Starting over with my big pile of family history

I've been starting and restarting my family tree files trying to organize 20 years of research. At the beginning, I had no idea how to or even that I should keep track of what I was doing. I recorded everything I found, but didn't file anything in a consistent way or keep track of searches. Basically, this means that I have done a whole lot of backtracking and chasing my own tail over the decades. Having come to the realization that I've really got to keep track of this stuff, (I know, shocking,) I checked out the The Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas McEntee, voraciously read blogs, books, and organizational Facebook groups searching for methods that would help me keep my research straight and moving forward. And, man oh man, is there a lot of advice out there!

After pouring through all of these sources, I have created my own system in using OneNote and Rootsmagic that includes:

• Research Goal Sheets - to define what searches I want to make and remind me of potential research avenues
• Search Recording Sheets - to record the results of my searches
• Dollarhide-style Data Sheets - to record the details of records I find useful
• RootsMagic 7 Family Tree Genealogy Software for building the family tree and recording the research logs

Over the next few weeks, I'll be outlining my research process and how I record everything in my system. I hope you'll find it useful!