The biggest problem I’ve found in running a professional genealogy business from home, is the guilt I feel when NOT working. If I sit down to read, watch t.v., or (and this hardly happens anymore, sadly) knit, my closed laptop beckons me from across the room with its mantra of “there’s one more site which might solve your client’s problem, why aren’t you checking it NOW?”
The second (although closely vying for top billing) biggest problem is that my personal research is perpetual on the back burner. The third, of course, being the nagging awareness that the research I did waayyyyyyy back in the start of my genealogy addiction, falls embarrassingly short of The Genealogy Proof Standard I live by today.
So, imagine my delight when I stumbled over Thomas MacEntee’s wonderful project for the New Year! Genealogy Do-Over, which you can read all about here. Essentially, it involves tossing out that old research (except for original documents) and beginning again, at the beginning. The very beginning. And blogging about it regularly as I move through Thomas’s thirteen week plan. A daunting task, yes, but certainly one worth the effort, in terms of both the process and the product. When I read about the project today, I felt the stirrings of that tingling of excitement I get every time I’m about to begin work on a new client’s family. In fact, I’m going to approach it as if I am the new client. Having worked on my family history for over thirty years, I’m a bit (read as “exceedingly”) overwhelmed at the amount of research findings I’ll be tossing, and the breadth of family history that lies ahead of me, waiting to be rediscovered; so, for this 13 week project, I’m going to tackle just my paternal grandfather’s line. The Varrieurs. It seems a good place to start. On the other hand, there is more uncertainty in my paternal grandmother’s line, the Litterers. So I don’t know. But, I have a couple days to decide before the Do-Over kicks off on January 2nd.
I should also admit, although there really are not enough hours in my week to add on more commitment, the idea of dusting off the cobwebs that have settled onto my beloved blog is already making me smile. See you in January!
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