12 Tips For Getting Back Focus And Motivation In Your Genealogy Research
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What do you do when your motivation for genealogy fizzles out?
You may or may not have set genealogy goals this year. But if you did, you may be feeling dispirited at the progress you’re making. To be honest, I feel it some days, too.
But be kind to yourself and give yourself some grace. Everything going on in the world now can feel distracting and tiring.
Burnout happens in all areas of life, including genealogy research.
Genealogy burnout happens to most everyone at some point. Even when something is supposed to be a fun hobby, it can feel disappointing and overwhelming to get stuck, hitting roadblock after roadblock.
Negative search results and brick walls are a fact of life in genealogy. There have been plenty of times I’ve been sure I’d find what I was chasing after, only to come up empty-handed. It can totally impact your desire to keep going.
But you’ll never uncover answers and solve your family mysteries if you don’t keep trying!
In this article, I’m sharing 12 tips to help get your motivation for researching your family history back.
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What’s causing your burnout?
The first step in regaining your focus is to think through what’s causing your lack of interest in your seeking your ancestors in the first place.
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Hopeless that you’ll never make progress? Are you discouraged because no one in your family cares about the tree like you do?
Or you don’t have kids to leave your work to, so what’s the point of continuing? Are you not diversifying who you’re exploring and spending too much time trying to work on just one branch?
Are you burned out by life in general?
Exploring what's causing your research doldrums will help you take steps to get your inspiration back so you can make your next breakthrough.
Photo credit: Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay
12 tips for regaining focus and motivation in your genealogy research
1) Try a new resource. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut using the same websites, databases, and other resources. Trying something different might light a new spark in you.
If you usually use Ancestry, try a trial of Findmypast to see what they have.
If you have only ever searched online, see what the historical society where your family lived has on them.
Or, try sites like the Digital Public Library of America or the Online Archive of California to see if any materials on your family are hiding out in archives.
2) Get educated. Get some genealogy education to get reinvigorated and learn about a new record set or skill.
Legacy Family Tree Webinars is a great resource for tons of webinars on all kinds of topics. This is a subscription site, but they have some free webinars, also. There are also lots of other free webinars hosted by many organizations around the country.
You can also pick up a new book or two. There are many books based on ethnicities, like these on Irish, French Canadian, and Scottish genealogy. There are also books on very specific topics, like newspaper transcriptions for a certain place or cemetery research.
3) Investigate someone related to that person. Study their relatives, neighbors, military mates, or even the local minister/religious official.
Also known as cluster and FAN Club research, this method can help you not only break a brick wall but also get to know more about the people in their lives.
4) Connect with other genealogy enthusiasts. The genealogy community is generous with their time and eager to help others out.
Join a Facebook group that’s related to your family – where they lived, their ethnicity, etc. – to get some new ideas and meet like-minded people. Trust me, there is a Facebook group for pretty much any genealogy topic you can think of!
Start an Instagram account and post family pictures or create a family history blog where you can share stories. This is great cousin bait!
5) Remember your “why”. This applies to any goals you’re trying to meet but remind yourself why you’re into genealogy in the first place.
What inspired you to start? What made you to keep going? Revisit all your accomplishments and what’s been keeping you going for months or years of searching.
Perhaps you want to get as far back as you can. Maybe you want to do a deep dive into one set of great-great-grandparents.
Whatever it is, remind yourself of your why and put a visual cue somewhere, like a picture, to remind you to keep pushing.
I started out trying to identify who the biological parents of my grandfather were. What’s kept me going for years was realizing I loved the thrill of solving mysteries. But most importantly, discovering the backstories of my ancestors, how they lived, what they did, and using it all to understand how I came to where I am today.
6) Revisit your goals. Feeling lost or overwhelmed? It’s understandable when our trees can get so big that we don’t know who to look for next, or when we feel like we’ve been butting up against the same brick wall forever.
Remind yourself of your goals or set them if you don’t already have them. Make a plan for each goal and break your action steps into small steps. I mean really tiny steps, like looking up a phone number for a courthouse you want a divorce record from.
Then tackle those tiny steps consistently. You’ll make manageable progress toward your goal without the overwhelm. You can set deadlines or even use a timer to help you keep moving forward.
Usually, you hear about “eating the frog” by doing your hardest, most important task first. But if you’re feeling disheartened, aim for small wins to get your momentum back up.
7) Ignore your “shoulds”. You don’t have to look into everyone in your family tree if you don’t want to. Yeah, I said it.
We feel like we should investigate everyone for a complete and thorough family tree. But this doesn’t make sense for every ancestor.
My great-grandfather was not a great person. He wasn’t evil, but he wasn’t a good husband or father.
I’ve learned the basics of his life, but the more I get to know, the more I think I don’t want to know more. So, I’ve stopped looking for him, even though he’s a pretty recent relative and there are probably a lot of records on him. One day I might pick it up again, but for now, I’m good with my decision.
So, remember you don’t have to study someone just because you “should”.
8) Create a timeline. A timeline will help you see what you’re missing. It can also help spark ideas of new places to seek out direct evidence and information for context about their lives.
For example, if your ancestor was around at the time of the Civil War, read through town histories to see what life was like then. If they served in the war, dig into the history of the regiment to see what battles they fought in.
When I take the time to do this, I always spot gaps in information and get ideas of where I can keep searching.
9) Connect with distant relatives. If you’ve done a DNA test, try messaging some of your closest matches and see if you can connect with them. Ask if they have pictures or stories to share.
Don’t forget about other non-DNA sites, too. I met a cousin through Find a Grave. She contacted me to ask how I was related to a memorial I created. Check out your ancestor’s memorials and reach out to the creators; they may be a cousin.
10) Get crafty. Make a scrapbook or photo book of your ancestors’ lives. Add pictures (copies, not originals!) of them if you have them. Track down images of the place they lived, where they worked, etc.
Seeing them visually come to life will drive you to keep going. Think of it like an ancestor vision board!
11) Pivot. Start studying another person in your tree. You might have spent more time on your paternal or maternal sides. Or on only a branch or two. Mix it up.
I regularly rotate through several ancestors. This helps me return to each with fresh eyes and renewed interest.
12) Take a flat-out break. I’ve taken breaks in my work over the past two decades. Life happens. Taking breaks refreshes you and in the meantime, new records may be added online so when you do jump back in, there could be lots of new stuff to go through.
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Final thoughts
Losing your motivation for genealogy research is a common thing that comes up for a lot of people.
Remember that genealogy is a long game. You’re not going to find answers for most people quickly. (What would be the fun in that?) You’ve got to keep an eye on the big picture.
It’s totally possible to get your enthusiasm back and recapture your love and excitement for your family tree again.
Try out these tips and share with me how it goes for you!
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