Lately, it hasn’t been easy.  At the risk of sounding whiny, Princess (our toddler) had pneumonia, the Husband and I both fought [...]]]> As you can tell by reading this blog, seeing the infrequency of the postings, and that fact that I don’t have a database of any real measure online yet, I need to get myself together a bit.

Lately, it hasn’t been easy.  At the risk of sounding whiny, Princess (our toddler) had pneumonia, the Husband and I both fought chest infections, I’m dealing with yet another cold (ah, the germs Princess brings home from daycare…. gotta love it) and the fact that I’m going out of town on business next week.  My house is a disaster area.  My diet sucks so I have little-to-no energy at the end of the day, so all I want to do after Princess goes to bed is sit in front of the television.

I need to get a plan together.   I need long-term goals, short-term goals, and daily habits.  And I need to make them happen.

1.  Long-term Goals (5+ years)
I want to become a Certified Genealogist.
I want to complete the Boston University Certificate of Genealogical Research (the online program, unless something more local comes up).
I want to hold an office with my local genealogy society.
I want to make a steady second income doing something related to genealogy.
I want to publish a book related to genealogy.  This will either be a non-fiction work about my own family or a “how-to” of some sort, or a fiction work relating to genealogy.
I want to be a genealogical go-to person on something relating to genealogy.  This will be something as huge as “she’s the one to go to about anything you need to know about <country>” or something as small as “she’s the one to go to about anything relating to people with brown eyes whose names began with ‘G’ who lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1890, but only if they’re listed in the census.”

2.  Short-term Goals (1+ years)
I want to begin volunteering again at the GFO.  I was volunteering once a month, but then work got in the way (I began having to travel for work more and, at the time, leaving the Husband alone with the Princess more than necessary was not the nicest thing).  I really think this will be possible again in the next few months.  After next week, I shouldn’t have to travel again until December, and the Princess is getting more fun, so I won’t feel bad about being gone every few Saturdays or Sundays.
I want to update my personal tree’s GEDCOM on this site once a week or more.
I want to complete my genealogy-related iPhone application.  This is fun and I’m hoping that it’s useful to someone besides myself.  I have plenty of programming experience (that’s my day job), but not in Objective C, which is what is needed for iPhone development.  In my experience, if you know one programming language (and the logic behind elegant, efficient code), other languages are easy to learn (like learning French after already knowing Spanish or Italian… although learning some programming languages are like trying to learn French after already learning Mandarin Chinese, which feels a little like the case here), so I’m optimistic that this won’t take TOO long.  We shall see.
Blog.  I catch myself coming up with fabulous ideas for blog posts but not posting them for fear of sounding like an idiot, or someone calling me out for not knowing what I’m talking about.  I have to get over this irrational fear.  I haven’t seen any instances of genealogists being that mean to each other (and those that do are usually ostracized pretty quickly).  So, I need to get over that, post to some Carnivals, take part in some memes, and practice writing so I’m prepared to write my book.

Daily Goals (these do not apply for when I’m away on business)
Blog.  At least every other day, but aim for daily.
Reduce my daily sugar intake so I have energy at the end of the day and am not dealing with a sugar crash.
Update data on one person in my database.
Read one chapter in one of the books I got on developing an iPhone application.
Scan photos.  I’m lucky that my grandfather entrusted his old photos to me, and I need to get these into some format that is better for the photos than these old photo albums.  Scan them (one page per day), get them on Flickr (as backup), add the nice pictures of the deceased individuals to my database and blog about them.  Share the precious ones with family on Facebook.  Keep them well-organized so I can create useful CDs to give to the rest of my grandfather’s descendents.

Good luck to me….

1.  Some dividers that will extend past my sheet protectors!  Yay!  I plan to take all the documents that are currently sitting in a big plastic box, throw them into some plastic covers, throw those [...]]]> I went shopping today and bought some goodies that I’m sure will help me get my research a little more organized!

1.  Some dividers that will extend past my sheet protectors!  Yay!  I plan to take all the documents that are currently sitting in a big plastic box, throw them into some plastic covers, throw those into a big binder with dividers that are actually wide enough to be useful, and all will be right(er) with my research.

