DIY Genealogy: A Personal Approach

My personal experience with do-it-yourself genealogy.

With this post I begin a new series called, "DIY Genealogy." I will be sharing my personal approach (a collection of my own experiences, insights, tips and methods) to conducting and coordinating amateur "do-it-yourself" genealogy research.

Why do-it-yourself genealogy?

When I first started researching my family's history over 15 years ago, I often wished that this hobby (passion, obsession) of mine came with an instruction manual, or a genealogy coach. 

At the time, I lived in a remote community in northern Canada, so I was always researching at a distance. Access to online help and resources were only starting to become more widely available and it seemed too early in my research efforts to go to the expense of hiring a professional genealogist. 

When getting started on my research, I didn't know enough about what I wanted, so how could I explain it to a professional genealogist? Being budget-conscious, and also having a genuine curiosity about genealogy research, I wanted to reserve hiring professional help for when I felt truly stuck.

I was confident that I could learn the skills to do basic research myself, while reserving my money to call in the professionals when necessary. Kind of like the do-it-yourself homeowner who learns the skills to do some projects on their own, but calls in the professionals for the types of jobs that truly require expertise.

Learning the skills - so many questions!

But that choice meant I had to figure out a lot of things on my own. This resulted in going down some unproductive roads. Being in possession of all of this information that I had inherited from family members, and new data that I was collecting about ancestors from very different backgrounds, I was confused about how to coordinate it all. How would I ever be able to use it in a meaningful way? Chief among my many questions were:

• How should I focus my research time when I already have a busy schedule? 
• How should I organize and use the research and resources I collected? 
• Who could I ask for advice on the best resources for different aspects of my research? 
• How could I effectively bring it all together and share it in an interesting and engaging way?
• How could I take my research to the next level?

The idea of a do-it-yourself research system was born.

Along my journey, I spent a lot of money on how-to books and research guides, but something always seemed to be missing. It's one thing to be told sage advice like, "be organized" and "have a research plan" but I was confused as to precisely how I should go about doing that. And what was the best way to apply the information and resources I already had, to avoid retracing ground already covered? 

After some time I realized that there was no single "right way," but that it was important to have some kind of consistent method to bring it all together. When it occurred to me that other do-it-yourself researchers were likely asking the same questions, the idea for the DIY Genealogy series was born.

Build your own DIY research system.

Full disclosure, I am not a professional genealogist. It is purely my intent to provide my insights based on personal experience in the hope that it will inspire you to think about the interconnected nature of your collections, your research, and your goals and how that could guide the building of your own personalized system.

Everyone's needs are different and your own system will likely look very different from mine. But my hope is that by sharing my own experience you will find a fresh approach to coordinating your own do-it-yourself research.