my research to start from scratch would be a bit confusing, especially as some of their stories I know off by heart.  

I've found the best thing to do in these moments of quiet is to go through my research person by person and my filing systems fits this well.  I don't connect this to my tree because, as previously mentioned, I have a physical filing system.  My system is very simple.  As it stands I have two lever arch folders. Eventually I would like to have everything in cabinets but to be honest it's probably not necessary (depending on what you're interesting in when researching your ancestors, you'll find that some ancestors will have a few census returns and some certificates so don't take up a lot of room).  I have a file for my maternal side (pink) and a file for my paternal side (blue).  Each file contains alphabetical dividers and each person has a plastic wallet (acid free obviously - WHSmiths sell acid free ones but it is always important to check).  Each plastic wallet has a sticker with the name of the person, their relation to me and dates (year of birth and year of death).

I've tried many different fillings systems etc but I've found this one to be the most effective because, not only is it simple but, when returning to research it helps to focus on individuals rather than a whole family.  This way, if you find someone new e.g. a new spouse or child, you can create a new folder for them but set it aside until you get to them in your research schedule.  For this current review I have created an index for each file to note who I am researching and the date the research has been reviewed.  This way, if I return to the research at a later date I know I'm not going over the same people and leaving out others.  You can download a copy of this here. 

So what do I put in my plastic wallet?  Well this is where I incorporate digital storage.  Along with my two folders I also have an external hard drive to store documents and photos.  When I first started this hobby I used to print everything.  Census returns, birth registers, death registers, you name it I printed it.  And, even more obsessively I used to print a copy of the entry for each person.  As you can imagine, this generated a lot of paperwork and to be honest if you're a little more organised this is wholly unnecessary and quite expensive when you work out the cost of paper and ink etc.  So now I write or type up a lot of the census returns and also write birth, marriage and death register details (which if you have the certificates are really not required anyway as you have the proof already).  

Each person has a breakdown of the information.  To be honest, as long as you cite your sources correctly there isn't much reason to keep copies,  That said I do download images and this is where I use the digital storage.  As mentioned, each person has a digital folder.  In this I save census returns, and yes I do duplicate returns for each individual.  This is purely so that if I'm checking whether there is something missing that I could be researching, I can see that there isn't one saved in the folder quickly.  

So to recap each plastic wallet contains hand written/typed census returns, birth/marriage/death information, certificates, transcribed probate information, photographs and emails.  You may ask why I print out emails.  Basically the amount of time I have had to search through various emails (I have quite a few) for information that has been sent is far too much to calculate.  I've found that printing them and putting them with the information for the people they talk about makes things a lot easier.  Also if someone has sent me photographs I keep the email attached to small copies or thumbnails of the photographs so that I know the origin of the photographs.  If I have originals of photographs I scan them and save them into the personal folder and keep the original in the plastic wallets.  

Obviously hard drives are not always the most reliable things (I'm know to have to change the caddy on my two at least once a year!!) however at the moment they are the most universal only second to cloud technology, though as this relies on internet access it is not always accessible.  Many people have documented about saving research to CDs rather than hard drives.  However, as technology progresses and laptops/mac/pcs are  being sold without disc drives, CDs are becoming obsolete in this manner. 

Despite this seemingly organised filing system, one thing I find not so easy is keeping a record of what I have found.  I have tried spreadsheets and many personal information sheets form various websites but have never found anything that covers most of the possibilities when doing family research.  On many of the worksheets I have found, most of the personal information sheets focus on census returns.  Whilst these are useful, for those who are researching outside of the US they cover a limited area of the potential research.  Unfortunately in the UK we are currently only able to access census returns between 1841 and 1911.  Because of the 100 year privacy rule brought in by the 1920 Census Act we will not gain access to another census return until 2021.  The recent release of the 1939 National Register has covered some of this gap, however the cost of access to these records (currently £6.99 per household) may put people off researching them.  

Because of this I have created my own personal information form.  Hopefully it includes most possible leads for information that can be researched in the comfort of your own home.  However if you feel something needs adding to it please let me know. 

I hope that this has given you an idea of how to organised your research and give it a bit of a boost.  Let me know what you think . 

Happy hunting