The genealogy do-over has showed me how I need to go back and take another look at my research. How much garbage have I allowed to be dumped into my family landfill (as opposed to my family tree)? I have spent a few days trying to figure out how this happened. My conclusion: lack of a research plan.
We have all done it. You are sitting at your computer after paying all of your bills when you think "ancestry"! So you throw yourself into search mode and flit from one thing to another. Be honest. We have all done this. If you have never been guilty of doing this, I applaud you, but I doubt my hands will be sore from clapping.
I found so many little pieces of paper with notes. And then lets not forget the duplicate records. I have to admit that I did find a few things I had over looked. I have a new clue for my maternal great grandmother that needs my attention and I am so tempted right now to just start a search on Ancestry. But I am not going to fall into that rabbit hole. I have resolved to create a research plan!
(Oh, by the way, you have probably figured out by now that I love actual paper filing systems. It is just me. I shop at Office Max like most people shop at Dillard's.)
All of my individual family files are now purged, but in cleaning out my office I discovered another problem -- that doggy bag of genealogy conference leftovers. You know, all of that stuff that you bring home from a conference. It is worse than my family files. I have picked up a lot of it in the exhibit halls. Some of it was included in my conference packets. Maps. Restaurants. Area attractions. Lineage societies. Local societies. Handouts for everything you can possibly imagine. It needs to go too.
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