Before you download a single page, I want you to sign this imaginary permission slip:

I give myself permission to be messy.

I give myself permission to get a date wrong.

I give myself permission to hit a brick wall and not have the answer right away.

The joy is not in the perfect chart. It is in the hunt.

Why this matters more than it sounds

The most common reason people quit family history is not a difficult record. It is the feeling that they are doing it wrong. They leave a box half sorted because they are not sure whether the birth year is 1878 or 1879, and the box stays half sorted for eleven years.

Write down the year you think it is. Put a question mark beside it. Move on. A messy chart that exists beats a perfect one that does not.

Try it

Six things people say to themselves before they start. Turn each card over and read the permission on the back.