A Shout Out

I’m still chugging along on my website. Right now I’m putting up my sources on the Doremus family. Re-visiting this family reminds me of some of my old contacts. These were made between me, my mother, and Aunt Diane many many moons ago. Mom and I were using email addresses provided by our Internet Provider at the time. Then they folded up pretty quickly and we switched to cable internet. After that I took a break from my genealogy as I was going to college and working full time. I’ve lost contact with many of these people. It makes me sad to think about that as it’s my Dad’s side of the family that these contacts were made from.

Going through RootsWeb, I actually ran across some emails that were exchanged all those years ago. July 7, 2002 to be exact. Gosh I’m jealous of other people’s organization and thought for sources at the time. I still remember where I got most things but I didn’t source at the time, keeping everything in my own memory. That was so bad of me. I’m regretting it now. I know it’s a common mistake by new researchers. I just beat myself up about it though. More and more as I go through this clean up process now.

Going into my Local Family History Center just really put it all into perspective for me. Did I find anything out new? Not really. I did realize I have to stop taking such a casual stance on everything. I need to keep a research diary, I need to log my correspondence, not just stick it in a genealogy folder after I’ve responded. Have I even responded to some of those? I don’t know because I’m not organized!

So this post is a shout out to all you organized, experienced researchers who are such an inspiration to beginners like me. I’m not a complete beginner sure, but in many ways I still am and always will be. I love the learning process so much, and I appreciate all that I’ve learned in just the short time I’ve been blogging. Now I just need to overcome my social anxiety and comment on the blogs I’m reading and let those who are inspiring me know!

♥♥♥