Input Needed for 2012 Genealogy Blogging Projects

Now that we are nearing the close of 2011, it’s time to begin considering goals for next year, as they relate to family history and this blog. Even though the Family Home has been cleared out and sold, there is still plenty of material to keep going for years to come. One of the things I would like to do is write some mini-series on topics that will help my readers solve their problems, while keeping with the goals of The Turning of Generations: blogging about home sources, developing questions, then researching to find answers and putting together a product of interest to future family members or historians. I need your input. What would you like to read about in 2012? Here is a list of potential topics I have come up with. Do any of them look interesting to you. Or do you have any other ideas where my "expertise" could be of help to you?

1. How to use genealogical records to identify family photos. In this case, using my great grandparents’ homestead file to identify many of those unknown pictures in Frances Lowe’s candy boxes of pictures (that’s where she stored them, in old candy boxes!).
2. The ongoing process of sorting and organizing the contents of the Family Home.
3. How I am organizing and culling several generations of family photos and slides.
4. The process of organizing, researching and telling Grandpa’s WWI story using his own letters, photos and other documents.
5. Family lore, fact or fiction? Mom had an inheritance from a Canadian ancestor. Well the inheritance was fact but the circumstances surrounding it had to be considered lore until some solid evidence turned up, which it did. Now to follow the trail…
6. How to go about verifying a family story. In this case, my husband’s ancestor used to have to hide from the Indians while her parents were away. Allegedly the parents were killed by Indians.

Let me know what you think! I figure this is a win, win situation. You win because you get to read about some things that interest you. I win because a project or two get completed - and there are plenty of those around here!

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

2011 Genealogy Resolutions - Third Quarter Update

Photo by Pascal Blachier
used under the creative commons license.

The third quarter of 2011 has ended and it's time for a review of my genealogy resolutions to see how well I am balancing my goals for the year.

Research Goal:

Find and prove the identity of the parents of my gg grandfather, William H. Ballinger, who was living with his wife Lucinda and their children in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa in 1856.

• I am still looking at land records in Mahaska County, Iowa and now Boulder, Colorado.
• I had hoped to put together a notebook with documentation and research notes/reports for this project by now. That has become the goal for between now and the end of the year.
• Then I need to analyze what I have and come up with a continuing research plan.

This project is a bugger but who ever said genealogical research was easy?

Organizational Goal:

When I gave my last report, I said I felt I had accomplished my goal of organizing the Archival Closet. It's a good thing because we brought home a carload of additions after getting Youngest Child settled in at college! An Archival Room is looking more and more probable.

Writing Goal:

Put together a "draft" of the story of Mrs. Robinson's Homestead to share with family members.

I still haven't scanned the homestead file, which is my first step. There's still time.

Diana over at Random Relatives recently wrote a post that was inspired by Lisa Alzo's talk Write Your Family History Step by Step. Diana selected an ancestor to write about for 15 minutes every day. She even has a separate tab on her blog titled, 15 Minutes A Day. This might be a good approach for my project.

In Summary:

Organizational Goal – Still accomplished but as always, there's more to be done.
Research Goal – Plugging along.
Writing Goal – Need to get cracking on this one and show some progress.

There are three months left in 2011. We'll see how much progress I can make.

To check on prior progress:

• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions - 1 January 2011
• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions Update - 6 May 2011
• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions - The Year's Half Over! 5 July 2011

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

2011 Genealogy Resolutions - The Year's Half Over!



Photo by Pascal Blachier
used under the creative commons license.

It's hard to believe but 2011 is half over. It's time for another progress report on my genealogy resolutions for the year. So far I would say I am managing to balance them.

Research Goal:

Find and prove the identity of the parents of my gg grandfather, William H. Ballinger, who was living with his wife Lucinda and their children in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa in 1856.

So far, probate and Mahaska County’s meager death records have not produced anything. Lately I’ve been looking at land records and while I have uncovered more clues, there is no direct evidence stating who William’s parents or even his siblings are.

Since I have come to the conclusion that there very likely is no record that directly states who William's parents are and that I am going to have to piece this puzzle together using indirect evidence, I have to say that I’m pretty satisfied with the progress to date. Little clues keep presenting themselves and I keep chipping away at the documents that have been uncovered.

Now I am at the point where I need to step back and set up a system to organize and analyze what has been discovered so far.

Organizational Goal:

The arrival of wave after wave of guests in the month of May forced a big push on organizing the Archival Closet. I’m happy to report that I have accomplished what I wanted to do. This doesn’t mean that everything is perfectly organized but the Roos Family Papers are in a better place and a much improved state of organization.

There is still much organizing to be done with other branches of the family as well as the family photos. But I feel I have accomplished the original goal.

Writing Goal:

Put together a "draft" of the story of Mrs. Robinson's Homestead to share with family members.

For starters, I should scan the file, all four or five hundred pages (I’m not exactly sure how big it is. It’s just really big). That will be the first bite of the elephant.

In Summary:

Organizational Goal – Accomplished
Research Goal – Still plugging along
Writing Goal – At least I’ve got the beginnings of a plan now!

