Goal Setting: What I Accomplished in 2019 and Hope to Accomplish in 2020

One of the main goals I had accomplished by the end of 2018 was submitting my portfolio to the Board for the Certification of Genealogists and becoming certified. It was a major accomplishment and I thought would lead to more opportunities in the new year. However, during 2019, I had no new major clients and research projects, but did have many clients who needed quick record retrievals. I also did not have many speaking engagements.

By looking back on what I did accomplish, I was still very active with genealogy throughout the year. I would say, except for the days when I was traveling with family, I spent at least an hour on genealogy, either researching my own family, writing about the research, or learning from blog posts and webinars given by other genealogists.

Client Work:

• 5 document retrieval clients, one very steady
• 1 record transcription client
• 1 deed research client
• 1 phone consultation client

Education:

• Attended SLIG, taking “Advanced Southern Research”
• Attended GRIP, taking “Tackling Tough Problems”
• Attended three genealogy conferences: Jamboree in Burbank, International German Genealogy Conference in Sacramento, and the APG Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City
• Attended 1 seminar in person, and many webinars online

Research: I am not good about keeping track of the research I have done. I know I worked on the following lines:

• Samuel Johnston. Trying to figure out where in Alabama his children were born (1840s) and where in South Carolina he and his wife, Elizabeth McCormack were from. Here are some that I wrote up:
• Amos Gorrell, land transactions in Cooper County, Missouri.
• Gleeson and O’Meara research in Clinton County, Iowa; and Gleeson research in Plymouth County, Iowa.
• Lydia Davey Colby research in New York, specifically Brooklyn.
• Thomas Haley slave research
• Ellis Lancaster land plotting
• George Barnes & Mary J Cooper research in Hinds Co, Mississippi
• Hutson deed research in Cherokee Co, Georgia
• Gleeson deed research in Carleton Co, Ontario, Canada
• Coor deed research in Samson Co, North Carolina
• Johnston deed research in Texas
• Obtained records during a visit to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Still working on transcribing and analyzing them: CCC for Arnold Nilsen, WPA for William Hork, civil records for Virginia Hork, Morning reports 

Speaking Engagements:

• I spoke to one society in early 2019 secured another engagement for them this coming June.
• I presented twice to the California Genealogical Society’s Intro class series on vital records
• I presented to the Concord Family History Center on focus research
• I presented the Teaching Moment to the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society on viewing FamilySearch FamilyTree. 

Teaching Opportunities:

• I reached out to the Acalanes Adult Education about teaching genealogy classes and started my first four-session class in the Fall quarter. I was over-ambitious and the class was a bit too advanced for the students. I have another class scheduled for the Winter quarter and will plan one for Spring.
• I also taught one five-session intermediate skills class for CGS at the Oakland FamilySearch Library.

Volunteer Work:

• Secretary, APG Writers SIG (last term)
• Secretary, Contra Costa County Historical Society
• Volunteer Researcher, Contra Costa County Historical Society
• Volunteer, Oakland FamilySearch Library
• Panelist, AmericanGen Study Group with DearMyrtle

Writing:

• Blog posts across both blogs: Mam-ma’s Southern Family and My Trails into the Past

• 51 posts on “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” across

• 46 “Genea-pouri” posts about my weekly genealogy accomplishments

• 34 “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun” posts

• 15 miscellaneous genealogy posts about my research (including this one)

• 2 columns for the California Genealogical Society’s Nugget
• 1 book review for the National Genealogical Society Quarterly
• 3 research locality articles for the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society’s Descendants
• Created four new 2-hour lesson plans for the adult school program

Goals for 2020

A goal I had set for myself last year was to write a family history about my parents and grandparents. It was the suggestion of my nephew, Ryan, after I showed him the blog post about a newspaper article showing my mother standing next to Louis Armstrong. I created a timeline and some ideas of chapters to write, but never got around to the actual writing. This year I will schedule in the time to write. Goal #1: Write the story of my parents.

I would like to have a few more speaking engagements at the local genealogical societies. I have created a flyer of my current presentations. Goal #2: Send out Presentation Flyer to all local societies in the Bay Area.

The genealogy class at the Acalanes Adult School was a success. I would like to create a complete curriculum for a 2 year program, with clear titles and prerequisites to help potential students to know which classes to sign up for.  Goal #3: Create Genealogy Program for Adult School.

I have a huge backlog of documents both digital and on paper that have not yet been added to RootsMagic and analyzed. I have been working on that this past three months and need to continue. I should do it one family line at a time. I should scan what needs to be saved and purge what isn’t needed.  Goal #4: Finish processing paper and digital files.

I also started working on the photo archive and scanned several hundred photos and cataloged them. This is all my parent’s collection, i.e. the Hork Photo Collection. I have also my grandmother’s photos, which will be the Johnston Photo Collection. Then finally there will be the Gorrell Photo Collection, which will include the photos I have taken since my marriage. My earlier photos will find a home in the Hork Photo Collection.  Goal #5: Finish processing and cataloguing the Hork Photo Collection.

Lastly, I would like to keep better records of what I do. I am creating several different spreadsheets in order to keep track of the following: blog posts, client work, research projects, presentations, and timekeeping. Hopefully, this will help keep me on track and accountable. Goal #6: Keep the recordkeeping spreadsheets up to date.

Do I have too many goals for 2020? Perhaps, but if I can make just a little progress on each one, I will be satisfied. Goals number 2 and 3 can be completed in the first weeks of January. If I plan out the writing of my parents’ story, I can do the writing in one or two hour spurts. The processing of the paper and digital files and the photo archive will require some scheduling. Just one folder at a time is all I need to do. Lastly, goal number 6 just requires me to keep the files visible so I remember to keep them current.

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.