Susan Farrell Bankhead, Certified Genealogist (sm)
Five Minute Genealogy
The new patron to the Family History Library walks in, approaches the counter, and says something like this: “My family is from Italy and I’m going there on vacation tomorrow, and I want to pick up a copy of my genealogy.”
Or, a person approaches a professional genealogist and expects the professional to be able to find their family in a few simple steps.
After all, that’s how it’s done on television!
What many people do not realize is that the Family History Library does not have a copy of everyone’s family history ready to pull by request. Many people do not realize that HOURS and HOURS of research have gone on behind the scenes before
taping the popular television shows.
No one talks about it on the air. The REAL behind the scenes research that you don’t see is the silent elephant in the room.
I know you’re not one of those people with unrealistic expectations like these, because you’re reading my blog, and if you’re reading my blog, you’ve seen that genealogy research is usually not a quick lookup process.
BUT, what if you don’t have the time or the desire to tackle a big research project? Maybe you have young kids at home, or a full-time job, or aging parents that need your attention?
What if you just want to search for your family in small increments, say five minutes at a time? Is there hope for you?
YES!
FamilySearch has just put up a series of videos on YouTube titled “Genealogy in 5 Minutes”and they mean it!
Can it be done? That depends on your goal. FamilySearch shows how to set a research goal that is manageable. You won’t have to try to eat the whole elephant at once.
Check out their videos. Then, set your own five minute goal and get going.
You CAN eat an elephant a bite at a time!
Other business:
* Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to be entered in the random drawing for a free book on August 11! You can read about it in this post: Free Giveaway Random Drawing.
* You might be interested in catching two webinars by Kathleen Bitter of Heritage Collector. You may sign up at the links here:
- Creating a Family Heirloom Cookbookon Thursday, August 11, at 7:00 PM (MST).
- Creating a Fun Way to Organize Your Home This Upcoming School Year on Thursday, August 25, at 7:00 PM (MST).
* Sharing Time will be soon be releasing their Family History Center Version to FamilySearch. FamilySearch will thereafter make Sharing Time available for free access at Family History Centers.
I love the idea of someone picking up a copy of their genealogy to go! Very funny.
Those 5 minute videos look very good – clear and concise and well presented.
I’m not sure, though, how realistic it is. Often you can spend hours just searching for one person, and you need that long expanse of time to get into a train of thought. Doing genealogy in five minute bursts I would doubt would be very productive – or am I missing the point?
Ros: I agree with you in that I need the continuity of my thought process as I move through a project. That said, I think the point FamilySearch is making is that the big project can be broken down into smaller goals, especially for those just getting started. For instance, that person could set a goal to search the Jones County Iowa Burials on the USGenWeb.org site for Marietta Overbaugh. THAT could be done in 5 minutes. Of course, getting to the point to know when and where you want to search is another whole issue and once the researcher has to go into a microfilm or onsite repository, it will take much longer.