Last year was a year of beginnings as you can read about in my December 31, 2011, blog post. If 2011 was a year of beginnings, 2012 was a year of endings. My second grandson nearly died on his third day of life. He spent 6 weeks in the hospital and we did not know if he would make it. God blessed us by giving my grandson life. But when my grandson was six months old, God chose to take my son’s life. It has been a difficult year to say the least. My graduation from OU with my Masters degree was bittersweet. That was a victory I was set to share with my son as his favorite football team was OU and I wanted him there to see me walk across the stage and receive my diploma at the ceremony in May, 2013. My time of traveling with my husband ended when I took a job in October.
All of these events factored into my sporadic blog posts and in a decrease in my genealogy time. So when it was time to write a New Year’s 2013 post I couldn’t even remember the goals I set for myself. Luckily, my goals still survived on the internet and I could go back and review them.
Goal number 1 was a research goal and I wanted to learn more about my great-grandmother’s family. I didn’t learn much other than that my great-grandmother’s mother had a child who died at a very young age. I posted about this child- Anna Hubbard- on the March 25, 2012, blog post. My family members read the blog post, called other family on the West Coast, and got back in touch with me with some information about Anna. I find it comforting to think that at least for a couple of more generations Anna will be remembered.
Goal number 2 was a writing goal to complete and publish a transcription of records local to my county. Shortly after beginning the project I found that the records had already been published. I had searched for them prior to beginning transcription and had not found any that were published. Fortunately, I made the discovery before a lot of work had been done so I abandoned that goal and project. That happened early in the year and I did not take up another writing project other than continuing updates on my blog.
Goal number 3 was an organizational goal and involved scanning in documents that I own in order to preserve them, share them in the future, and also to assist in organizing my records. I made little progress in this area but considering the difficulties faced during the year, I found it acceptable that at least I had transcribed a few records in my blog posts.
Goal number 4 was a sharing goal. I wanted to share family history and research with relatives. I met this goal through my blog, through passing on requested information to other relatives, and through sharing photographs with other family members. I also made a few contacts with new family members this year and I hope to maintain those contacts in the coming year, especially since one of those contacts was made with a family member on my great-grandmother’s side (the one I had hoped to make progress on in 2012).
A goal that was met but not specifically included in the 2011 goals was to make a break-through on my Gibson line. This line has been a brick wall for decades. I’m so happy to announce that I was finally able to make contact with another family researcher. This line was also a brick wall for her. The good news was that the information I had in my possession supplied her with what she needed and the information she had met my needs so we both were able to make a break-through on this line!
Now for the new 2013 goals:
1. To learn more about my Underwood family (Research goal)
2. To make significant progress (perhaps a first draft manuscript) in writing my family history book (Writing goal)
3. To begin scanning in my documents (Organization and Preservation goal)
4. To share some of my family history with others (Sharing goal)
5. To assist others in reaching their goals regardless of whether I get something out of it (Random Acts of Kindness goal)
6. To follow, for as long as I can,We Tree’s 52
Weeks to Better Genealogy(Skills Improvement goal)
This is an increase in the number of goals set compared to last year but I still feel they are reasonable and can be met. I’m looking forward to maintaining this blog and adding information more frequently this year as part of my sharing goal.
Happy New Year to all!