Thomas MacEntee from Geneabloggers posed this question the other day and I think it’s a good one.
The purpose of my blog was threefold:
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 Way back at the beginning of August, I laid out a genealogy plan for the rest of the summer. It was a really busy summer. While I didn’t accomplish everything on my list, I made a dent and then some… Research  Another great topic from 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog! The benefits of forward and backward linking of related blog posts: Tags and categories are another way I connect related posts. For the most part, a post falls into one category, but often has a number of tags. I think of the category as a chapter heading, and the tags as a sort of index of ideas or themes. When writing a post, I (…more)  I’m a diehard fan of Evernote, for all aspects of my life, not just genealogy notes, but I’ve been giving OneNote a serious look this week and I think it might be a real help in keeping my research organized. OneNote is a program in the Microsoft Office family (I’m using 2007). The program allows you to create something akin to tabbed notebooks. Each notebook can have any number of tabs, or sections as they’re called. I decided to create a notebook for each family I’m researching. To keep things simple, and to maintain consistency, I created page templates for the different sections of my notebooks: •Surname tab—Basically an overview of the family name, with general notes as well as a table of contents to get to the sections of the notebook quickly – essentially bookmarks which jump to a specific section, or a certain page (or even a paragraph) within (…more)  I finished the Boston University Certificate of Genealogical Research program last night!!!! It’s been a hectic and at times stressful 14 weeks but I’m so glad I did it. I’ve learned so much, discovered areas I’m weak in and need to improve, seen how citations are REALLY supposed to look (!), and feel ready to tackle the long process of becoming a certified professional genealogist. In no particular order, here are some to-do list items I’m hoping to tackle sooner rather than later. (My immediate goal is to keep the momentum going now that the BU program is behind me): 
24 hours a day just isn’t enough….. Things are crazy busy here… The time commitment of the BU genealogy program is immense, although I’m enjoying every minute of it. I’ve just started a new project at the Historical Society, researching and cataloging a collection of diaries and other personal papers of a Doctor Francis Beattie Brewer, and it is both fascinating and time consuming. I’ve been using my paternal side of the family tree (French Canadian and colonial American) as case studies for my BU assignments and it’s opened up several research doors that I’m dying to go through, but I am having trouble finding the time. And then there is the ever present nagging problem of the old, poorly crafted citations which are lurking in the pages of the genealogy data here, visible to the WORLD…….it’s going to take eons to fix them. All this, AND there is (…more)  Life is filled with all sorts of responsibilities and it is difficult sometimes to maintain a balance between commitments and a pastime as time consuming and complex as genealogy. I spent the last three days writing a research paper whose allotted time was three hours (yikes). It is done and I am really pleased with it, but before I move on to the next assignment, I thought it would be a good idea to step back and look at the 2011 genealogy goals I set for myself in this post. Education & Advancement in Genealogy: This one is going quite well, although I dramatically underestimated the time I would have to commit to it in order to achieve maximum, type A personality, perfection. (why do I do that to myself??) The effort is worth it though, because I’m learning so much, (…more) 
Back in the beginning of my journey into the past, practically before the earth’s crust had cooled, I did what I think a lot of newbie genealogists are guilty of: I didn’t keep track of my sources. My first pedigree chart, drawn so carefully with pencil and ruler, was based on facts gleaned from conversations with my grandparents and family remembrance. To my credit, on family trips to England during my teen years, when I was able to coerce my grandfather to take me to the local records repository, or to traipse through an ancient cemetery in search of headstones, I did take notes, recording the place we’d visited and what discoveries I’d made there. But the idea of a bibliography was alien to me. Because I love old letters and aging paper, I did at least save the replies from vicars and distant family, sent in answer (…more)  The topic of last month’s Carnival of Genealogy was 2011 Genealogy Plans, which got me thinking about where I’d like to go this year and what I’m likely to accomplish. After giving it some thought, I realize 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty ambitious year for me Education & Advancement in Genealogy: The BU program starts Thursday, and I have to admit I’m feeling a bit intimidated at this point. Part I of the NSG course is just about behind me…still waiting on a birth certificate from the PA Bureau of Vital Statistics..grrrrrrr. And my volunteer work at the historical society is really fun and fulfilling, and I definitely will improve on (…more)  Here is one of the several restorations I got after posting the picture on Rootschat. My file uploaded at a lower resolution than I had intended, so they didn’t have as much to work with, however I think the end result is quite good. Share: You might also like:52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: HomeSentimental Sunday – Miss Phyllis Mary CollinsWordless Wednesday – Elsie Mae (Ebert) Varrieur |
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