A New Years Resolution Checkup

While I was performing research on my past entries for the Carnival of Genealogy, I came across a post I did here in December 2008 entitled New Years Resolutions for 2009. Normally, I am not someone who looks back at my own actions - I tend to be a forward-looking person who lives life with little or no regrets. I prefer to look back at the lives of my ancestors!

But I was surprised in several ways about the resolutions I'd written almost a year ago:

• I actually succeeded in completing several actions to which I had committed
• Looking back I really think I could have had more goals!

Basically, I succeeded with the following resolutions:

• Increase Outreach Efforts. At the time, GeneaBloggers was only in existence within the world of Facebook as a group. Little did I know that within a month of that post, I would set up GeneaBloggers as a .com domain and watch it grow to the vibrant community that it is with close to 750 genealogy blogs listed.

• Write More Articles. Despite the demise of Digital Genealogist over the summer, I have been asked by several magazines, websites and blogs to contribute written articles and posts about genealogy and more specifically about technology. In the Spring of 2010 I will have two submissions printed in upcoming issues of Family Tree Magazine and I am happy to be part of one of my favorite genealogy magazines!

• Attend Genealogy Conferences. I attended the Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree in late June 2008. Not only did I have a blast and meet so many interesting folks, but I knew by the end of the weekend, that the rest of my year would be spent working on a career transition from the information technology field to being a professional genealogist.

Area in which I was not successful:

• Cleanup My Database. I've been so busy with writing and taking on pro bono research clients as I build experience, that I haven't committed myself to my own research. I need to get with the program and just do it!

• Finish Scanning The Box. Again, utter failure here. I really do need to just let the scanner run one day while I am putzing around on the computer. There are so many photos I could use for Wordless Wednesday or other posts! Plus I need to do a better job of organizing my old letters and make sure they are preserved archivally.

For the next six weeks, I'll be formulating my genealogy resolutions for 2010 and looking back at my successes and failures in 2009 has helped quite a bit!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee