2010 goals

I noticed this time last year that some bloggers, including Professor Dru and Randy Seaver wrote their genealogical goals for the year. I noticed that some have even already published goals for 2010. I want to publish my goals as well as give myself a grade this time next year, assuming that I'm still blogging.

So here are my genealogical goals for 2010.

Blog at least four times each month. As I mentioned before, I really don't have time to blog. Worse than not having time, I don't always have great ideas to blog about. Amy Coffin, MLIS provided some great ideas for the blogging clueless like myself on her We Tree Adventures in Genealogy blog. Jump Start Your Genealogy Blog. 52 ideas. 52 weeks. Part 1 and Jump Start Your Genealogy Blog. 52 ideas. 52 weeks. Part 2. I am not committing to always use these but to use them if I run out of thoughts to blog about. What do I blog about? Mostly about my research.

Identify and focus on my brickwalls;
one
at
a
time.

To identify and focus on my brickwalls, the next two goals apply.

Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG prefaces an article on the Ancestry.com Learning Center "This is not about organizing what you've already found. It's about organizing what you are going to do." Take a look at the What's Your Problem? area of this article on Ancestry.com Learning Center. I do have to at least identify them all, not just in my head but on paper. btw, my personal feeling is that it's about organizing both what you're going to do as well as what you already did. If you don't organize what you already did, you don't know which way to take the next fork in the road. The next fork in the road is of course what you are going to do.


Michael John Neill says in his Genealogy Tip of the Day blog to Use Their Birthdays. Great idea that will give me time to focus on an ancestor. I have a pocket calendar that is my Genealogy Calendar for my ancestors and collaterals. Instead of using just birthdays, I am using birth , marriage and death dates to try to make sure that I focus on each of my folks at least three times this year. One of the prime reasons I'm including collaterals as well as marriage and death dates is because knowing that I focus more of my research on my maternal grandfather and his folks, this will make sure others of my family members get closer to equal time. Equal time they are not going to get until I find Smith's parents and siblings as well as identify my relationship to Simon. I do not goal to always blog about these focus dates, but to at least do it. More than blogging about these dates, I want to be especially sure I have them documented and cited correctly as well as other events that involve those persons of focus.

Go to a local repository at least once a month. I have been meaning to get over to Wright State Dunbar Library and to the Greene County and Warren County Historical Societies for quite awhile. Put it on my calendar and go.

Find time to investigate the features of RootsMagic Essentials and decide if I like it much better than Legacy. I have decided that I have to like RootsMagic Essentials much better, not equally as well because I already own Legacy 7.

Backup, backup, backup. I'm sure most of you already do your regular backups and so do I do monthly backups. For those who don't backup at all or who don't backup more frequently than once a month, take this less from me and from Amy Coffin of We Tree blog. Backup More Frequently than once a month. Amy explains her catastrophe here and the end result here. Me and my almost catastrophic situation? Last week I spilled coffee on my computer desk. I got it wiped up pretty good, but enough of the coffee dripped down onto my desktop pc underneath that I had a burning smell when I last turned it on. Fortunately I do still have my laptop but anything on my desktop newer than Dec 12 is potentially lost. So for now, I'm not turning on my desktop until I am ready to back it up then disassemble it and clean it. I bought the cleaner yesterday so I should be OK to get on that today.

The hardest of all my goals to accomplish will be to get my filing done. I am one of those who enjoy the hunt much more than the cleanup after. So to try using the Mary Hill philosophy, I will make sure to file at least ten document pages each week. Rather than say I'm going to "file at least one document per day" as Mary mentions on her Family Roots Organizer video, I am committing to filing at least once per week. I don't want to over commit in this area. I do have an in-basket as Mary suggests. I have referenced my genealogy calendar several times in this post, I also keep it in my in-basket. Between my calendar and my research logs, I should be able to keep track of my filing very well. One thing I guess I can pat myself on the back for is that I do already keep reasonably up to date on my research log. But...

Streamline my monthly maintenance process. I think I do alright using my research logs but I need to streamline the process in some way. The problem is that in keeping my logs, there is my desktop pc, laptop and several flash drives. I have pieces and parts of my research logs potentially on all of them. Once a month, I do my cleanup and merge them together. I guess it would be easier if I used an online backup service, but for some reason referencing security, my gut doesn't trust them. I also realize that if I kept better track of my research logs, it will be much easier to blog. It would eliminate a lot of typing.

These next two won't be hard unless finances get in the way or maybe some family functions might take priority.
Get to some genealogy educational opportunity and go on some research road trip at least four times per year. I was going to say once per quarter but I already have two genealogy educational opportunities on my calendar. Depends what else is going on in my life, sometimes there is feast or famine.

Again, these will be really easy. I am already registered for the 14th annual Family History Jamboree on Feb 20 and in March at the ACPL they are having a March Madness week. I am planning to attend the Writing Your Family History: A Primer Seminar. There is no link to this event yet other than for you to go view their calendar of events. You can select genealogy events only, then next page until you get to March. I expect I will be able to get some research done while I'm there but if I plan well, I may stay overnight and get a lot done. Whether I stay overnight or not, that day is still a research day and an education day.

That's it. I think there is more than enough goals here. But I would rather overplan than underplan and accomplish everything.