New Year’s Resolutions, Goals, or Whatever They Are

Thanks to Jasia at Creative Gene for hosting the New Year’s Carnival. She posted the following: Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: New Year’s Resolutions! This year is almost over and a new decade is knocking on the door. This is the perfect time to make your New Year resolutions, goals, aims, declarations, intentions, aspirations, objectives, plans, targets, schemes, wishes, or whatever you want to call them! Figure out how you’re going to approach your family history research next year, write it up, and share it with us in the COG. The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2010.

My “main” computer contains a set of folders which can be described as the “dumping ground”. Every photo, obituary, census image, document scan, or other digital file which I HAVE NOT evaluated, transcribed, attached to my database, and filed resides in those folders. I just checked and there are 5.17 gb, 102 folders, 5474 files! I could check on this because I keep a copy on my “travel” computer, in addition to two backup copies.

If I started on January first and worked every day of the 2010, that would be 15 files a day. Perhaps it would be better to look at it as 103.283 files per week? Or 456.1667 files per month? The good news is that many of the files are simply photographs passed on to me by other researchers of my lines, or tombstone photos, or something similar which can be addressed quickly. The bad news is that some are far more complicated, like the 29 photos of the lengthy, complicated will of one of my ancestors.

There is more bad news, I have a small (physical) file of information I have collected over the past few months, obituaries, photos and other items that must be scanned, entered and filed. This year will be a challenge as I attempt to summon up the discipline to deal with the data. That will be the theme of my genealogical year, Deal With The Data, or “DWTD“. There will be more on that theme.

In addition, I will continue to bore readers of this blog with the results of my research into the land transactions of our ancestors, from my deed research in Michigan and beyond.

I also have two other goals:

• Find the surname used by my Yearnd/Yournd/Ewen/Euens ancestors before their arrival in Howell, Michigan from outer space, (or Germany, or wherever they came from).
• Find my cousins, descendants of my Mother’s half brother, Donald William Hill. Donald was born 17 March 1919 in Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, New York to George Gardner Hill (1896-1962) and Helen Lois Palmer (1891-1966). He was first called George Gardner Hill, Jr., on the 1920 census, but later known as Donald William. Donald died 4 April 1985 in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, California, and is buried in the National Cemetery in Riverside California. An genealogical angel and volunteer in Lake Elsinore has provided me some leads which may help me find Donald’s children.

So that is the sum total of my hopes for 2010:

1. DWTD.
2. Find a name.
3. Find some cousins.

Time will tell how this year will play out. Good luck to all the busy as a beaver genealogists out there, and blessings in the New Year!