My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!   Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has our first assignment for the new year. 1)  What are your genealogy goals for 2026?  Consider genealogy research, education, organizing, service, writing, and whatever else you care to share . Here’s mine: I delayed working on this because I just bet this would be the theme for today’s assignment. I have reviewed last year’s goals here: Revisiting my 2025 Genealogy Goals . This is always a good start, as we often have left over goals we did not finish. This year, I am going to break up my goals into different categories: Education, Organizing, Research, and Writing. Education Under Education, I have signed up many of the upcoming Legacy Family Tree Webinars . I do not always watch them live, except the BCG-sponsored ones, because I am usually busy when they first air. I started a Wednesday Webinar meme this past year, where I tak...

It is time to revisit my goals for 2025 and see how well I did (see “Goals for 2025” ). Looking back, my genealogy goals were: Organization . Continue organizing and reducing files. I have new archival boxes to store these items and I can donate the plastic bins. Writing . Create 2 books about my grandparents, Tom J Johnston & Pansy Lancaster, and William C Hork and Anna Sullivan. Do the same as I did the parent's book, using blog posts and photos.  Renewal . Decide on a subject for the KDP I can use for my renewal. I have played around with some starting points but have not decided yet. Presentations . Create 1-2 new presentations. One should have a case study within. Revisit I had these goals written on a bright yellow 3 x 5 card posted on the bulletin board above my computer. I do not think I ever looked at them the whole year. So, it will be interesting to see how well I completed each goal. Organization . I was to work through more surname paper files in my plastic bi...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)  What are your genealogy goals for 2025?  Consider genealogy research, education, organizing, service, writing, and whatever else you care to share. Here's mine: I have already posted about reflecting on last year’s goals and creating goals for 2025. It is here . A recap of the goals is below. 2025 Goals Organization. Continue organizing and reducing files. I have new archival boxes to store these items and I can donate the plastic bins. Writing . Create 2 books about my grandparents, Tom J Johnston & Pansy Lancaster, and William C Hork and Anna Sullivan. Do the same as I did the parent's book, using blog posts and photos. I will also continue writing 52 Ancestors, Genea-pourri, and SNGF each week, plus some additional posts as I discover topics. Renewal . Decide on a subject for the KDP I can use fo...

I say goals and not resolutions. Resolutions sound like you have to fix something. I just want to get stuff done and making a list of goals might help do that. First, let’s look at last year’s goals and my grade for it. 2024 Goals Organize photos and files . I eliminated some family file folders by scanning and recycling the papers. I have reduced two large bins to one so far, but I stopped halfway through the year because the copy machine I used at the FamilySearch Center was out of order. I need to get back to that. B for effort. Write 4 research reports and articles . I have written articles for journals, but they are how-to articles, not research reports. I just don’t like writing research reports. C- for not trying hard. Write a book on the Hork family . I did create a book about my parents using text from blog posts and photos I have. It’s digital only and I gave a copy to each of my siblings. It’s not the whole Hork family, but it’s a start. A- because it does not have citations...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)  Marian B. Wood wrote a blog post,  Halfway Through 2024: Genealogy Progress and Plans , to assess her progress to date in 2024.  This is an excellent idea for a SNGF challenge. 2)  How are you doing with your genealogy goals for 2024?  If you did not make goals for 2024, what goals do you hope to achieve in the rest of the year? Here’s mine: I read Marian’s post and thought to look at my own 2024 goals to see how I have done. These are my goals, which I posted here . 2024 Goals 1. Organize my photos and files. 2. Write 4 research reports and articles 3. Write a book on my Hork family 4. Write more blog posts 5. Create 1-2 presentations that use case studies as its theme I have accomplished a lot this year, but I have not done well with my goals...

As the year is ending, it is time to look back on which of the goals I have accomplished. This past year, I had not posted them on the bulletin above my desk, so they were not regularly consulted. As a result, I did not fare well with them. 2023 Goals Create new presentations for societies : I created one new presentation called How to Leave Your Genealogy, recycled one from a course I used called Researching in Church Records, and one 12-hour course for AppGen called Using Probate Records. Write research reports and/or proof summaries for my mother’s side of the family . I wrote a research report for my certification renewal but it was my father’s side of the family. Choose one family to write a KDP genealogy . I started a KDP for the renewal but switched to the research report as it got too tedious. Someday, I will finish the story but probably not as a KDP. I’ll just create a nice story with photos, though I will cite all the work. 2024 Goals Now that the recertification por...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  Marcia Philbrick wrote  Goal Update  this week on her  Heartland Genealogy  blog.  Linda Stufflebean suggested this would be a good topic for SNGF. 2)  What were your 2023 genealogy goals?  How are you doing in achieving them?  [If you didn't do goals this year, what goals would you like to achieve by the end of 2023?] Here’s mine: On 7 January 2023, we were asked for SNGF to make a list of our 2023 goals. I made three goals. I’ll list them here and update my progress. 1. Turn in my renewal portfolio for my CG recertification . My recertification isn’t due until the end of the year, and in fact, I received the application from BCG and see that I have a two-month extension, so it’s not due until the end of February 2024. I have been working on it and have 24...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has given us a challenge: 1)  Have you made genealogy goals for 2023?  What are they?  Which one would you be most excited to see accomplished? I have written my 2022 goals for 52 Ancestors , a genealogy meme run by Amy Johnson Crow. In that post I made 3 goals: Turn in my renewal portfolio for my CG recertification . My main goal for this year is to produce 1-2 work samples to use for my BCG certification portfolio, which is due in December (though I need to turn it in a couple of months sooner so there is time for judging). The weaknesses in my previous portfolio were the research report and my citations. I have worked hard on improving my citations and making them consistent. Write research reports and proof summaries for my maternal family. Writing more research reports and proof summaries for my mother’s southern family will be ...

