Month: December 2011

How I did with my Yearly Goals

Posted on by Kathleen

It’s now time to face my music. I didn’t get as far on my yearly goals as I would have liked. My life turned a little upside down this year and threw me off balance. That’s alright though, I’m learning how life throws you a few punches every once and awhile and I’m definitely back on my feet again… I think!

Personal Genealogy Files Goals

  • I want to finally finish re-organizing my ‘To Be Sorted’ folders on my second hard drive. Right now I have a folder of Mays photos, a folder of Moore photos, a folder of scanned photos and a folder of tombstones to be sorted into my 2010 filing system. (Hopefully it’s my final filing system!)

Well, sorry to say I still have things in my To Be Sorted folders. The good news is most of it is for the side of the family I haven’t finished verifying yet. I don’t have ID numbers created for them yet, so they aren’t going into sorted folders yet. I do get bursts of energy to sort through these files every once and awhile but I need to make more of an effort to double check them as I go.

  • I want to have the whole Mays side of my family entered into my website and both FTM and RootsMagic. This is a big feat, since I’m behind on my RootsMagic work and there are a lot of Mays family members.
I am nowhere near finished with the Mays side of my family.  I’m getting there though. There were a lot of 10-15 children families to hash out, so it’s coming along, albeit slowly.

Online Genealogy Goals

  • Order at least 4 microfilm from the Family History Center. I’m hoping for one a quarter. I keep talking myself out of it because I want to get the most bang for my buck, so to speak. Enough of that! Time to get on with it!
I haven’t ordered any, this will still be a goal in the new year! It’s just been so hard to get out this year and get much done, but hopefully next year will be better.

Record Ordering Goals

  • I want to obtain the marriage certificate for William and Llewellyn. (I have notations of the date in Llewellyn’s records and a newspaper announcement, but I would like a copy of the actual certificate)
  • I would like to find the death certificate of Robert J Moore. (Brooklyn has no record of his death in 1925, so my next search would be Caldwell, NJ)
  • I have a copy of Llewellyn‘s birth certificate but it might be in New York at my Aunt Diane’s house. I’ll have to ask Uncle Chris about it in July.
  • Order death certificates for Lewis and Jennie Thorward.
I was short on genealogy funds this year and was only able to order the marriage record for George Yohn/Thorward and Josephine Doremus and the death record for John Menzies from the New Jersey and New York State Archives.

General Goals

  • BE MORE ORGANIZED! I ordered a copy of Elyse Doerflinger‘s Conquering the Paper Monster ebook and I plan to put it to use in the new year! With all that’s been going on in the last few months, I just haven’t had the time to touch my archives. I’m usually very good about starting and finishing big projects, it’s just I need a guideline sometimes.
I am MUCH more organized, I actually went through and organized all of my papers. I even wrote about it in a few posts: here. The only job left is scanning in my photos and organizing them but I plan to accomplish that slowly.

Website Goals

  • Don’t break the site! I’ve had a horrible habit of breaking the genealogy software on my website. Usually because I mess around with it too much. I think I’ve learned enough through trial and horrible errors to successfully keep this goal!

The website isn’t broken! I’ve been working on a new design for over a year, but haven’t had a lot of time to devote to it, so I credit that with the great luck. The new design will hopefully get done this year for sure. With easier to read text and better organization of the site!

Hopefully, I can think of some challenging, attainable goals for the next year!