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!