The Year Ahead – January 2

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

January 2 - Identify your genealogy goals for the year, and make a concrete research plan.

I always like to review my previous year and my goals. Did I achieve my goals? If I didn’t what could I have done to make those more achievable. My biggest problem with goals, is that I tend to make too many or under estimate the time needed for each genealogy goal.

Even though my goal is to do Genealogy every day, lets be honest, this is not a realistic goal. Thus, we need to remember that we have a limited amount of time to do Genealogy. Plus, we need to be well balanced and allow for other interest to fill our time.

Looking back onto my five goals last year, I did achieve two of them. I had placed one on hold early on, because I knew pretty quick that goal wasn’t something I really wanted to do.

Therefore, the goals I did accomplish was to participate in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project by Amy Johnson Crow, one week more than I did the previous year. Another goal that I accomplished was creating a family history book for my sister-in-law. I used Family Book Creator with my software package of Family Tree Maker to publish a book using LuLu.

I did not complete my DNA Project for the Hiltz/Hilts tree and I didn’t clean up my paper files. I wanted to scan and purge or files those.

I also started two different projects that weren’t on my list. I was researching all the descendants of one of my 3rd great grandparents (The Goodwins) so I could publish a book on them and ended up working on a book for my sister-in-law’s cousin (The Jones) for her family. That project took way too much of my time. I have learned, I need to say NO or do is for a hefty sum of money.

Anyway, my new goals for this year are as follows: 1.) keep up “The Year Ahead” blog posts. 2). Continue to participate in “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” blog post for those themes that move me. 3.) Finish the Jones book. 4.) Continue my research on the Goodwin family and 5.) Clean up my paper files.

My concrete plan to achieve these goals: 1.) I will work on “The Year Ahead” blog post one day a week, by doing a week’s worth and schedule each post to display on their proper day at 7 am CST. 2.) On the same day as doing “The Year Ahead”, I will see if I want to write a blog post based on the weekly theme. 3.) I will finish up the book in January but concentrating my time on this project before working on goal 4 or 5. 4.) after I finish the Jones book, I will spend at least one day a week researching on the Goodwin family. 5.) after I finish the Jones book, I will spend my first hour of each research day with cleaning up my paper files. I will reward myself by working on my other goals.

Take a few minutes now and try to come up with at least one genealogy goal for the year. Then make a concrete research plan. Set aside on your calendar a time each day, week, or month that you can work on this genealogy goal.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!