The coffee is a given.

2.  The second is an unusual one, but one I am most thrilled about.  I am very methodical about my research: I have a list of websites I check for everyone so nothing is missed.  I was looking for a notebook to keep track of everything (spreadsheet software just annoyed me) but I knew that my best bet would be something in a landscape format, instead of a portrait format.

I looked at all the notebooks and couldn’t convince myself that they wouldn’t be frustrating.  I explained what I really wanted to my husband and he suggested I go look at the ledgers.  In that aisle, I found the perfect solution!

Okay, so, stay with me on this.

The big column (where one would normally put a description of the expense or income item), I’d put the person’s name and birth/death dates.  Each additional column would be for the different sites I normally visit for each person:  Ancestry.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, etc.  For that column I’d put a check mark or a note if necessary.

I’m so excited about this.  It’s the perfect solution for me.  Now I can easily keep track of what research I’ve done for each person, what needs to be done, etc.

Yay!

Here are my reasons.

1. If a future researcher finds a marriage license involving an ex-marriage, [...]]]> I have to ask myself why, day after day, I spend time researching ex-spouses. There are several of these in my family. Almost all of these failed marriages did not produce children, so why do I do it?

Here are my reasons.

1. If a future researcher finds a marriage license involving an ex-marriage, I want to show that I took this relationship into account.

2. Some of these exes have surnames that show up in my bloodlines. If I find out these are future relatives, how cool would it be that I already completed the research?

3. Some of these exes are of very different ethnic backgrounds. What an educational experience to research these countries!

4. Because a lot of these marriages were short, and, therefore, I know every little (or nothing) about those families, it’s a lot like doing research for a client. I have no family rumors to fall back on, no assumptions… a blank slate.

Although, if any of these families find out I’m researching them, I’ll vehemently deny it.

Probably not many.

As I scan in my photos, I will be placing the more interesting ones with their person in this blog and the genealogy pages. The rest of them will be going to my Flickr site, [...]]]> In case you’re wondering if there are going to be any photos on this site, the answer is:

Probably not many.

As I scan in my photos, I will be placing the more interesting ones with their person in this blog and the genealogy pages. The rest of them will be going to my Flickr site, which is open only to friends and family.

I’m doing this because I have limited space available on this blog (I’m too cheap to pay for anything more than the inexpensive web hosting) and the space I do have I want to spend on documents and such.

But, yes, I do plan to eventually upgrade my web hosting account so I can display all of my photos here!

Thank you,
Daphne

(I promise to have some content up soon…. as soon as my toddler gets used to daycare and goes back to sleeping all night, we’ll be set.)

The genealogy page is currently [...]]]> I created this website to be a simple version of the previous incarnations of this website. It will list the trials and tribulations of researching my lines, both the well-documented and the “I’m pretty sure this ancestor was dropped off by an alien spaceship sometime in the 1850s.”

The genealogy page is currently open to everyone, but I encourage you to register, or at least contact me so we can collaborate on our shared lines. As soon as someone develops a bridge between Wordpress (my blogging software) and TNG (my genealogy website software) that makes you register to view the genealogy pages, I’m totally using that, so it’s probably in your best interest to register now.

When you register, you will receive an email from me asking how you’re related. This is simply so I know you’re a human and not an evil spambot with no soul.

I will moderate all comments so no spam gets through. So, if your comment isn’t posted right away, I haven’t gotten to it yet. Sorry in advance about any delay.

Please do not contact me with “Please send me everything you have on so-and-so.” I will be posting everything I have on this site. I will be slow getting it on here (I have a full-time job, a husband, a toddler, I’m writing a novel [yes, seriously], and I truly enjoy sleep) but everything I have on deceased relatives will eventually appear here ***if it doesn’t violate an agreement I have with another researcher or website I have a membership with***. If I’m just taking too dang long getting the information on here about the individual you’re interested in, please send me what you already have and we’ll compare notes.

I will not send you information on a living relative.

I think that’s all the fine print. Let the fun begin!