Genealogy Done! In 30 minutes

There are 1440 minutes in a single day. Approximately 480 minutes are used for sleep and 180 minutes are used for meals and self-care. That leaves about 780 minutes left in the day for all other daily activities. Any avid genealogist would relish in the idea of being able to do 780 minutes of family history research in a single day. A few have tried, but the majority of people researching their ancestors are lucky just to get thirty-minutes completed in a week, let alone a day. The techniques in this article will help you get genealogy done in thirty-minute increments that will add up to big wins over time.

Start with Yourself

First rule to beginning a genealogical project is to start with yourself. Your first thirty minutes should be spent collecting all your family documents and pictures together. Do any of the pictures have names or dates written on them? Make note of it for your research later. Next, organize those family documents and pictures. Make sure to preserve them as you are organizing them. One technique I have found useful is to set up a family binder for each family line to insert the documents printed or found online (then printed). Now that they are organized, you can extract the information from those documents and pictures and enter the information into your genealogy program, if you have one. It is a great place to view what you have collected on each family member and be able to add private sources.

When you have spent thirty-minutes here and thirty-minutes there completing the task above, your family history research can begin. Again, start with yourself. Ask yourself what you know about the person you are researching. Do you remember any family stories or rumors? Write down anything you can remember. Any detail you remember can become a clue in your hunt.

Ask Family Members

Asking family members what they remember about a particular ancestor can be a real time saver in the long run. Set a timer for thirty-minutes if you're interviewing. This respects their time and yours, especially if you're going to do it on a weekly basis.