Here We Go Again: Genea-Resolutions

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The 87^th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy asks us to reveal our “New Year’s Resolutions” – specifically our “genea-resolutions”, or how we plan to approach our family history in 2010!  As with any New Year resolution, it’s best to first ask myself how I did with last year’s resolutions.  In the 63^rd COG last December, I listed four goals.  If I had to grade myself on how well I accomplished them, I must say that I failed miserably in most cases.  For 2009 I wanted to:

• Go back one more generation on each of my great-grandparents’ lines – this was accomplished for my Piontkowski great-grandparents when I received a copy of their marriage record and learned their parents’ names.  But I was not able to do much research on any other lines.

• Get back to the library – I did visit the Family History Library once, just to see if my old “indefinite” film was still there.  I’ve decided that to do this right, I have to go to Salt Lake City – using my local FHC will take too much time and money.  In addition, they have hours that don’t suit my schedule, it is always noisy there, and they have only one microfilm copier machine that is always in use by someone else.

• In a combination of the above two goals, I wanted to find some missing details on my Bavarian ancestry.  Although I developed a research plan earlier this year, I never acted on it.  Yet.

• Keep writing – Despite some “good” articles that appeared here, this was another failure.  I only wrote one magazine article all year, and someone else published my book idea in May.  Unfortunately, I also did not do a very good job with posting frequently with only 91 posts published this year (before this one) versus 146 in 2008.  December was a particularly bad month for posting.  On the plus side, I did begin a humor column for Shades of the Departed, which became a cool online magazine in November and December!

How do I approach my family history in 2010?  Especially given the fact that so many of 2009’s resolutions were not fulfilled?  Well, the New Year can be a time for new beginnings in your life and it’s no different with researching family history.  Even if I failed to accomplish everything we hoped to do this year, the only way to move forward is to dust myself off, re-evaluate those goals, and try again.  On that optimistic note, here are my genea-resolutions for 2010:

• Go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City – hopefully for the National Genealogical Society Family History Conference in April, 2010.  This will give me access to the films I need for further research and the opportunity to meet many of my genea-blogger friends!

• Go back one more generation – instead of thinking of each of my eight great-grandparents’ lines like I did a year ago, this year I will limit this resolution somewhat with the following sub-goals:  1) I want to find the birth record of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Miller Pater, to confirm the names of her parents; 2) continue back one generation on the Piontkowski and Kizoweter lines; and 3) fill in some missing details on my Bavarian ancestors.

• Keep writing – this one stays the same as last year’s goal: keep posting here a few times each week and get back to writing articles for the genealogy magazines.

• Find photographs – this is more of a wish than a resolution, but at least four cousins have hinted at family photographs.  I resolve to once again try to obtain copies of these mysterious photos.

Here’s wishing you all the best in your genealogical endeavors in 2010!

[Written for the 87th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: New Year’s Resolutions]