It’s now June, so I thought I’d take a look at my genealogy New Year’s resolutions for 2009 and see how I’m doing.
I resolved to…
Accept that try as I might, I cannot always find the answer.
I have accepted this in general, but I have, and still will stumble with this.
Learn more about the lives of my ancestors, focusing more on the how and why, not just the who, what, when, and where.
My research has been a little slow the past several of months. I’ve had some great finds along the way, but no huge discoveries. Just haven’t had a lot of time to “learn” more.
Blog more, by sharing my ancestors’ stories and helping fellow family historians.
Been doing this!
Transcribe more records than I did in 2008.
Really been doing this! Since becoming an official DAR member in late April, I’ve probably transcribed more records in one month than I did all of last year. Have also done some work for FamilySearch.
Make a decision as to what level I want to take genealogy to (the family historian? a professional? another direction?) and make a plan for how to get there.
Still wrestling with this. People always say, “do what you love,” and I do love this. I guess I’m just not sure if I could make a living out of it. Any words of advice??
This is a great list. I too go in spurts with the transcribing. I also started my second blog to deal more with the “Stories Of My Ancestors” rather than just the facts Ma’am. I do paid research but I must say I couldn’t make a living off it. Please note though that I am a researcher and not a genealogist. How many people do you know who could afford to hire someone to work the hundreds of hours on a tree? Just for smaller parts of the research maybe but for the whole thing?
I don’t want to discourage you. It is something you can do on the side until you see what kind of response you get.
I think accepting we can’t always find the answer is the hardest part. “What do you mean there are no records of these people” “Did they just disappear”. Gone forever? Oh I just hate that.