Research Updates

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  I have lots going on at work with the beginning of the year processes and then there has just been a lot going on in my life the past couple of weeks.  Things are beginning settling down!  My life is beginning to return to its normal routines after the holiday season.

There has also been a lot to do with my genealogy society for the past couple of weeks.  I presented the program for the January meeting on beginning genealogy.  I had to get some handouts and stuff ready for the meeting.  This took much of the time I would have used for my own genealogy research but it paid off when it came time for the meeting.  We had several newcomers to genealogy come to the meeting.  I hope that they learned something and that their enthusiasm for genealogy continues! I love seeing someone else begin to enjoy genealogy research for the first time!

My Research Plans for 2013

My research plans for 2013 involve getting organized and getting my family researched and documented through my known ancestors (known at this time).  Then, I will proceed by trying to take my known family lines back another generation or two!

To accomplish this goal, I am going to begin by following a new research strategy.  I am going to start with my grandparents and thoroughly document their lives.  Then, I am going to move on to their siblings and the descendants of their siblings families.  This will be a large project!

I want to document their military service (if they served) by documenting the appropriate draft cards, enlistment records, pension records and the other military records available on Ancestry.com.  I also want to get obituary records, FindaGrave Memorial pages, and any newspaper articles relating to their lives added to my database.  Next, I want to document their marriages through at least marriage indexes but ideally, through an actual marriage document.  I want to include birth and death records including birth announcement cards, engagement newspaper announcements, and death notices.  Finally, I want to add in any photos I can find of each ancestor.  At the very least, I want to know that I have looked for all of these things for each ancestor!  I want to have good records for each of my ancestors and for the important events in their lives.

When I have finished the first part of the project (if I finish it this year), I want to move on to the generation of my Great-Grandparents and their siblings and the descendants of their siblings.

Then, my Great-Great-Grandparents and their siblings and the descendants of their siblings.  Then, I will move on to my 3rd Great-Grandparents and their siblings and descendants followed by the 4th Great-Grandparents and their siblings and descendants.

Although this is a huge project, it isn’t as huge as it might sound at first. I am not trying to find out who my ancestors are at this point.  I have completed much of this research already.  I just have spent the last few years switching between software programs and changing my research methods that I don’t have it as organized as I would like and much of it isn’t in my current database!  I am going to go through my previous files and my online trees and get my information put into my  database.  I am also getting my files both digital and paper files organized into a manner in which I can actually find what I want to find when I want it.  I am going to be an Organized Genealogist with a documented database through my 4th Great-Grandparents by the end of the year!

I plan to post regularly about my progress on this goal!

Kellie