Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Years Resolutions for 2009


This post was written for the 63rd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

So, here we go again - doesn't it seem like we just did this 364 days ago?  Here is what I hope to accomplish with my genealogy and family history research as well as my outreach efforts to new and old genea-bloggers:

Cleanup My Database

I realize that this canbe a "never ending project" but now that I have FTM 2009, there are tools incorporated in the application which allow me to standardize locale names, etc.  I also want to standardize the source citations in terms of format and content.

Finish Scanning The Box

As I sat in my office around 3:00 am earlier in the week, during a very violent wind storm and feeling the entire back of the house move, I looked at The Box which is sitting on the office floor.  "What would happen if the entire back area ripped off the building?" Well, The Box and all its precious memories and photos would be gone faster than an investment made with Bernard Madoff!  So I am resolving either through Scanfests or on my own to finish scanning the contents and then making sure the photos are safe and secure!

Increase Outreach Efforts

After working with some great fellow genea-bloggers and making great strides in reaching out to new people, I'd like to ramp it up a bit.  This might mean setting up a marketing strategy for the Genea-Bloggers group on Facebook.  I'd also like to inspire my fellow genea-bloggers to use more social media tools such as Twitter.

Attend Genealogy Conferences

I think that after two years it is high time that I get out and actually go beyond the confines of my home in Chicago ("but oh, it's so scary and bright outside the walls of my place . . .") and meet up with other genea-bloggers.  This way they can see that I am not a fig newton of their collective imagination.

Write Articles

I was flattered to have an upcoming article accepted for publication in The Digital Genealogist and I'd like to write more articles especially on topics dealing with technology and genealogy.

Publish Books

Producing "memory books" using MyCanvas by Ancestry or other web sites has always been a goal of mine.  I did produce Kenney's Story using Ancestry Press last fall as gifts for several family member but I'd like to expand my efforts and do some general family stuff as well as some focused individual books. 

Photo: Happy New Year 2009 from Liron. Digital photograph taken December 31, 2008. Used through Creative Commons licensing via Flickr

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to hear the strategies you have in store for the Genea-Blogger group. I wish more genealogists utilized social networking tools. I'm on board with anything that will help better market *me* and let me meet others.

Happy New Year, Thomas.

Family Curator said...

Great goals, Thomas. And you are one of those nudging me into more social networks like Twitter. Tweet tweet!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Greetings Thomas!
Thanks for all your hard work in the genea-blogger community during 2008. All your tips, ideas and encouragement have greatly helped us new genea-bloggers.
Might I suggest the upcoming 5th Annual St. George Family History Expo? A great break from the dreary days of late winter, and located only 1 1/2 hours away from Las Vegas!
Wishing continued success with your goals in 2009.
Kathryn

Greta Koehl said...

Thanks for all your hard work for Genea-Bloggers and on Facebook Bootcamp (this one has really helped me) and for all your outreach efforts. Some day I hope to meet you at a genealogy conference!