Well, it's that time of year! Time to wrap up the old year and prepare for the new! Therefore, I've decided to create some genealogy-specific New Year's resolutions, which is something I've never done before. I feel like I have a lot of areas I could improve on, so I've got a lot of resolutions. These aren't specific goals, but rather are broad concepts of directions I want to take with my research.
The first resolution I thought of was inspired by a new-ish blog, The Paperless Genealogist. I plan to go paperless in 2012. I don't think this will really be that difficult, since my genealogy is already pretty much all online. But I do still have a couple folders of papers, and the worst are the post-its. I constantly jot things down on post-it notes, or write lists of names down. Sometimes I find these notes to myself months later when I don't remember what they mean anymore. So this has got to stop!
My second resolution was also inspired by another blogger: The Demanding Genealogist. In the last few months I've started citing sources (I know, I know, I always should have been doing that!). So my resolution is basically to keep doing what I've been doing: gradually go through all the information I have in my tree, adding sources to support each fact. Hopefully eventually I'll catch up and have my whole tree properly sourced!
Third, I want to collect stories. I've already got the basic family tree information from my grandparents, but I want to spend more time listening to their stories. I bet I'll get a lot more details filled in that way. This could also go along with looking at pictures with them and having them help me identify people. Somewhat related to this, I want to get in touch with more of my relatives like my grandma's siblings and my mom's cousins.
Lastly, I want to do more learning! I have my cozy little bubble of records I know how to use, and I know I'm missing out on a tonne of other information because of that. I'm comfortable with census records (me and the Canadian censuses are total besties!), Manitoba vital records (NOT Ontario vital records), and the Acadian/Quebec records that are compiled in the Drouin Collection (my French class helped a whole lot on that one). But land records, say what? Probate records? Huh? I have much to learn, is what I'm saying!
What are your goals for being a better genealogist in 2012? Share them in the comments or link to your own New Year's Resolutions blog post!
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