The email that informed me of Family History February went on to propose a challenge to interested readers. That challenge is to commit to writing a certain number of words per day, to be chosen by me, with regard to family history. At first I balked at the thought of promising, even myself, to do such a thing, but then I began to reconsider. I could finally get down on paper some of the stories and short biographies of various ancestors and at least begin to get a better grip on the vast amount of material I had collected over the years. I could finally pull things together and make my research that much more useful for someone else. It could be fun, and yes, challenging, so I signed up. (You can too at the link)
Being ever the competitive type, I actually started the challenge in the last week in January so I could be ahead of the game! By the first of February it became clear to me that this was to be a bigger challenge that I initially imagined. Why? Too many documents that although, filed and numbered, were unwieldy because there was no way to know without looking at each and every one, to which ancestor they related.
A few years ago a very elegant computer program arrived on the scene from the makers of FileMaker Pro. It's called Bento and it's made especially for Macs, which I proudly own. What makes it so elegant is that you can design your own databases (although they have plenty of templates available), and the best part is that you can design your own RELATIONAL databases. This is exactly what I had been wishing for for years, and it has not disappointed. In the past you had to be a computer genius in order to design your own relational database, but now here it was for the layperson, which I consider myself to be. So, I set about designing this new wonder in such a way that, once the information was properly inputted from the documents, I would be able to see each individual that was in any way related to a particular document AND for each individual there would be a listing of every document related to that individual. The problem was that I had not yet taken the time to input the critical information for most of the documents in my possession.
The February Challenge had to be modified for my purposes, but what a marvelous opportunity to get my house, or should I say, my/our history, in order. I have committed to inputting at least five documents per day and when that seemingly Herculean task is completed, I will then get back to the actual writing. I have to say that progress is good and what a wonderful feeling it is to revisit these documents. As I am adding their tidbits of information to the database, I am coming to the realization that I have a bucketload of information here, some of which is just plain intriguing. It's going to make writing a whole lot easier and may even make for some interesting stories as roots are revealed.
Think of a project you have been putting off (and it doesn't have to be about family history). Then make a commitment to yourself to do a little bit every day for a month and see where you are at the end of that time. You're going to be surprised and more than a little pleased with your accomplishments and when that happens, email me about your successes and what you learned from the process.
