Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- What Are Your 2022 Plans/Goals/Resolutions for Your Genealogy Research?

  From Randy (a cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  It's the New Year, and many readers and bloggers have already made resolutions or goals or plans for one or more genealogy task(s) or project(s).  If they haven't yet, they could - maybe even should.

(2)  For this SNGF, please tell us what plans you've made or what goals or resolutions you have stated or set for 2022.  Writing them down may help you achieve them.  Do one or more as you wish.

(3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook. 

Here's mine:

I'm baaaaaaack...  I haven't posted a SNGF post since last April!  I got sidetracked in 2021, and it wasn't a very good year for me for the second half, but I'm hopeful 2022 will be better!  I make goals every year for genealogy, but never seem to complete them.  

Last year, my three goals were:  

    (1)     Scan all of my family pictures and organize my personal photos on my computer.  It appears I got less than 100 of the family photos scanned and never got around to doing any of my personal photos.  

    (2)      Participate fully in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge hosted by Amy Johnson Crow.  I started out really strong and did most topics... until April. Luckily, Amy says whether we do one post or all 52, we have recorded something about our ancestors.  

    (3)    Clean up the sources and data errors in my Family Tree Maker software.  I don't even remember if I worked on this any after I set this goal.  So no, this wasn't done either.

Now I will go ahead and state three goals for 2022 that I hope to accomplish... or at least make a dent.  They are essentially the same goals I had last year.  

*    Goal #1:  Scan the rest of the family pictures so that I put the albums back in the fireproof safe!  I have already added this to my goal list in my new, nifty planner.  If I only scan 5 pictures a week, I may get them all done by the end of 2022!

*    Goal #2:  I have already signed up for the 2022 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  This year, Amy has added a monthly topic for those that may find the weekly post schedule too daunting.  So I feel a little more optimistic about my participation.  Surely, I can at least do a post a month!  But I am going to try to do one a week.  

*    Goal #3:  Finish cleaning up the sources and data errors in my FTM software.  Again, if I just did 15 minutes several days a week, I would make a huge dent!  That is so easy to say, isn't it?!  

My overall goal for 2022 is to stay healthy.  I had COVID about 6-8 weeks ago, and I do NOT want to go through that again!  I also want to start scrapbooking again.  I cleaned off my table yesterday and found Christmas cards from last year!  Ugh.  

Those are my goals for 2022 - what are  yours?

Happy New Year!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Are Your 2021 Plans/Goals/Resolutions for Your Genealogy Research?

 From Randy (my newest cousin discovery!!) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  It's the New Year and many readers and bloggers have already made resolutions or goals or plans for one or more tasks or projects.  Or they haven't yet, but could... or should. 

(2) For this week, please tell us what plans, goals or resolutions you've made for 2021.  Writing them down may help you achieve them. Do one or more as you wish.

(3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook.  

Here's mine:

I always do this and then never look at the list again.  So I don't get my goals met or my projects done.  But I will try again and while these are repeated goals/projects/resolutions, I am going to try my best to accomplish them this year.

Goal/Resolution #1:  Get all of the family pictures scanned to my computer and get all the photos on my computer named and organized.  Like everyone else, I have photos all over the place on my computer.  Or the names I gave the early family pictures I scanned does not follow the pattern I use now.  I actually got a good start on this while I was working part-time at the beginning of the pandemic.  When I started back working full-time, the project kind of fell by the wayside.  

I also need to do this for my personal photos, which I keep on a different external drive from my genealogy research and photos.  When I moved to North Carolina in 2011 and went to work, time became very short, and I just got lazy and stopped dating and naming pictures.  If I would just do this 15 minutes a day, I could get a lot done, if not all of it.

All of this is a huge project, but it is so important, and it could lead to a project for next year that I have been putting off for YEARS.  Scanning my photo negatives.  Remember those?  I have many, many that need to be transferred to digital.  

Goal/Resolution #2:  Participate fully in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge for 2021 hosted by Amy Johnson Crow.  I signed up last year and did only a handful of posts.  I so enjoy sharing family information and stories on my blog, and this would help with that.  Reading others' take on the challenges inspires ideas for my own themes.  I really have been turning over the theme in my mind for Week #1 for a few days now, and I think I've come up with something.  Hopefully, I can write that blog post tomorrow.  

Goal/Resolution #3:  Cleaning up the sources and data in my Family Tree Maker 19 software.  I have actually started working on this.  I get distracted and bored easily, but I've been trying.  

When I started, I was not good about adding sources like I do now.  And somehow, a lot of the sources in my software has been duplicated or more.  That could be from using Ancestry.com hints; I don't know.  So I have been going through and trying to combine duplicate sources.  

I have also been working on a data errors report for a few weeks now.  This is a report that indicates when something doesn't seem right... like a married couple who have the same last name when they marry, a woman who seems to have a baby before she's 13 years old, or someone has duplicate death  or birth dates, etc.  Of course working on this report, gets me to going down a rabbit hole on a family - oh I didn't know he/she was the child of them! - but I always make my way back eventually.  And I've picked up some cousin information along the way.

So these are my goals/projects/resolutions for 2021.  Will I make it?  Or will I give up by the end of January?  Would anyone out there like to buddy up and encourage each other to reach our goals?  If so, hit me up!  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Make ONE Resolution/Goal for 2013

Dear genealogists everywhere, it's Saturday Night!  Time for some Genealogy FUN.  

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Did you make any New Years Resolutions, or state Goals and Objectives, for genealogy research in 2013?  If so, tell us about them.

2)  If not, then make ONE resolution, or state one goal, for your genealogy research that you are determined to keep during 2013.  We'll check on progress toward that resolution/goal during the year in SNGF. 
 
3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status post or Google+ Stream post. 

Here's mine:

1)  I actually DID make a few goals for 2013.  You can view them in my blog post of December 31, 2012.

2)  The one resolution that I am determined to keep this year is to make full use of my Ancestry.com membership and research, research, research as much as possible! 

3)  Done!

Saying Goodbye... and Hello

Image courtesy of antiqueimages.blogspot.com

  All my life I have been advised to not wish my life away.  I'm sure many of you were, also.  When we are children, we constantly wish we were older... "I can't wait until I'm 14 and can watch TV shows for that age... I can't wait until I'm 16 and can drive... "I can't wait until I'm 18 and can move out... I can't wait until I'm 21 and can drink."  Then one day we wake up, and we're 45 years old and wonder where did the time go? 

Having said that, however, I must say that I am not sad to see 2012 go.  It has a been tough year for me personally.  A lot of changes and loss.  I am ready to say goodbye... and Hello! to 2013.  I feel sure it will be a better year. 

What I was dealing with during 2012 had a direct impact on my genealogy research... or lack thereof.  I only made 80 posts on this blog as compared to 236 the previous year.  There were no blog posts published between April and September.  There was very little active research done.  I didn't attend Scanfest or any conferences.  I didn't read genealogy blogs.  I didn't answer e-mails from "new" cousins, and I didn't keep a check on my DNA matches.  I was definitely wasting huge hunks of my life!

But as they say... Onward and Upward!  Here are a few accomplishments from last year as well as some goals for the coming new year:

1)  Cousin Keith's family tree

2012:  I set up Keith's family tree in Family Tree Maker by pulling a vast portion of my tree over.  That made it easier.  I added in individuals from his mother's side.  Then I published his tree to Ancestry.com.  In this way, his DNA matches can look at the tree and possibly find the connecting lines. 

2013:  Plan to finish entering family members from his mother's side into FTM and then syncing them to his Ancestry.com tree.  Will continue collaborating with another genealogy researcher who is more schooled in DNA to help Keith find matches.  Also plan to work toward getting Keith set up with his own genealogy software program so he can be more self-sufficient in his research and retrieving information already found. 

2)  North Carolina Archive Research

2012:  Made only one trip to the North Carolina Archives even though I live less than 30 minutes from there.  Made copies of several 18th and 19th century deeds pertaining to my Drake line. 

2013:  Make more visits to the Archives and pursue research on my Swain line.

3)  Ancestry.com research

2012:  Did not have a membership for most of this year, so I was unable to do any in depth research on the site.  I did take advantage of viewing the 1940 census.

2013:  With my new Ancestry.com membership, I hope to spend hours researching all my family lines, in addition to digging deeper into Keith's. 

4)  Google Earth

2013:  Want to learn how to use this program to map my ancestors' trek, if not from overseas, then at least across the United States.

5)  Blog reading

2013:  Begin to read my favorite genealogy blogs once again.

6)  DNA

2013:  Get back to my DNA results and touch base with people who have sent me messages or shared their results with me.

I could add a lot more, but I don't want to overwhelm myself!  Of course the #1 goal:  Have fun and enjoy the ride!  

So here's to 2013 being a generally better and more productive year!

Happy New Year!!

Motivation Monday: My Goals from time period ending July 17th

So I'm a week late writing this post... so much for motivation, huh? 

Actually, I did very well on the goals I had set for the two weeks ending July 17.  Here they are from my post of July 4th:

1. Finish reading one of my family history books that I have started.
2. Put the Harrell research I have done (and which is currently spread across my desk) in order, fill out family group sheets and research logs, scan documents related to the Harrells, and enter information found into my software program.
3. Find and scan some documents that are missing from a surname notebook I was scanning from during ScanFest.
4. Scan and stitch three very long pictures I have of my mother's days at summer camp and her high school graduation.  
5. Plan two trips:  

• The first for September during which my mother and I will drive "The Journey Through Hallowed Ground" corridor (in reverse) from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson near Charlottesville, Virginia, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with several Civil War and other historical sites in between.
• The second trip will be in October when I will join a friend in North Carolina, and we will drive on up to research at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. for a couple of days.  I am in charge of the lodging arrangements, but more importantly, I have got to "get my ducks in a row" as to exactly what I need to research there!  I need to go prepared.

So here's how I ended up:

1.  I did NOT finish reading the book.  I swear every time I start reading it, I fall asleep.  Not that I think my family is boring, but the book is a little dry with all the names and dates.  I'm still slogging my way through it; I think I only have a couple of chapters left.
2. Not only did I get the Harrell research organized, scanned, and entered into Family Tree Maker, but I also did the Odom research the same way and fixed a fancy notebook to file the information in!
3. Done.
4. There were several more than three pictures, it turns out, but I did get them all scanned and stitched with my Flip-Pal.  Some of the pictures took 21 individual scans!
5. The trip from Charlottesville, Virginia to Gettysburg is planned with hotel accommodations made.  When it is closer to time, I will also book tours, etc.  Since a lot of the places we are going to visit are federal parks, Mom and I are keeping an eye on the government budget situation.  Our trip will be a bust if the federal government shuts down, along with the historical battlefields! AND... The motel is booked for the trip to NARA in D.C.  I have time before I need to plan the actual research I'm going to do.

I also got my scrapbooking room cleaned up.  I haven't been in there since, but it's clean!

So I had to go light on my goals for the next two week period ending July 31, since I am going to the beach for 5 days the end of this week.  There are only two... and I haven't even started on them!

1. Read another genealogy book that I recently purchased:  Trace Your Roots with DNA:  Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak and Ann Turner.
2. Follow up on 23andme matches I received through my DNA testing.  

 I have a feeling these items are going to make it on the next goal list!

Motivation Monday: My Genealogy Goals

It has occurred to me lately that if I had a full-time job, I would probably get a lot more genealogy and scrapbooking done.  Let me explain.  I'm a homemaker.  That has been my job title for the past four-and-a-half years.  I'm happy with my position.  However, you would think that I have plenty of time to get lots of genealogy research and scrapbooking done.  Not so.  Oh, I have plenty of time at my disposal, but I do not manage my time well.  I think if I had a full-time job outside the home, I would be more organized, productive, and motivated to get things done.  Having less time would make me more efficient.

Since I do not wish to get a job (and probably could not in the current state of the economy), I have been looking for ways to get motivated.  Several weeks ago, I saw where bloggers Jenny Lanctot of Are my Roots Showing? and Laura of It's All Relative had formed a Genealogy Success Team.  I thought this was a good idea and wished I had gotten in on it. 

I have a "local" genealogy friend that I compare research stories with and travel to conferences and seminars with.  So I asked her if she would be interested in forming our own "Genealogy Success Team."  She was, but our schedules have been such that we haven't been able to get together to make our first weeks' list of goals.

The other night I was Skyping with another genealogy friend, and during the course of our conversation, I told her about the Team and setting goals.  She was very interested so we proceeded to make our lists of goals right then and there.  (Who says I can't have two teams - or two lists of goals??  Or that my local friend can't just jump in when she's able?)  We are going to work on a bi-weekly schedule, so I have set the following goals to complete by Sunday, July 17th:

1. Finish reading one of my family history books that I have started.
2. Put the Harrell research I have done (and which is currently spread across my desk) in order, fill out family group sheets and research logs, scan documents related to the Harrells, and enter information found into my software program.
3. Find and scan some documents that are missing from a surname notebook I was scanning from during ScanFest.
4. Scan and stitch three very long pictures I have of my mother's days at summer camp and her high school graduation.  
5. Plan two trips:  

• The first for September during which my mother and I will drive "The Journey Through Hallowed Ground" corridor (in reverse) from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson near Charlottesville, Virginia, to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with several Civil War and other historical sites in between.
• The second trip will be in October when I will join a friend in North Carolina, and we will drive on up to research at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. for a couple of days.  I am in charge of the lodging arrangements, but more importantly, I have got to "get my ducks in a row" as to exactly what I need to research there!  I need to go prepared.

I also made a goal with a scrapbooking friend to clean up our respective scrap rooms well enough that someone could actually sit down and crop, if they wished, by this Friday, July 8th.  So far, I have only spent 15 minutes in that room, so I have some work to do this week.

Gotta go get busy!