DIY Genealogy: Start Organizing With Logs

My Personal Approach To Getting Organized.

In the inaugural post for this DIY Genealogy Series I gave an overview of the tools and methods (my do-it-yourself "system") that I use for my research, resources, and family treasures. When starting my family history journey years ago, one of the biggest questions I had was: How on earth do I keep track of all my "stuff"? In this post, I share my personal approach to getting and staying organized by using logs.

Letting Logs Do the Work.

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

• You "just know" that six months ago you saw the perfect website listing your 7th great-grandfather's affiliation with a military regiment, but couldn't find it again. 
• You triumphantly open the mail for the birth certificate proving your great-grandmother was born in Leicestershire and not Staffordshire, England, but on filing it discover you already had a forgotten copy, acquired 10 years ago.
• You remember buying that book on Scottish clan affiliations, but not where in your many boxes of resource books you had stored it. 

Let's face it, as DIY genealogists, we all have experienced some variation of these situations. And we all have resources and family history materials - both accumulated and inherited - that we've been adding to over the years. But do any of us remember the specifics of what our collection contains, or how the information contained in it might relate to, or be used for, our research interests?

For me, the short answer was, "No." So, I decided to stop trying to keep it all in my head (or in scribblers, or on sticky notes), and let my logs do the work. 

Logs Are A Cornerstone Of My DIY "System". 

Logs in their simplest form are just lists, with varying amounts of details about the things that I consider important enough to record. At first I wanted to understand the kinds of things and details other genealogists felt were important to track, so I searched out some templates for ideas.

I researched blogs, genealogy societies' websites, and watched YouTube videos, looking for templates that resonated with me. When I found one to draw inspiration from, I customized the details to suit my needs [1]. But for some of the things that I wanted to log (e.g., recording completed ancestor profiles, and how long since a given profile's last review), templates didn't seem to exist. 

Eventually, I realized that my logs were going to be a unique reflection of my personal research interests and family treasures collection. So, I simply stopped worrying about trying to find the "perfect" template. I sat down and adapted or developed my own spreadsheets, informed by what I saw worked well in some of the templates I had seen; or by creating something entirely new, driven by my own choices about what was important or relevant. 

And as I began to make the conscious effort to use my new logs, and started seeing how my information was connected, I began to understand how my logs could support my research and writing activities.

Overwhelmed? Start By Taking Inventory.

Having inherited decades of family history research from a great uncle, and having only the vaguest notion of what his research collection contained, I was at a loss about how to start organizing it. But I wanted to know more about his research for three important reasons:

• so that my own research didn't duplicate things he had already discovered; 
• to identify any new-found treasures and insights; and
• so I could pass along to others those items that didn't relate to my own interests. 

At first overwhelmed, I started by trying to get a sense of the contents of each of the numerous boxes of material. In Marie Kondo-esque style, I brought everything into one location and physically sorted my collection into rough groupings that made sense to me, re-boxing them with that in mind. 

I found the simple act of going through the collection to be a kind of grounding exercise. Not only did I feel a connection to my ancestors, I better understood:

• the different types of materials I had;
• how much of it I had; and
• how each item could relate to research interests I was pursuing or wanted to pursue.

I then started making inventory lists for things that I wanted to work with right away, or wanted to work on preserving or sharing. For the rest, I noted on the boxes the general contents, and whether or not they had been recorded in my logs. 

I also started lists for those records that I myself was collecting. These included things like certified copies of birth, marriage and death registers that I had paid for - both to refer to and also to stop me from re-ordering the same forgotten record I already had.

The sheer volume of the information prevented me from finishing my inventory all in one sitting, so I made sure to set aside dedicated time to continually make progress on getting the collection (both the box contents as well as my own records) into my lists.

Still Looking For Inspiration? Examples Of My Logs.

All of my logs are recorded in spreadsheets. This makes it easy to search (and find!), sort, update and otherwise manipulate the information contained in them. Click on the links below for a pop-up view of three of my most commonly-used logs, and the types of details that I record in each one. 

Archive Materials [1] is the spreadsheet where I log all of my original records. It's a versatile log that can be adapted to record many different types of materials. So, I have also made versions for:

• my resource library log (e.g., reference books, journal publications, e-books, including where they are stored); and
• my family letters log (e.g., to record the letter's date, sender, receiver, notes on what the letter is about, whether it has been scanned and transcribed, and where they are stored).

Figure 1: Archive Materials Log

Records Requests is the spreadsheet where I track all of my orders for records, from request to fulfillment. I do this because it can take time in between submitting the request and receiving the document (for example, my grandfather's WWII military service record). It is also a quick reference to see if I've previously requested a record (to avoid ordering duplicates) and to record any notes about the status of a record or observations about the individuals in it.

Figure 2: Records Requests Log

Writing Log is the spreadsheet where I track all of my ancestor profile write-ups, noting any to-do items or ideas for a future revision. It also allows me to quickly view who I've done a write-up for. If an ancestor's name isn't in the list, I know they still need a profile. And knowing where the gaps are is helpful in planning where I want to focus some research and writing time.

Figure 3: Writing Log

Be the Archivist Of Your Own Collection.

(Try To) Be Disciplined.

For your logs to work for you, it's important to be disciplined about recording information in them. I tend to take a "do it as you get new stuff" approach and record things as they come in. I'm human, so "disciplined" for me means not letting things go beyond a small pile. 

But the goal is to keep on top of new things coming in, and to dedicate chunks of time to recording the backlog of items you inherited or have collected.

Logs Are Effective Tools.

I often think of myself as the archivist or librarian of my own collection. Keeping logs of my "stuff" is like creating and maintaining finding aids to my research and family treasures. Logs are especially helpful in particular because my research interests are varied, and my collection includes several decades of accumulated research materials and family treasures - a rich resource I want to be able to tap into. Logs are an effective, time-saving reference tool that helps me keep it all straight. 

Taking the time to log has saved me time, money, effort and frustration. My hope is that sharing my organizing and logging approach will inspire you to start organizing with logs and to be the archivist of your own collection.

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Endnote:

[1] I found the information (accessed initially on 28 June 2023) at the military blog EmpireFaithWar, was especially helpful in the way they conceived of records and family treasures as a collection that could be catalogued. It was the beginning of an understanding that my accumulated family history "stuff" was similar to a personal museum, archive or library - just on a smaller scale. The discussion and examples I found there under Helpful Guides (on the web page entitled, "Cataloguing your family archive") was the inspiration for many ideas. Sadly, as of the date of writing this post, this particular web page appeared no longer to be available.