First and foremost, I'd like to finish citing my family tree. A couple years ago, I was asked by a cousin I met through Ancestry message boards about information on my tree. I went to my tree to give him the citation and it wasn't there. I sat there scratching my head asking myself, "Now how the heck did I come to that conclusion?" I was eventually able to find my source and forward the information to him, but I was frustrated it took so long and I hate disorganization. I started poking around my tree and realized that I hadn't cited so much from my early years doing genealogy and the result was UHG-A-LEE! So I decided to start over. Scary and not something any of us want to do, but it had to be done. I printed out a list of everyone in my tree and I've been going through it when I have free time and making sure each person in there has a citation and that my conclusions are valid. If there's no source information in there for someone, they're out of the tree.
Which brings me to my next resolution...to find more time for genealogy. Cub Scouts and PTA (mostly PTA) have taken an absolutely obscene amount of my time. I've blogged about this before and it's just so frustrating to not be getting any farther in my aspirations of becoming a professional because of volunteer obligations. They won't go away completely. I love Cub Scouts and feel that it is ultimately beneficial to my boys. We've got a great Pack too which makes the energy spent on Scouting completely worth it. The PTA, well, I'm a huge supporter of the PTA, but most everyone (including some teachers, sadly) aren't. This is the last year that I can be the President. Elections will be in April and then I'll volunteer or perhaps run for a smaller position. I could never walk away from something that benefits my children and their school (boy if everyone only felt that way, things would be so much easier!). I still shouldn't have as much to do as I do now, so hopefully that will give me the time I desire.
Fourth? I want to create a website for my family's genealogy. I've seen so many great family sites and I've become motivated to do just that. Not sure how I want it to look yet. I normally wait for an epiphany with stuff like that, so this one might be a tough one!
Fifth, I want to use my new family tree software! I picked up Legacy's Family Tree software at the NGS conference, but didn't want to transfer my .gedcom over until I finished going through my data. I hope to be enjoying that purchase soon!
Last, I want to keep up with my blogging. I'm usually pretty good at getting at least 3 or more posts out each week, but I'll admit to slacking off now and then. Never too long, but I don't feel my best when I don't give my blog the love it deserves. Blogging makes me think. Even when posting a tombstone, my instinct it to try to find out all the information I can about it and put that up with the post. I start thinking and working on just that one person (or couple) and many times I come to some new conclusions or make completely new discoveries. My blog isn't just for the sake of posting (and I'm sure all of you feel the same), it's here so I can make connections with others researching the same lines, it's there to help me work through problems, and it's here so I can connect with fellow geneabloggers who have been extremely helpful with their comments and suggestions!
Well, I guess that's it for this year. Start slow. Six resolutions. Not too bad. I'm not resolving to break through any brick walls that. I'll save that for next year when I've completed resolution #1. I don't know what my high-priority brick walls are until then!
I'll take a look back at these when the world doesn't end in December 2012 and see what I've accomplished. Thank you all for reading and have fun tending those roots in the new year!
