Thoughtful Thursday

Reflections, Goals, and Wishes

As this year winds it’s way to a close, I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on this past year, set a few genealogy goals for 2010, and give my wish list.

Reflections

After not really working on my genealogy since 1998, this year has almost felt like a genealogical whirlwind. So in no particular order, here are things that immediately come to mind for this past year. Some, make that a lot, of these will probably be things I blogged about throughout the year but I thought they were worth mentioning one more time before I close out the year.

1. Thanks to my research prior to 1998, my second cousin, Deborah O., gave cousin Nicholas I. (2nd cousin twice removed) my name. As you know, I, along with many of my Geneafriends, am a firm believer in we are guided by the ancestors. Therefore, I think the ancestors had a hand in this introduction, because Nicholas definitely provided the spark I needed to get going again and boy did I return to research with a vengeance. It seems like genealogy is all that I have done this year. I’m ever so grateful for this introduction.
2. I still can’t believe that I’m blogging. And what’s more I have not one but two genealogy blogs. Sometimes I struggle with what to write but I’m grateful that I started both. They have allowed me to connect with fellow family researchers / genealogists, which has truly been a godsend. Being able to share highs, lows, strategy and thoughts as I have continued to travel back through time has truly helped.
3. In addition to making Geneafriends, this blog, in particular, contributed to my mother and I reconnecting with an almost lost line, a line on my maternal grandmother’s side that only mom, Aunt Lucille and I seem to know about. And now, hopefully through ancestral DNA, my new cousin and I can connect the dots of an ancestor’s life that seems to have left virtually no paper trail.
4. During my time away, I’m thrilled by the role the Internet is now playing in the hunt for ancestors. However, it also saddens me, too, as it appears there may now be a large segment of family researchers that truly believe that it’s all on the internet and everything is in the census records. When I renewed my research efforts this year, I must admit that I almost fell into this trap myself but luckily for me, (1) I begin my research efforts when there was no internet - only microfilm and snail mail, so I knew there was a ton of other information out there that was nowhere on the internet, and (2) my new found Geneafriends wouldn’t let me fall into that trap by reminding me of other places to check. (Thanks Angela, Luckie, Sandra, Michael, Felicia, Valerie, Renate, et. al).
5. I feel like the biggest accomplishment this year is that I think I’m finally beginning to grow as a researcher even though often times I wonder how much I have truly grown. This means, I still have a long way to go.

By the way, since my lists ended up being a bit longer than I had planned, I decided to divide this post into three parts. Today was the reflections part. Part II will be my goals for 2010 and Part III my genea wish list.

Until Next Time!