GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES-L Archives

From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: Did You Complete All the Steps? A Genealogical Checklist by Julianna Smith, editor of Ancestry Daily News
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 05:20:25 -0700

Did You Complete All the Steps? A Genealogical Checklist
– Juliana Smith

The school year was off to a rough start. It seems over the summer, we
forgot our homework regimen. It's not that my daughter doesn't do her
homework. She knows that it gets done as soon as she gets home, before games
TV, or any other extracurricular activities.

The problem was that she never quite completed all the steps. The homework
never seemed to make it into her backpack. Forms weren't getting signed and
before school there was much trauma as we searched for library books, errant
homework pages, assignment books, etc. After several weeks of “extreme
nagging” on my part and some rough mornings, I decided that she needed a
checklist. I included every step she needed to take, from doing ALL her
homework, to having her packed backpack ready and sitting next to the front
door, ready to be grabbed on her way out.

At first it was tough to get her to use the checklist, but after dire
threats as to the loss of TV and game privileges, she gave in and began
checking off items as she went along. After a while, she got herself in the
habit of doing all the things she needed to, and the checklist became an
afterthought.

One day as I congratulated myself on this ingenious solution, I walked into
my office and began pondering how this technique might help me with my
genealogy organizational challenges. Although I've made great strides in
recent years as far as organizing my family history, I still run into
trouble with those dreaded piles that seem to accumulate.

Since life rarely stands still long enough for me to locate a record and
complete all the steps I need to take to properly document my finds and
incorporate them into my research, I usually end up with new finds
accumulating on my desk. If it were just a case of needing to be filed, I
could probably zip right through the piles. The trouble is, when I finally
get to finishing up all the steps, I have forgotten where I'm at as far as
processing that information.

For remainder of article:
http://shorl.com/gotrahunibrila

Patriotic people VOTE !

Sally Rolls Pavia
Sun City, Arizona

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• Did You Complete All the Steps? A Genealogical Checklist by Julianna Smith, editor of Ancestry Daily News by "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>