My Genealogy Bullet Journal, One Year Later

What a different a year makes! My first entry in my new Genealogy Bullet Journal was made on January 1, 2017. In it, I recorded information about the family I had been researching in some JSTOR journals and that I had (finally) spent 15 minutes filing some of my pile of documents. But then, life happens.

For our family, 2017 left us pummelled by the unexpected. We were faced with the impact of the deaths of three wonderful family members, one of whom was my husband. And so, I've been on a break from research and blogging for a while. And genealogy and my genealogy bullet journal and many other parts of my normal daily life had been pushed aside. I continued to deal with probate documents, marriage certificates, deeds, titles, but now as a part of dealing with life itself.

Time to start back. Lately I have been feeling the desire to get back to researching my family and that of my husband, and my genealogy bullet journal is starting to prove helpful in ways I had not previously anticipated, including such things as

• I can look back over my last entries written months ago and pick up on that train of thought. 
• I can glance at my efforts documented in parts of 2017 and consider where I had success, what resources I may want to further explore, and whether I want to continue pursuing certain questions.
• I still have that section of possible research questions that can provide a different starting point for my research.
• My Genealogy Bullet Journal will help me corral my thoughts, especially while I am still so sporadic in my research time and efforts.

Time for Goal Setting. One of the first things I hope to do in the coming weeks is to use the Goal Setting Worksheet  developed by The Occasional Genealogist. This document, available when you subscribe to her blog, looks like it will help me focus on what I have done as well as what I hope to accomplish. My bullet journal will be just the place to record and keep this information for future reference.

Time for a new journal. With only a few blank pages remaining in my 2017 Genealogy Bullet Journal, I knew I would be needing a new journal soon after the start of 2018. Whenever I was in a craft or office supply store in the early fall, I had been looking at their journal offerings. I finally decided to purchase the TUL discbound notebook system several months ago when I found the one I wanted on sale.  I chose to move to a discbound system for the ease in adding and removing pages such as copies of maps, calendars, family record sheets, even pages from the collection section of my old Genealogy Bullet Journal. I can just trim the copy, punch holes along the side, and then add the additional pages into my new Journal without having to hand copy the information into the new journal. Admittedly, I also love the size (A5) and feel of my TUL, and the color of the cover (rose gold) is just right. And yes, I splurged and bought a special hole punch to make things easier.

Time for some changes to my journal. There is one more big change I'm planning to make with my new discbound journal. I'm actually going to consider it as two different journals, both housed in one book. I will be adding a cardstock divider between my 2-page weekly spreads and the Collections section of my journal. I've realized that my weekly work is somewhat temporary, referred to within a more recent time period while my Collections tend to be permanent, resources to which I will continually add information and use. Each of the Weekly and the Collections sections will have its own index and numbering system. I'll probably number pages in one section in black, the other in blue ink. That way should a page come loose or be removed from the journal, it should be easy to return it to its proper place. This is a change I have been mulling over for six months or more. We'll see how I like this plan by the end of 2018.

So, once again my Genealogy Bullet Journal is proving to be an important tool in my genealogy research. It has been a part of what I have done in the past year, and it will continue to be a part of what I do in the future. Even writing about my journal has given me more of a desire to venture back into research again. 

On a more personal note, my separate, personal bullet journal has also been an important part of my life as it helped me keep up with the myriad details following my husband's death, keeping up with the who, what, when, where, and why of appointments, legal documents, and to-do lists. Both journals have been part of keeping up with life. My genealogy bullet journal focuses on the past; my personal one deals primarily with the present and future. All in all, a bullet journal can be just as individual as the one who creates it and uses it. I'm proof of that.

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