Before looking ahead at my genealogy goals for 2023, I would like to look back at the goals I had for 2022. Did I accomplish what I wanted to? 2022 Goals I had three goals : Finish going through family files to scan, file, or discard Write more Create 2-3 new presentations for genealogy societies I did not finish going through the family files. I somehow forgot I was working on that. I did manage to go through two file boxes, but I have four more. I scanned the papers I didn’t need anymore using the copy machine at the Family History Center and then recycled the paper. I did write more. Up to this post, I have written 165 blog posts across both of my blogs, though it is only one more than in 2021. I wrote all 52 posts for Amy Johnson Crow’s #52Ancestors. I wrote two articles for the California Genealogical Society’s Nugget . I have an article to be published in the next issue of Der Blumenbaum , the publication of the Sacramento German Genealogy Society. I did not write man...

Before setting goals for this coming year, let’s look to see how well I had accomplished of my goals for 2021. 2021 Goals I had six goals. I only accomplished one and a third of them. I definitely had too many goals and will make fewer goals for 2022. Continue teaching two classes per quarter at the adult school, Winter, Spring and Fall. Completed & ongoing. Create 3 new talks for genealogy societies. Completed one on farming Write 1 new KDP of one of my mother’s southern families. Not done Write at least 2 articles for journals Not done Work on processing the photo collection Not done Create an heirloom book. Not done In 2021, I started a new business venture called Applied Genealogy Institute with two partners, Jill and Mary. This took up quite a lot of time as we worked on creating the business. Instead of creating new talks for societies, I created content for twelve hours of instruction on using land records in genealogy research. Also in my 2021 goals post...

This is my third year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Before setting goals for this coming year, let’s look to see how well I had accomplished of my goals for 2020. I had six goals for the year. I completed three of them. Goal #1: Write the story of my parents.  Not even started . Goal #2: Create Presentation Flyer and distribute to local societies.  Completed . Goal #3: Create Genealogy Program for Adult School. Completed, as well as ongoing . Goal #4: Finish processing paper and digital files. I have continued to process current files, but nothing has been done with older paper files . Goal #5: Finish processing and cataloguing the Hork Photo Collection. Not started . Goal #6: Keep the record keeping spreadsheets up to date.  Current . 202...

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 R...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Now that my energy is no longer focused on finishing my BCG portfolio, I need a new project to work on. In these past three months I have been in a fog, wandering from one genealogy activity to another, trying to find something to occupy my time. I should organize my files. I have a lot of old paper notes and photocopies that could be scanned or tossed. I have files from a book I wrote about my husband’s family that should be culled and donated along with the files put together by Aunt Bernice and cousin Terry to the California State Archives. I also have slides from early vacations that should be scanned and had started that process, but scanning slides is very time-consuming. It takes much longer to scan than pho...

Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musing has another challenge for us. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  What was your best research achievement in 2017?  Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph.  Brag a bit!  You've earned it! 2)  We all have elusive ancestors.  What research problem do you want to work on in 2018?  Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find. 3)  Put the answers in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. 2017 Finds Oh, I wished I had kept track of all of my good finds. I’ll have to do better this year! I found good stuff on my Gleeson, Sullivan, and Lundquist families by researching from home, researching on location in South Dakota, and by having others do research or record pulls for me at recorder’s offices, historical societies, and courthouses. Since I am using t...

Randy Seaver for Genea-Musing has another great mission for us this week: Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Did you make any New Years Resolutions, or state Goals and Objectives, for genealogy research in 2018? If so, tell us about them. 2) If not, then make ONE resolution, or state one goal, for your genealogy research that you are determined to keep during 2018. We'll check on progress toward that resolution/goal during the year in SNGF (if I remember!). 3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status post or Google+ Stream post. I have never been one to have "Resolutions." They are so easily broken before the end of January. But I truly like the idea of goals. I have many goals: exercise more, eat better, write more in my blog, find more birds this year, etc... But my main goal this year is to turn in my BCG portfolio. I think I can make this hap...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has his weekly SNGF mission. Our mission to day is: What goals do you have for your genealogy research, education and writing during 2017? My goals for 2017: Research: I have planned two (2) research trips to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library. The first trip will be the week following SLIG (Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy) where I will move from the Hilton to the Plaza Hotel and research for a week at the library with the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society’s group. The second trip will be in April when I take a group of genealogists from the California Genealogical Society to research for a week at the library. In March, on our way back from a trip to South Texas, I will stop in Little Rock, Arkansas, where I’ll take some time to visit the archives there as well as the Capital building and the Clinton Library. A day trip up to Conway in Faulkner County might be in order, too, to collect some more land records ...