Friday, December 29, 2006

2007: Realistic Expectations

In hindsight, my genealogy resolutions for 2006 were pretty ludicrous. Although one brick wall was busted, I wasn't able to get very much done. This time around I'll try to be a little more practical:

1. File more papers.

2. Scan and tag more photos.

3. Complete at least one surname project.

That's about it. It may not seem like much, but considering how much I actually got done in 2006, it would be fantastic to make progress in these three areas.

I need to concentrate on resolutions #1 and #2 just to survive, so to speak. Having papers sorted and filed will make it easier to find what others are looking for, or what I need in order to review clues. Not being able to easily find certain papers is frustrating. And while I'm a big fan of Picasa, I'm way behind on tagging photos. I also have a mountain of photos to scan. Doesn't everyone, though?

The surname project is something I've been heading toward since I became interested in genealogy. I'm at a point, at least for some families, that it's time to start putting everything together into a booklet or CD-ROM package. I look forward to using the newest version of Ancestral Quest when it's released, and finally getting serious with Passage Express.

I don't anticipate ordering nearly as much microfilm in 2007 as I did this past year or the year before. By cutting back on microfilm I'll be able to free up some time. More importantly, though, there won't be as many papers and/or digital files to deal with after a visit to the library. This is really where I hope to gain some ground on the information I already have, but haven't dealt with in a proper manner.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think we all have old photos to preserve. Tedious, but necessary.

Thanks for the link to Passage Express, I hadn’t run across it before.