We will see what the second half of the year brings.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

2011 Genealogy Resolutions - Update

Photo by Pascal Blachier

It's hard to believe but 2011 is one third over. It's time for an end of the first trimester report on my genealogy resolutions for the year so see how well I am balancing those goals for 2011.

Research Goal:

Find and prove the identify of the parents of my gg grandfather, William H. Ballinger, who was living with his wife Lucinda and their children in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa in 1856.

I've been following the research plan I outlined in the 101st Carnival of Genealogy. So far, probate records have not produced anything. It's time to circle back around, re-evaluate what I know, come up with a new plan and look at another record group.

I have come to the conclusion that there very likely is no record that directly states who William's parents are and that I am probably going to have to piece this puzzle together using indirect evidence. That's partly why I presented the series, Using Land Records to Solve Genealogical Problems. William's land file may prove to be one piece of that puzzle.

Organizational Goal:

I am happy to say that I finally found made time to work on organizing the Archival Closet and that significant progress is being made. Mainly that's because I have company coming in a few days and will need to be able to use the guest room for guests for the rest of May!

Writing Goal:

Put together a "draft" of the story of Mrs. Robinson's Homestead to share with family members.

I have done absolutely nothing on this goal other than think about how to approach the project. Right now it's all in my head and that does not constitute writing! Maybe I should write down the approach that is floating around in my brain to get things going.

In Summary:

Progress on two out of three goals ain't bad. But I haven't exactly been able to check one off the list yet either. Onward and upward, as they say.

Updates and related posts:

• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions - 1 January 2011
• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions - The Year's Half Over! 5 July 2011

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

2011 Genealogy Resolutions

Setting goals is truly a balancing act. We want them to be challenging but not too difficult. Usually we have a time frame in which we need to accomplish our goals so we must define them with that in mind.

Photo by Pascal Blachier

Recently Amy (The We Tree Blog) and Denise (The Family Curator) got together and came up with their genealogy goals for 2011. I really, really like their approach. It's concise, simple and doable and fits in perfectly with where I'm at right now. In other words, it's well balanced. They came up with:

One Research Goal
One Organizational Goal
One Writing Goal

So here are my three genealogy goals for 2011:

Research Goal

2011 is the year I am going to answer the question I set out in my 101st Carnival of Genealogy post:

Find and prove the identify of the parents of my gg grandfather, William H. Ballinger, who was living with his wife Lucinda and their children in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa in 1856.

Organizational Goal

Organize the Archival Closet. This is a biggie since the Archival Closet houses the Roos Family Papers and needs to make room for the Lowe Family Papers as well as the Family Papers from Husband's side of the family. I think it can be done although I may need an Archival Room in the end.  We'll see.

Writing Goal

Put together a "draft" of the story of Mrs. Robinson's Homestead to share with family members. I've had several older family members who have expressed interest in her homestead file when I tell them a synopsis of the story. I'd really like to share it with them.  This will turn into a huge project, if I am going to do it right but time is a factor here as people aren't getting any younger. Something is better than nothing so I'm settling for some sort of "draft" in 2011.

There's my well balanced set of genealogy resolutions for 2011. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain the balancing act all year. I'll keep you posted.

Updates can be found at:

• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions Update - 6 May 2011
• 2011 Genealogy Resolutions - The Year's Half Over! 5 Juy 2011

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

April & May's Genealogy To Do Lists

Since April is over, it's time to review my Genealogy To Do List for the month of April and see how I did.

• Prepare a research plan for the upcoming NGS Conference in Salt Lake City later this month. Done and most was excecuted in the last week.  I always take more the the FHL than I can possibly do just because one never knows how much one will be able to do.
• Rework my process for going through a box of family history to be more efficient in light of the need to get these documents and photographs in a safer storage situation.  I can say I have started on this task since I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject.  I'll write more on it later.
• Begin to process recently found Ballinger documents.  There has been no processing done on the part of this researcher this past month.  Now that my pile has gotten bigger, it would be a really good idea to start though!
• Start the next NIGS course.  Started.  Now I need to finish it this next month.

So what's on tap for May?

• Continue to rework my process for processing family history.  Documents and photos are crying for a safer storage home.
• Process those Ballinger documents.
• Finish the NIGS course.
• Write a backup plan with information learned from Dick Eastman's talk on data backup, storage and preservation.
• Help my family get through the last few weeks of school :)

  Thanks to Tina Lyons at Gen Wish List for this great idea to hold myself accountable.
 
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

April's Genealogy To Do List

Tiny Lyons of Gen Wish List does a monthly Genealogy To Do List which really impresses me.  Since I am a list person, I thought I'd give it a try.  After all, telling the world your goals is a way of making you accountable and hopefully more likely to reach those goal.

Since we are getting into the busy time of year in our household, it will be a short list this month.

• Prepare a research plan for the upcoming NGS Conference in Salt Lake City later this month.
• Rework my process for going through a box of family history to be more efficient in light of the need to get these document and photographs in a safer storage situation.
• Begin to process recently found Ballinger documents.
• Start the next NIGS course.

That will keep me busy this month.  As if I didn't already have anything to do :)

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum