Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Genealogy Resolutions - 2012

I know, January 2012 is half over and I've not even set out my New Year's Resolutions yet.

As far as last year went, I did keep up with most of my resolutions, but sometimes that meant running, running, running, and sometimes my resolve just got left behind. And looking back at 2011's Resolutions, I see 2010 went a bit too fast for me too.

So I'm only making a couple of resolutions this year, however, since many of the previous years' resolutions were designed to instill and enhance good genealogical habits, wherever possible, I'll continue following up with them.

1. This first resolution I did make early in December, and asked a friend to repeat it to me this year as needed:
" I will not promise/volunteer to do 3 things at once. I will not promise/volunteer to do 3 things at once. I will not..."

Not that I can't still do 3 things at once, but it's usually that news-to-me 4th thing that just has to be done that gets my schedule tied up in knots.

2. Pick my one practical genealogy project for 2012 to focus on. Usually that's been a family line or sometimes just one individual.

This year, because the 1940 US census will be released in April, I decided I'd focus on the family of Alfred White and Emma Cox/Cocks. Originally from England, they emigrated to Canada in 1871 with their 2 children, Alfred, and Eliza Imray, in an East-End Emigration (London) group. While living in Ontario, they had several more children (Mary Elizabeth Miles, Ernest Albert, Joseph Floyd, Florence, and John), then emigrated to the USA where they had at least one more child, Harry.

First I'll be gathering and assessing all the information I do have on the family; then I'll be preparing myself to search for them in 1940. I'm hoping to find some descendants yet.

3. Pick one personally pleasurable genealogy project for 2012.


I've chosen to 'index' my oldest books, the ones that belonged to other family members first. I'll scan and describe the covers and any inscriptions or other finds, I'll do a little writeup and print these out and I'll do at least one a week. This should get me through these by the next new year.

Most of these books have been in my personal library since I was a girl and I've used them in my family genealogy sometimes. For example, where someone, like my mum, wrote her address in various books, I've listed and investigated those.

Not all inscriptions are as straightforward as addresses though. I thought I'd start with one of those in a book once my Na's - The Golden Book of Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, Selections for the Year (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Ltd., 1935). Seemed an appropriate start as this includes a selection for each day of the year. More about this book later.

And yes, for my faithful readers,
4. I promise to blog much more (and more regularly) in 2012.


Like some others, I've chosen a word for 2012. That word is OPPORTUNITY, to remind me to look for those, when things don't go the way I expect. I do hope I won't be drinking only lemonade this year.

1 comment:

Celia Lewis said...

Sounds very do-able, Diane - even though that first one seems a bit slippery to me!! Aren't you always doing 4 or even 5 things -?? :-)) I'll be looking forward to reading about your ancestor project (White family).

Cheers (no lemonade in sight)!