REVIEWING MY 2012 GENEALOGY GOALS

We've come to the end of another year. Time to set my genealogy goals
for 2013! But before I do, let's review my goals for 2012 and how I
think I did with them. My comments are in red italics:




1.Work more on my maternal lines
Plan: Try to get into Boston and find the divorce record for my Mom's parents,
Send away for my McFarland great grandparents' death certificates and any
other documents which might definitely establish their place of birth
Results: This was my greatest success of this year. Not only did I obtain
the death certificates, I also was contacted by a White cousin and his father.
through this blog. I now know more about my Mom's side of the family. 

2.Continue researching my paternal lines
Plan: I'm hoping to have the Ellingwood collateral lines done by midyear and
continue working on the others. The more recent Barker, Dunham and Coburn
lines in particular. As in last year, I need to get out more to the NEHGS and the
local Family History Center. And I still haven't made it into the Mass State Archives!
The trips to the local cemeteries have turned up family connections so I'll be
continuing those. I also hope to attend the Ellingwood Reunion again this year.
Results: Mixed. I still haven't made it to the Mass. State Archives and didn't
get into the NEHGS again this year. I am further along on my Ellingwood lines
but haven't finished them yet because I hadn't factored in how much I would be
involved with indexing the 1940 Federal Census starting in April.


3. Break down that John Cutter West brick wall!
Plan: Same as last year: "A series of visits to the town halls and historical societies
of towns here in Plymouth County seems to be the only approach possible to
this mystery. The cemetery visits might also prove useful in this."
Results: Disappointing. I never made those visits to the town halls and local
historical societies, and  a Y-DNA test failed to turn up a connection with
any of the established West DNA haplo groups.


4. Join a local genealogy or historical society.
Plan: I'm ashamed to say I still haven't done this. I hope to change that soon. Work
schedule is no longer an obstacle.
Results: Fail. But the year isn't over yet.



5. Continue with Find A Grave activities
Plan: Get back to visiting the local cemeteries, taking pictures and posting them to
Find A Grave. This is a bit hindered right now by my lack of transportation but I
hope to have that taken care of by the end of this month.
Results: Good & Bad. I did take quite a few photos over the Spring & Summer
before Ping the Wonder Car's ultimate demise in August. But by and large  I've
yet to post most of them at Find A Grave.


6. Trim My Tree
Plan: I am paying the price of heedless gedcom downloads from FamilySearch
from when I was a clueless newbie ten years ago, Multiple entries for one person
and more remote ancestors of dubious connections need to be removed. I made
a start of this in 2011 and must continue do so. The flip side of this is to be
more vigilant in adding new names and remember to cite sources.
Results: Fair. But there's still a lot left to be trimmed.

7. Write more.
Plan: Continue blogging and try to equal if not surpass my output of 2011. I had
248 posts on West in New England, and 42 on The Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit.
I enjoy sharing the stories that I've discovered in my research.
Results: Fail.Only 168 posts here on West in New England and just 1(!!!) on the 
Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit so far this year. Again, the Census Indexing had an 
effect:I wrote a total of 36 posts here from April through July during the period
I was indexng. This is my lowest productivity since I first started blogging in
2007.

8. Organize, Organize, ORGANIZE!!
Plan: Same as last year: JUST DO IT!
Results: Doing a bit better but can still be improved.


9. Scan, scan, SCAN!
Plan:  See #8
Results: Not as much done as I'd hoped.

Last year I said that a lot of what I would accomplish would depend on my health.
This year I'm happy to say I don't see my health as an obstacle. Transportation has
been a problem for the past few months but I'm hoping to have Ping the Wonder
Car back on the road soon.
I did get Ping back on the road and as I said, did visit many local cemeteries last
Spring & Summer. But Ping went to the Big Graveyard in the Sky and as yet I
haven't replaced him. 

But as it has been in previous years, my biggest goal in my genealogy research is
to keep having fun with it!

 And I did!