Resuming Normality


Today I'm attempting to resume a little bit of normality after the manic whirlwind adventures of History For Ukraine.

Sometimes life throws us into a spin (good and bad) and researching or writing our family history ends up taking a back seat.

Re-finding your mojo can be tough, we have to go back over old ground, refresh our memories and sometimes find our flow again.

If you've been taking a break, or poodling along but wishing you could kick things up a notch, then here's a couple of ideas for you:

  • Focus on a place rather than a person. Sometimes giving ourselves something 'wide' to explore can help us forget about goals and just get back into the swing of things.
  • Write anything. If you are struggling to write about your ancestors, then take a break. Write about your day, review a book, describe the scene outside your window. Just write and you'll soon find the words start to flow again.
  • Make a to do list. Sometimes when we come back to things after a break, the enormity of writing up a family history can leave us paralysed. Scribbling down notes on everything you'd like to investigate or do can help clear out some of the 'noise'.

Lastly consider reviewing your old goals, here's an article to help you!

Take care,

Natalie

Genealogy Stories

Read more from Genealogy Stories

Have you ever thought about writing up how you discovered your ancestors stories? Last week I uploaded the recording of the latest Curious Descendants Club workshop into the membership portal. The session, led by expert Dr. Sophie Kay, was all about narrating methodology. Sophie likened writing up our research processes and journeys to writing a piece of autobiography. This totally blew me mind! Because she is so right. When we write about how we found our ancestors, we have to also consider...

Last night in the Curious Descendants Club co-working session we got chatting about the way working practices have changed over time. One of the attendees explained how being in the office early meant that he'd been on hand when his boss wanted to sound off, and this had helped his career. He explained that it didn't matter who he was or what he said in reply, he could have been a "rubber ducky" and it wouldn't have mattered. His boss just needed to verbalise his problem, and by doing so he...

I've been awake most of the night listening to my middle daughter cough (not Covid related). Like all mother's, when she first started coughing I listened intently. Is this a bark? A whoop? A dry tickly cough or something more chesty? Unlike mother's for 100 years of so ago, I had no reason to be overly concerned. She'll have been vaccinated against most of the worst causes of ceaseless coughs - TB, whooping cough and those that can prove nasty are often treatable. There's a lot to be...