Monday, December 28, 2009

What Are Your Genealogical Priorities?

With New Years Day right around the corner, there is lots of talk in the air about resolutions. Some of us cringe when we hear the word, others of us get excited for the challenge. Some of us refuse to make any resolutions and some like to call them "goals". Whatever your preference in dealing with New Years Resolutions, I highly suggest that you at least take a look back on your genealogy progress from 2009. Are you satisfied with your progress? Or do you wish you had done more?

The key to being satisfied with your genealogical work is to make sure that your genealogical tasks are reflective of your genealogical priorities. But what are your priorities?

Each person's answer(s) will be slightly different and the reasons for those answers will be different. The answers come from why you do genealogy in the first place. There are no right or wrong answers.

So for 2010, I am challenging you to....
  • Really examine that priority list to make sure it goes with what matters to you - and that you aren't listing things just because you think you are "supposed" to.
  • Make a list of tasks that go with those priorities. Don't be afraid to be a little ambitious and list some things that intimidate you or are a little difficult.
  • Now for each of those tasks, break them down. Make each task into smaller, manageable pieces.
  • Ready for the fun part? Give yourself rewards a long the way. Those rewards will give you some motivation.
So what does your priority list look like? What are some of those tasks you are going to take on in 2010? Feel free to leave your answers in a comment or write a separate blog post and post the link in the comments section. I'm excited for your answers!

3 comments:

Angelique said...

My genealogical priorities for 2010 include:

1. I need to go through ALL my sources from previous years of research and create a working source list.

2. Label items I have in my possession such as pictures etc.

3. I volunteer for USGenWeb, FamilySearch.org indexing and Ancestry indexing but I need to make sure I split my time up for all three AND time to study any free courses that are available to me since I am broke :)

Oh, boy, this list is just going to get longer if I add the stuff that is on my to-do list anyway, but the ones above are MY MAIN priorities for 2010.

Anyhoo, glad you are here and blogging genealogy. I also saw your other site for The Graveyard Rabbit Student. I happen to love Cemeteries!!!

Email me anytime

Angelique

myname(at) porphyrins.org

Debi Sargent said...

Need to start getting the actual documents, birth certif. marriage ,social security apps. etc. Have all the info , dates , places, just need to have the actual papers to back up my research.

Also need to weed out some of the tree branches...which if I look closely most may not belong...or just out of sic with the whole group.

And the third one is to have a published book of the tree by next Christmas to present to my kids showing them the history of the side of family they werent able to know.

Gini said...

Love, love your new layout Elyse, you did so good!