It’s a new year!!
I love the fresh feeling of a brand new year.
It’s a great time to re-evaluate, set some goals, make some plans.
I’m feeling pretty good about what I accomplished in 2018 – especially in light of what a tough year it was. (We had faaaaaar too many deaths in the family and in our community – my church responsibilities were staggering – my husband resigned from his job and joined a brokerage, I hurt my back in November – etc, etc)
So far, 2019 has been a breeze.
You know, for the last four hours that I have been sleeping. Haha!
Here’s what I am looking forward to in 2019:
SLIG Academy – I’m attending SLIG Academy in January and taking Tom Jones’ Advanced Genealogical Methods course. One of the teachers he uses is Judy Russell. Doesn’t that sound so dreamy? Tom Jones and Judy Russell for a week of classes? Yes, please!!! 😍
RootsTech Salt Lake – If you somehow missed it, I’m serving as an Ambassador this year. It’s been fun so far and we haven’t even gotten to the event yet! It will take something I love and add even more joy to it – hooray!
RootsTech London – I am so excited about RootsTech London! It lands on my birthday and seems like the perfect reason to finally get myself to Scotland to explore my Great-Grandma Costello’s birthplace. Double adventure – learning at RootsTech & exploring Scotland!!
More Time – For the last few years I have had a super intense church responsibility. That recently changed and now I have the oh-so-comfy-for-me church job of helping people with Family History. This change just freed up a good 15 hours each week for me! More genealogy time!! 🎉
Preparing for My CG – I am planning to go “on the clock” to become a CG, Certified Genealogist, before the end of this year. I have several steps I am taking before I do that, but I’m still working out my plan. Once I’m further along, I’ll share more detail.
Presenting More – I love giving genealogy presentations and teaching classes. I’ve decided to give this more emphasis and start applying to present at conferences instead of just presenting close to home. I’m guessing this will include lots of stretching and growth for me – I love the teaching/presenting part, but applying… not my favorite part. I’m going to try to change my attitude on that.
More Clients – I love completing client research but haven’t had a lot of time for that the last few years. With my schedule change, that is different now so I’m planning to take on more work. That should be fun and busy!
Book Projects – I have several book projects in various stages of completion. My goal is to get two of those projects all the way to the finish line this year.
Pretty steep! And that doesn’t include my own personal research interests.
I’m still riding the John Baptiste Jerrain research wave – lots of direct line ancestors still popping up as fast as I can get to them. I’m also hitting the descendancy research for John pretty hard – I want those distant cousins to get the right info about John’s ancestors. (Why is it that bad info spreads through Ancestry trees like wildfire but good info doesn’t move AT ALL?!)
I’m still heavily pursuing my John Costello leads and have lots to write about on that awesome project.
DNA discoveries have been big for me in 2018 – I’m hoping 2019 will bring lots more and more time to write about those awesome DNA experiences.
And, of course, more scanning, digitizing, preservation, archiving, and cataloging efforts will be happening in 2019.
It’s going to be busy and oh-so-awesome!
What are your genealogy goals for 2019?
ps – That photo up there was taken by my Great-Grandma Estelle. Her hubby, Great-Grandpa Frank, is second from left in the back. What a fun New Years picture!
https://pacificparatrooper.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Animated-Happy-New-Year-banner-in-truck.gif
Thank you!!
my plan is to file all these papers……. by the way some where there is a photo just like your new years eve party of my parents party one New Year!
Oh, best of luck to you in your filing efforts! It’s so important but very tedious and boring so I know how hard it can be to find the motivation.
Awesome! It’s such a fun photo. Have you digitized it yet? ❤️
Sounds like you have a great year planned! Hope it is wonderful. My plan is to keep working on the mystery of my paternal grandfather’s family!
Thank you, Ellen. Oh, I wish you very good luck in your efforts. Those mystery great-grandpa’s seem to be a common story for many. I hope both you and I learn much about our mystery great-grandpas this year!! ❤️
Thank you. I finally got ancestry for myself
Oh, hooray!! 🎉
Well, I hope this is a happier, less stressful year—but it looks like you have a lot on your plate!! Happy New Year, Amberly!
Thank you, Amy! Happy New Year to you as well!! ❤️
Wishing you all the best with your plans — and hoping that life doesn’t throw you nearly as many curveballs this year.
My main genealogy goal is to actually, er, finish the post I started writing six months ago. Sigh.
Happy New Year.
Thank you, Su! I hope so too. If not, I hope I will have the energy and stamina to keep plugging along anyway.
Oh!! Good luck with your post! I have quite a list of unfinished posts waiting for me as well. ❤️
😀
You’ve got a lot of oh-so-awesome plans. Go for it, Amberly. Happy New Year.
Thank you, Cathy!! Off we go. 🙂
If you do genealogy research for others please keep me in mind. I’d love to have more facts about my paternal grandparents. Of course they came to America from Petina, Salerno, Italy, but what year?? I have names of other greats, but are they correct? I’d love some assistance. I pray that you accomplish your goals at least enough to give you joy!! I love the New Year’s photo!!
Thank you, Nancy! ❤️
What are you hoping to learn about your paternal grandparents? Are they in FamilySearch? What are their names?
xoxo