Back on 29 December 2018, I posted my 2019 genealogy goals. The list wasn’t long or particularly detailed.

Susan Ellerbee, who writes Posting Family Roots, did a great job both in reviewing her previous 2018 goals and in outlining her 2019 goals.

I love her format and the way she set up refined goals for 2019. She’s inspired me to update my own goal list and refine some of them.

Here is my updated list of 2019 goals:

Genealogy Conferences & Education:

1. RootsTech 2019 – As an official ambassador, attend and report on the RT 2019 happenings.

2. The 2019 Southern California 50th Genealogy Jamboree in June and the FGS 2019 Conference in Washington, DC are on my radar. I need to look into travel plans and costs for each. It may come down to whether or not I have a geneabuddy to share costs.

3. Attend at least one webinar per month.

Giving Back to the Genealogy Community:

1. Anquestors – Teach my ladies’ group once a month. Survey the group for new topics, needs and/or areas of interest.

2. The Slave Name Roll Project – Add at least six blog posts to the project this year.

3. Orphaned Photos – Troll eBay for inexpensive vintage photos that have subjects identified. If modern day descendants can be found, return the photo to its family. Note: I love doing this. The recipients are excited and thankful and the photos are no longer sad orphans floating around.

Genealogy Blog:

1. Post at least one article daily.

2. Try out at least one new tool each month that Elizabeth O’Neal suggested on the January 2019 Genealogy Blog Party: Tune Up Your Blog.

3. Post an average of 7 comments per week on other blogs that I read.

4. Try out the new WordPress Gutenberg format, which I’ve been trying to forget about!

5. Log my blogging expenses.

Genealogy Research:

1. Take a new look at six or more families in the tree who have been neglected for several years.

2. Log expenses for books, subscriptions or and other related purchases.

3. Pursue DNA leads with ftDNA, MyHeritage, Ancestry and GEDmatch.

Organization:

This is how I described my organization goal for my digital collection and genealogy software:

Make a new attempt at the mind-numbingly boring task of renaming images and reattaching them in new family trees. I can find all of my images and they are sorted into surname folders. However, they aren’t named in any set pattern. I have about 12,000 images, so I am not sure how dedicated I will be to this task, but I can’t seem to let it go. Time will tell!

I have a family tree saved in RootsMagic for both my husband’s family and mine with all the images stripped off them. Breaking this into small pieces might make it more palatable. I have many families with only a few documents or images pertaining to them. If I tiptoe into the boredom with the smaller surname files, I might stick with the job.

I recently watched Cyndi Ingle’s webinar Maintaining an Organized Computer on Legacy Family Tree Webinars and liked some of her file naming methods.

Here are my two newly formed goals:

1. Each month, rename the images for at least one family in each of my trees and reattach them in RootsMagic.

2. As I work through file surname file, reorganize it at the same time.

I like this format. I think I have enough detail in each category to be able to measure my success, or lack thereof, but it’s a very doable list.