Genea-Resolutions 2011

Resolve - a poem by Charlotte Perkins Stetson (also known as Charlotte Perkins Gilman).
Postcard, unused. Private collection. Her 1898 book,Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution, republished in the 1960s, was the first feminist text I ever read. Although I didn't agree with her entirely, it's one of the books I consider shaped my life.

It's a New Year again - 2011, already!

Time to write out the New Year's Genealogical Resolutions and to begin make monthly and weekly plans to follow them up.

Last year, my personal genealogical goals in brief were:

1. to finish scanning my photos
2. to have local research plans ready for each month, and for long distance trips
3. to continue blogging, and host one Carnival, if possible
4. to get Newdale, Manitoba information on-line
5. to continue working on organization and energy saving

Although I didn't do as well as I hoped - 2010 turned out to be a very busy year for me - I certainly kept going with these goals all year, and I expect to continue with these in 2011. And I met new friends and new-to-me cousins on-line - that's always rewarding.

Someday, I will finish the photograph scanning, identifying and tagging and I do now have a Newdale website up. I got in a very respectable amount of research time in at local archives and libraries, although I wasn't able to get to Ontario last year as I had planned.

One of the best things I did for myself last year after I reviewed my progress in the summer was to institute an 'Anti-Procrastination Evening' once a month in the fall. I took myself to a genealogical library and worked on one particular personal writing project for a number of hours at a stretch. That's finished thanks to that dedicated work time, and I intend to do the same this year with another project, although I'll start earlier this year. (I'll write a bit more about this later.)

Organization must surely be almost every genealogist's (and historian's) bugbear. I did make filing a priority last year, but when we tidied up for holiday visitors, the number of boxes that ended up in my Library made me realize how much there is still.

Several boxes are full of magazines. I find it hard to give them up, but this year I'll make certain to pass most on to new readers. (I already have a group in mind to give them to.)

Then there are two boxes of papers I was pretty sure must be duplicates and should be disposed of. Checking and removing those I will make a priority early in the new year when I'm still energised!

Backing up my computer data is something I try to take seriously. Wednesday each week is still my backup day and in 2010 I began using Carbonite on two of my computers as an on-line 'cloud' backup. Although my idea of organizing the computers last year was to put personal genealogical and other info on one, and 'work' on the other, this didn't always pan out. So in 2011, I will work on synchronizing my computers instead, perhaps using Dropbox. I'll be looking at alternatives for this in January.

I attended a number of genealogical and historical events last year, and am looking forward to doing that this year. Being with like-minded people always promotes enthusiasm and ideas. And I'll be participating and hosting Carnivals again this year. That's always fun.