Blogging Buddies and Genealogy Resolutions

On December 23, I had the pleasure of a visit with Denise Levenick who writes The Family Curator. We went out for a little snack and beverage in Pasadena. Naturally, the conversation was mostly about genealogy. I mentioned my frustration with not knowing my 16^th great-great grandparent.

Denise challenged me to find that #16. This topic evolved into a fantastic set of goals for 2011. I can’t take credit because Denise came up with the categories, but here’s what we promised each other to do in the coming year:

One research goal

One organizational goal

One writing goal

We each came up with our own reasonable challenges, and in our own buddy system we held each other accountable to do the work.

My research goal is to determine the identification of that 16^th great-great grandparent. I have a full maiden name of her daughter, a European village, and not much else. This task is out of my knowledge zone, but I’m up to the challenge. After all, I promised Denise and I don’t want to disappoint.

The organizational goal was easy for me to determine. I’m in the process of scanning all my genealogy documents and bits of paper. I want everything online for my own ease of research, as well as for the ability to retrieve information quickly for any new found cousins. I’ve already begun this scanning process. Several times a week, I make an appointment on my calendar to scan 10 pages. That doesn’t sound like much, but it really adds up! Provided my scanner doesn’t die (it’s making noises) I am disciplined enough to meet this goal.

The writing goal took time to hash out. I think I ate 2 taquitos during our visit before I figured out a writing goal. With Denise's encouragement, I vowed to write an e-book. The challenge in this task will be finding the time. I’ve got that mom job, and that genealogy job. Writing a little e-book is like taking on another job. But you know what? I promised Denise, and I will get it written. Just don’t ask about formatting and publishing…

I’m sharing all this with you in case you may want to issue your own 2011 genealogy research, organization and writing challenge. Thank you, Denise, for the idea and the wonderful company. I’m fortunate to have such a wonderful friend and blogging buddy.

So genealogy friends, are you up to the challenge in 2011? 


Update: Denise has uploaded her own genealogy goals at the Family Curator blog. I agree that this Christmas meetup (our second in 2 years) needs to be an annual thing.