Happy New Year, Everyone! We did it – we made it through 2023, whatever that took for each of us to do it. And here we are, at the bright shiny beginning of a new year, trying to imagine who we will be – and who we want to be – as we make our ways through it.
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| Gerald G, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Today felt like a day to put some thoughts down about what I've accomplished genealogically in the past year, and what I'm looking forward to in 2024. Here goes!
What Did I Do in 2023?
- Published 10 blog posts.
I thought I’d done significantly worse numerically than last year, but it was only 2 fewer, so not bad! And, honestly, go me for getting them out! In many cases, they’ve been the product of months or years of (intermittent) research, and communicating with multiple archives, archivists and librarians. It’s one thing to jot some quick facts into my genealogy database. It’s another to turn them into a narrative and illustrate it. So, yay me! I’ve also tweaked the blog a little bit – making the font size larger and switching posts to only preview on the main page, but there’s still more retroactive work to be done.
- Prepped and delivered a new presentation on researching Black women between 1900 and 1950.
Asked by my genealogy buddy KB Barcomb and Kinseekers Genealogical Society of Lake County, FL, to present at a day of learning focused African Americans in the first half of the 20th Century, I pulled together a brand-new presentation focused on Black women. It let me revisit some of my favorite topics and resources from undergrad, grad school, previous museum jobs, and great projects I’ve been exposed to along the way. It was fun to prep and fun to share!
- Attended a couple of conferences to boost my skills and knowledge.
I attended the AAHGS (Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society) annual conference and the virtual RootsTech conference, both virtually, and also attended the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS/American Ancestors) regional event that was held at my museum. In each case, I was glad I did. All were really informative, and I have a bunch of notes, downloaded syllabi, and bibliographies, plus updates on in-progress or exciting new projects. These will make me better at this research both for my own family and for helping others. Bonus: because my job and my hobby overlap (which may not be healthy, but certainly offers benefits), there’s always a couple of sessions that help me at work as well.
- Actually went to an archive to do some research!
Covid put the kibosh on that for a while, but I’m trying to get back into this. That’s why I was so happy to discover an archive with records related to my mom’s family in Georgia was actually right here in Philadelphia. More on that here.
- Traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to visit some family.
This actually started as a work trip, but why would I ever go to a cemetery without first checking if I had family buried there that I could visit? I didn’t get to all the gravesites I wanted to – something something thunderstorm – but it was a start. I’ll post about the trip soon and link to it here.
- Performed a lot of “invisible” work, both researching and documenting my research.
I never stop researching, so no need to say more on that. And I’m pretty good at recording my sources, but I’m trying to be better about using the specific functionality for that that’s built into the genealogy program I use, RootsMagic. This will make it easier, in particular, for me to share research with others, as my reports will be neater and cleaner, and they'll less time-consuming for me to produce on-demand. So, in some of my “don’t have the brain function to research or write” times, I’ve just added citations while watching tv. I’ve made a lot of progress!
What Are My Goals for 2024?
- Publish 24 posts in 2024.
I only posted 10 times in 2023 and 12 times in 2022, and while I know my job won’t get less demanding, I’d like to work on creating more time for myself, both for rest and for playtime. I’m aiming to use some of that time to write more in 2024. Not only does “24 for ‘24” have a nice ring to it, but it’s also just an average of 2 posts a month. If I remind myself of some of the prompts I used to use, and also focus on just getting out some of the stories and resources I’ve been sitting on for years, I might just be able to do it. I won’t promise you that there will be a cohesive storyline, though – this might be a very hodge podge year of posts!
- Publish more about my dad’s side of the family.
At my mom’s virtual Cooper Cummings Family Reunion a couple of years ago, I gave a presentation featuring 5 facts each about several of her maternal great-grandmother, Scoatney (Scott) Cooper’s, siblings. I told folks that I’d also put the info into blog posts so that they could come back and find the info later. That project is essentially what I’ve been working on in most of my posts since the reunion. It’s been great, but in doing so, I’ve neglected to write about my dad’s side of the family. I’d like to start fixing that this year.
What Are My Hopes for 2024?
- That we’ll discover who my mom’s paternal grandfather is.
We don’t know who my grandfather, Louis Shepherd’s, father was. He’s not named on Louis’ birth certificate, is unknown on his death certificate, and he isn’t name in any other record I have for Louis to date. I’ve written a whole Mystery Monday post about this. I can now order his Social Security Number application, since we’ve passed what would have been his 100th birthday, but since I can’t prove that his father would be at least 120 years old (since I don’t know who he is!), if there is a name there they’ll probably redact it. So at this point, we’re hoping DNA will tell the tale. We’ve got a start, thanks to my uncle, and we’ll see what’s next.
- That I’ll get some useful new DNA matches, just in general.
I’ve got a few relationships I’d like to better understand, or get additional evidence for, and DNA connections would do it. Especially if people would fill out their trees and respond to messages!
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There you have it,
my list of have dones, goals, and hopes as we cross from 2023 into 2024.
How about you?
What are you glad you were able to accomplish in 2023? What’s on your list, big
or small, for 2024? Let’s cheer each other on!
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