My Genealogy Goals for 2012

On December 23, Denise Levenick aka The Family Curator and I met for our annual lunch and declaration of genealogy resolutions. Here's what I pledged last year.

Over a really good hamburger and Rogue Ale, I fessed up to my results of my 2011 goals. Denise did the same.

For 2012, we decided to stick with the same format:

1 organizational goal
1 research goal
1 writing goal

The organizational goal
I am going to recycle 2011's unaccomplished task of scanning the four notebooks full of "stuff" on my shelf. I want these documents digitized so I can 1) put the notebooks away and 2) make it easier for me to send items and records to other cousins. Honestly, I don't have a lot of enthusiasm for this one, but it's a necessary chore. I will feel better when it's done.

The research goal
Denise proposed a fun idea. She named a special guild where you needed a qualifying ancestor to get in. The name of the group escapes me, as I had never heard of them before. So I will need to investigate my husband's family to see if he qualifies. I already know I don't because I don't have a single New England ancestor.

I also added a second research goal within the last week. Thanks to FamilySearch, I know that my great-great grandfather Emile Bourgaux and his father Michel Bourgaux have naturalization files somewhere in Louisiana. My second research goal is to find these files. They are (hopefully) either in Lafayette or Baton Rouge. I will make them mine.

The writing goal
Last year, at the encouragement of Denise, I wrote an e-book based on some of the blog writing I'd already done. This year, I have a similar goal...only I don't have any pre-written content in the hopper!

My writing goal part 1 is to get a first draft completed of a book I've been writing in my head. It is a mainstream genealogy book, but that's all the details you're going to get for now.

I've been thinking, and thinking is a bad thing. I have another e-book idea as well. I made an outline and I'm going to work in it at the same time. That's writing goal part 2.

Crazy.

So there are my 3+ goals for 2012. I might finish them. I might not. What I do know is that I'm very optimistic, and that will carry me far. Even if I don't complete them, I will do great things.

The one hurdle in my way is that I have a significant 8-month family history project for someone else on the calendar. It takes up a lot of my time. I love it and the income it generates, but as far as my 2012 goals are concerned, I have my work cut out for me.

That's it for now. Denise posted her goals here. I need to get busy! Our annual lunch date is less than a year away!