Recently, Julie Cahill Tarr published her genealogy bucket list. This topic comes up every once in a while, but I liked the format of Julie’s list, with its six categories.
It’s also a reminder of all the genealogy fun to be had when the pandemic subsides and we can get to non-virtual places like conferences, learning institutes, libraries and family visits.
It also got me thinking about my priorities once we can easily travel again, so here’s my genealogy bucket list.
Events I’d Like to Attend
SLIG – I have mixed feelings about SLIG. I would love to take the Advanced Methods course, either virtually or in person, but after last summer’s attempt to register in the first minute it was open and getting totally shut out, I’m hesitant to ever try again. It was an extremely frustrating and disappointing experience.
GRIP – I think I’d also like the Advanced Methods course offered here, too. However, getting to Pittsburgh from Tucson is a little problematic for my ears. One flight per day is fine, two flights get a bit dicey because landings are rough when my ears don’t pop. Three flights, which is what I would need, in one day would have me spending all my time in Pittsburgh looking for an ENT! If we meandered across the country, this is doable when the pandemic is done.
AmericanAncestors – Any kind of in-person learning experience! With all my early New England roots, the topic wouldn’t even matter!
Repositories I’d Like to Visit
New England Historic Genealogical Library – My last visit was in 1981. A port stop in Boston on our 2019 cruise was cancelled because of rough seas and docking, so I missed my planned visit.
New York State Archives – To work on Dave’s German ancestors who lived there and my Loyalists
Pennsylvania State Archives – To work on more of Dave’s ancestors
Ancestral Places I’d Like to Visit
Barbelroth, Germany – home of the Whitmer family
Langenlonsheim, Germany – home of the Stufflebeans/Stoppelbeins
Udol, Hajtovka, Ruska Nova Ves and Vysna Sebastova, Slovakia – home of my Slovak great grandparents
English towns – over 100 of them, which are ancestral homes to both my husband and me
Track Down Ancestors’ Origins
Phillip Crouse – born c1761, said to be from Zeeland, Netherlands
James Astle – born c1750, where in England was he from?
Robert Carlisle – born c1755, where in England, Ireland or Scotland was he from?
Solve These Family History Mysteries
Anders Molin – born 1738, Ystad, Sweden – master mason – when and where did he die?
Catherine (MNU) Carlisle, wife of Robert above – maiden name
Maiden Names – for as many other (MNU) ancestors as possible
Were there any Stoppelbeins before the unknown father born c1600 in Germany? The name means “Stubble leg” and he might be the first person with the surname because of a physical deformity. So far, Y-DNA hasn’t helped, nor has it tied my husband to any other surname in the area.
Other Items
Jump in and keep up with fixing source citations in RootsMagic software. I’ve done most of the other clean up activities already.
My bucket list isn’t all that long.
What’s on your genealogy bucket list?
A thoughtful bucket list and I do hope you are able to check some of these items off in 2021 and beyond!
A brilliant idea! I love the genealogy bucket list idea. I didn’t know you also tried for Advanced Methods at SLIG. I didn’t make it either but got lucky for my alternate choice of Intro to Genetic Genealogy (highly recommended).
Off the top of my head, my bucket list would be visiting the archives at Seattle NARA, Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, the British Columbia archives at Victoria, and the archives of Vancouver and New Westminster. I’d need… oh, about 6 months, to do them justice. 🙂 Add to my travel list the budget for renting apartments and buying groceries!
I am trying to trace immigration documents for Chinese in Canada. I’ve got finding aids as clues but now I want those docs! Not the digitized ones – all the others. There are a lot of collections I am glimpsing the edges of but now know must have existed at some point in all their bureaucratic glory.
Thanks for the shoutout, Linda.
Great list. I hope we’re able to tackle some of those in-person things soon!!
Regarding SLIG, I think the reason it was even more chaotic than usual is because it was virtual and many more people attempted to sign up. The same thing happened with GRIP last week, but even worse, because it sounds like the server crashed on top of everything else. My advice for SLIG, is to make sure you have your profile created/updated, and login minutes before registration opens. Then get those fingers clicking the minute it opens to complete the registration. If you don’t get in, make sure to get on the wait list immediately. You could also take Adv. Methodology with Judy Russell at IGHR this year (registration open 3/6 I believe). I took it virtually last year and loved it. Same advice for registration. Fingers cross for ya!