New Year Means New Resolutions (Or Perhaps a Return to Existing Projects)

 It's a new year and it's time for new resolutions. I want to do more with putting my lines on shared trees like FamilySearch, WikiTrees, etc. In addition to sharing the research that I have done, I find it a great way to set out "cousin bait", and meet new cousins that descend from the same lines. 

I also want to get back to writing more as this more blog has been neglected. You would think that being home all of the time due to quarantine, I would be inspired to write. Unfortunately, that did not happen. After hours of working from a screen with little time for my poor eyes, I couldn't think of writing each evening after work. At times I lacked ambition and would resort to comfort eating and watching some rubbish tv (90 Day Fiancee is my current binge show along with restarting The Office on Netflix). 

One of my writing resolutions was to try to contribute to one of the ongoing campaigns like Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors. I tried to do so in the past and got a few posts out for a couple of months before I lost my inspiration and stopped writing. There is no pressure to get a blog post out each week. I'm no longer in school having one of my teachers yell at me for not doing my homework. It's a self imposed deadline on myself to get something else accomplished on my own time.

I have a lot of genealogy projects I want to work on. I signed up to do a one place study on the Tydavnet parish of Ireland - an ambitious project based on the number of townland (I think 151). I need to whittle it down to the Roman Catholic parish inhabitants or fear that I will never get much accomplished. I also have a blog series that I never got up and running, Wicked History. I have my first post drafted but sadly did not finish the research. Something else I need to get back to. 

And then of course there is all of the correspondence. I'm slowly catching up with all of the messages on the genealogy platforms, emails, social media, etc. Yes, I'm that person you write to and it's crickets for a while. Not because I don't want to help but because I don't have an immediate answer to help you. I've been better over the last few months writing something but I frequently need a nudge from those that reach out to me to see if I found anything new that will help find our connection. I find it easiest if you ask for access to my tree so you can figure out the connection yourself. This is helpful when I'm knee deep in the next lecture and just don't have time to work on my genealogy. 

And of course I want to start publishing my research so that it can outlive me one day. I may never write "the book" on my family genealogy. I tend to do more micro blogging on Twitter and Facebook, with a little sprinkled into Instagram. Perhaps it's time to at least get a few more blog posts out there and maybe an article submitted on my Dougherty descendants. 

I don't think that I will accomplish everything I have outlined in this post but maybe this will give me the nudge to work on at least one project this year. 2020 is officially over and there's hope for a better year ahead. 

What genealogy projects are you working on or are planning to return back to?