The Keough Corner: Two Weeks In And I'm In The Groove ~ Motivation Monday

Thanks to Suat Eman
shared at Freedigitalphotos.net

An Update on my January Genealogy Goals

Research

I am busily working through my Shoebox on Ancestry.com and have downloaded and saved 75 “international records.” By mid-week I will switch my Ancestry.com membership from World to USA. I have not uploaded my family tree to Ancestry and so have not taken advantage of any “shaking leaves” to further my research. This is something I might do in 2012 and would love your thoughts on the value of uploading a tree to Ancestry.

Organization

Research collected in my paper Norwegian and Swedish Notebooks is now scanned, filed, and entered in my Legacy database (these notebooks are much smaller now). Onward to my Norwegian and Swedish Digital Notebooks, where I hope to employ the same “clear the decks” determination! How are your organization projects coming along?
I continue to organize my USA Census Excel Workbook. The census citations for all USA and State censuses are in order and the 1900-1930 census entries are up-to-date (downloaded, abstracted, and assigned/linked) for all family and extended family in my Legacy database. I plan to write about this project and show examples in next week’s Motivation Monday post. After that it is onward to the 1800s censuses. Thankfully most of my family wasn’t in the USA until the 1860/1880 timeframe but I do have several “related” or cluster families to check out. This is a work in progress to get ready for the 1940 US Census release in April. A little bit each week should get the project done in time. How are you coming on preparing for the 1940 Census release?

Blogging

I posted for the first two weeks of the 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy meme (only 50 more to go!). It has been helpful not only to think and write about Amy Coffin’s weekly prompt, but also to read others’ responses. This week, Jennifer of 'On a flesh and bone foundation: An Irish History gave some great tips for free Irish research websites. Are you contributing to this meme? If so ~ how is it going for you? If not ~ why not join us and share your knowledge?
I need to work on blogging consistently ~ there are so many distractions! Definitely an area where I need improvement.

Writing

I finished writing a “guest blog post" about my family’s slide/photo scanning and organization project for Marian's Roots and Rambles, written by Marian Pierre-Louis. I just need to add a few more photos and email it by midweek. It was quite helpful to revisit and write up the process we used for this project (and gain a cheatsheet to pass on to the next family memory keeper).
This is so much fun that I feel guilty considering it a goal ~ I love reading and commenting on posts in my Genealogy Bloggers Circle at Google+. What a great community (I don’t think it is a distraction yet but I will need to set the timer and limit myself so I get some work done!).

Education

Another guilty pleasure – oh wait, I am learning so much there is no guilt. January started strong with the following webinars and radio shows:

Me and My Laptop ~ Linda Woodward Geiger through the Southern California Genealogical Society (Saturday, 7 January)

Linda was an amazing speaker and provided us with such an incredible wealth of information (one of my February goals will be to incorporate many of her organization tips).

10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Genealogy in 2012 ~ Thomas MacEntee through the Illinois State Genealogical Society (Tuesday, 10 January)

Thomas gave a great presentation and his slides were clear, concise and a pleasure to watch.

Tax Considerations for Your Genealogy Business ~ James M. Beidler through the Association of Professional Genealogists (Wednesday, 11 January)

James took a rather dry topic and really livened it up. I learned so much through his presentation as well as the terrific audience questions and comments.

The FamilySearch Research Wiki and Your Genealogy Society ~ FGS My Society on blogtalk radio (Saturday, 14 January)

Lise Embley discussed how Societies can use the FamilySearch Research Wiki to get themselves out there – lots of great links to check out (who knew?). Lee James Irwin of the Fairfax Genealogical Society spoke about his society’s programs and projects. Both Lise and Lee were interesting and informative.

What were your webinar and radio show finds this month? Do you have any suggestions for the next two weeks?

The first two weeks of January were a great start

Keep climbing one rung at a time to reach those goals!