2009 Genealogy Goals

New Years Day is here again and it’s that magical time of the year to refocus and set new goals. Not only is it a time that people traditionally make resolutions, but it also is a time of reflection about the previous year.

I set four genealogy goals during the year 2008 and shared them with the Family Tree Maker genealogy buffs on our website at MyFamily.com.

1. Finish organizing my paper files into folders and notebooks.
2. Declutter and get rid of unnecessary genealogy related papers (printouts, pamphlets, etc.)
3. Write and publish articles for genealogy newsletters and journals.
4. Organize computerized genealogy files and update and document all findings in FTM.

I did not fully complete all of these goals, however, I did make significant progress on fulfilling goals 1, 2, and 4 Although I did not get around to submitting genealogy articles for publication to fulfill goal #3, my amount of writing increased significantly during 2008 through my discovering of blogging during the earlier part of the year.

Much of the year was spent on organizing my family related genealogy paper files. I am organizing my family files in color file folders; one color for each grandparent (red-maternal grandmother, green-maternal grandfather, yellow-paternal grandmother, and blue-paternal grandfather. I also adopted orange colored folders for my DNA related files.) This color coding file system will be further explained in other blog postings this month. The beauty of this filing method is that I can readily identify which of my four grandparents a file belongs. For some grandparents, I have a lot of paper files, such as for both of my grandmothers. The color coding filing system also allows easy expansion on any of the four lines.

I discovered blogging in February 2008 and began with a PowerPointers Blog. In March, I began the Find Your Folks genealogy blog, and this is where I poured my writing efforts in 2008. At the end of 2008, I had 106 postings on my genealogy blog, as opposed to only seven on the PowerPointer's blog.

For the year 2009, my goal is to continue working on completing the 2008 goals, and to pursue bigger and better genealogy endeavors. Last year was my first time writing down my genealogical goals, and these goals mainly focused on writing, documentation, and organizing genealogy files and data. However, this year’s list is a bit more comprehensive and categorized and I have tried to think of all the multiple components of my genealogy career.

2009 Genealogy Goals

Write

• Write, Write, Write!


• Write and publish articles for genealogy newsletters and journals.


• Write a book on my family history.


• Write articles for Find Your Folks blog
  

Update, Organize, and Document

• Finish organizing my paper files into color folders


• Declutter and get rid of unnecessary genealogy related papers (printouts, pamphlets, etc.)


• Organize computerized genealogy files


• Update and document all sources in Family Tree Maker Software.
  

Attend Conferences and Classes

• Attend the National Genealogy Society conference in Raleigh, NC in May


• Attend the Black Genealogy Summit in Indiana in October

Fellowship with Living Descendants

• Attend at least two family reunions


• Continue to contact living descendants of ancestors in order to find additional family information
  
  

DNA Testing

• Have additional family lines tested to determine their African connection, or relatedness to other families with the same surname
  

Genealogy Presentations

• Conduct at least two genealogy workshops
  

Blogging and Technology

• Continue genealogy blogging and strive to post daily


• Learn how to use new blog tools to add to blog


• Learn how to podcast and post to blog


• Continue using Facebook for genealogy social networking sites


• Explore other new Internet resources that will aid in further advancing genealogy