Plan your family history research with Notion

You can use Notion to create a master family history research plan which is linked to your research notes. You can also generate a list of high priority research tasks, and shortcuts to your favourite projects and notes. Here is how to do it.

Firstly, you need to have your foundational databases set up with some projects, research questions, tasks and notes in them. Instructions are provided in my article, Manage family history projects in Notion. You will get a better idea of how the planning tools work if you have at least four projects, and 5-10 questions, notes and tasks.

All of the tools described below are created using what Notion calls ‘linked views’ of databases. So, step one is to learn how to create a linked view!

How to create a linked view of your databases

Use ‘linked view databases’ to make copies of data from your foundational databases and display that data in different ways on multiple pages.

Any changes made to the content or properties (columns) of the linked view will also change the content or properties of the foundational databases. Similarly, any changes made to the content or properties of the databases will change the linked views. This is very useful for maintaining data integrity and it also saves you time.

A linked view can reference one of the databases, two, three or all four.

1. To add a linked view, type /linked view of database where you want the table to appear or type /table and select Table view – database.
2. Then choose the database you want to get data from. If you want to incorporate data from multiple databases, choose the one you want to appear in the lefthand column of the new table.

Instructions from the Notion website.

The following examples demonstrate how you can format the table – including changing from a table to a list.

Create your master research plan

A master research plan on your Home Page will show where you are up to and help you focus on high priority tasks. It will also help you find the relevant pages within your Notion workspace.

A research plan sets out the tasks that are needed to answer a research question or test a hypothesis. Some researchers also use a research log to record what they find. This Notion master plan combines a plan, a log and your research notes. This will help make you super-efficient!

The Plan page on my website has articles about research planning.

Using Notion means that you do not need to have multiple research plans. You can use your four foundational databases to create one master plan for all of your research. This helps you be more strategic in your research, identify priorities and track progress.

1. Go to your Home Page. Click where you want the master research plan table to appear. This table will need the full-page width, so do not put it in a column.
2. Create a linked view database in Table View (see above) and select your Tasks Database. This will place the tasks in the lefthand column of the table. This is useful, as tasks are the operational focus of research.
3. Click on the 3 dots to the right of Title of the Table (between the word Table and columns) and click Hide Database Title.
4. Add a row above the Table and add a heading: Type ## hit enter, then type Master Research Plan
5. Click on the Tab in the top left corner of the Database where it says Table, and click on Duplicate to create a copy on a second tab.
6. Click on the first Tab again, then right click the tab, select Rename, rename the tab as High. Click on the second Tab and rename it as All Tasks. This second tab is an unfiltered copy of the database, which saves you having to go to another page when you want to look at the full database.
7. Click on the first Tab again to select it. You now need to add a filter so that it only shows the high priority tasks. Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner of the master research plan, click on Filter to open the + Add filter box, then click on Priority to add that as the filter. You can also add a filter by clicking on the Filter Button, which looks like three horizontal lines (see image below).
8. This adds a Priority filter button, which appears just under the tabs (see image below). Click on that button and a list of your priorities (High Medium Low) will appear. Click the checkbox next to High. Click outside the popup box to close the box and save your changes.

You have now set up a filtered list of your High Priority Tasks.

When you look at a task in this table, and scroll along that line, you will see which research question and project the task applies to. You will also see the notes page where you will record your notes for this task. This gives you fast and easy access to each of these pages.

If the associated questions, projects or notes do not appear in your master plan:

• Check that you have set up your foundational databases and added pages to each database correctly.
• You can may not have assigned them to each other. You can assign a task to a project from this table by clicking on the cell in the Research Projects column and selecting the project name. Similarly, you can assign a task to a research question by clicking on the cell in the Research Questions column and selecting the relevant research question.

Other tips

You can also create new pages from this table. For example, if you do not have a notes page for a task, you can create one by clicking in the cell in the Research Notes column and typing the name of the new note.

You can change the order of the columns in your master plan if you wish, by drag and drop. I like to have column 1 as Tasks, column 2 as projects, 3 as research questions and 4 as notes.

Create a gallery of research projects

A gallery view of your projects on the Home Page provides an easy way to access your projects quickly. When you created your project pages, I suggested you add cover images. It is these images that appear in the gallery view.

1. Go to your Home Page. Click where you want the gallery to appear.
2. Create a linked view database in table view (see above) and select your Projects Database. This creates a copy of that database on your Home Page.
3. Click on the tab where it says Table, select Edit View, then select Layout, then click on Gallery. The table will change to show a box or card for each project.
4. Click the three dots in the top right corner and select Layout again to adjust the settings: change ‘card preview’ to Page cover and ‘card size’ to small or medium.
5. Now add a filter so that the gallery just shows the projects for your grandparent line projects.
6. Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner of the gallery, click on Filter to open the + Add filter box, then click on Type to add that as the filter. You can also add a filter by clicking on the Filter Button, which looks like three horizontal lines (see image above).
7. This adds a Type filter button, which appears just under the tabs. Click on that button and select Names. Click outside the popup box to close the box and save your changes.

If you wish, you can repeat the process to create a Gallery view of your Country Projects (select type = Places) as a new table below it, or you can add that as a new Tab on this table. And you can add another gallery view table, or tab view, for your other research projects (select type = Theme).

Tip

You can change the order of your projects in the gallery by drag and drop.

Create lists of favourite projects and notes

You will end up with a lot of pages in Notion, so you may want some shortcuts on your Home Page to current projects and notes. You could add these by adding links to each one, or you could use a linked view instead!

If you followed the instructions in Manage family history projects in Notion, you already have a Favourites column in your Notes Database and your Projects Database.

1. Go to your Home Page. Click where you want the list of favourite projects to appear.
2. Create a linked view database (see above) but select List view instead of Table view. Then select your Projects Database.
3. Now add a filter (see above). Click on Favourite as the filter and when it gives you the options of Unchecked and Checked, select Checked.
4. Now you have a list of the projects you had selected as favourites. If none appear in the list, go to your Projects database and select some.

Repeat the process to create a list of your favourite notes pages, by selecting the Notes Database.

Create more tables on your project pages

Your master research plan contains all of your projects, questions, tasks and notes. It is also useful to have a subset of the master plan on your project pages.

1. Open the page for your paternal grandfather project. You can do this by clicking on the relevant image in the gallery view you created on your Home Page, or by clicking on the project in the Projects Database.
2. Follow the instructions for the master research plan (above), up to and including step 3. Inserting a replacement heading is optional.
3. Now you need to add a filter so that your table only shows tasks for your paternal grandfather project.
4. Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner of the table, click on Filter to open the + Add filter box, then click on Research Projects to add that as the filter. You can also add a filter by clicking on the Filter Button, which looks like three horizontal lines (see image above).
5. This adds a Research Projects filter button, which appears just under the tabs. Click on that button and a list of your projects will appear. Click the project for your paternal grandfather line.
6. Click outside the popup box to close the box and save your changes.

Repeat this process on your other three grandparent line project pages, and on any other project pages that need a subset of the master plan.

Tips

Drag and drop the Research Questions column so that it is column 1, then Tasks as Column 2 and Notes as Column 3. This make it easier to plan and conduct research.

Hide columns if they are not important in this view or to make the table fit onto a page without having to use a scroll bar. Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner of the table (or list or gallery), select Properties, then click on the black eye next to any property/column that you want to hide (e.g. Research Projects). Hidden columns get moved to the bottom of the list and the black eye turns grey. (More tips on filtering in another article, soon).

Back to the Notion main page on my website for more articles.