Elizabeth O’Neal’s monthly Genealogy Blog Party is a challenge to which I look forward every month. The topics are always fun and force me to look at sometimes ignored or overlooked ancestors.

This month, the challenge is to look at the Best of 2021 in terms of our own genealogical accomplishments.

I am actually quite proud of the work I’ve done this year. I’m retired and have no little beings who depend on me, so I’ve been fortunate enough to devote more than full time-job hours to my genealogy pursuits. Those pursuits include two big projects. Each took three months to complete and I worked on them 7 days a week for 8-10 hours per day.

I had thought about compiling links to digitized histories for several years and finally decided to jump in and get busy with it in the spring. When fall rolled around, I jumped into the second project that had been in the back of my mind – a one-place study of my paternal grandmother’s ancestral home – St. Dimitry’s Church, which serves the villages of Udol and Hajtovka to this day.

In between, I wrote several other blog posts of which I’m also proud.

My “Best of 2021” list covers 8 topics, although several were multi-part series.

1. Compilation of Digitized County Histories – Find the tab under the header image of this blog that says County Histories. a new page opens with links to all 50 states. Links are then grouped by counties.

2. Strategies for Sorting Men of the Same Name: Lawrence Thompson – Parts One, Two, Three, Four and Recap.

3. Blogger Research Toolboxes: 2021 – One of my most popular recurring posts is the yearly list of bloggers who have added rich resources to their blog websites.

4. History of St. Dimitry’s Greek Catholic Church, Udol & Hajtovka, Slovakia, Part 1- Middle Ages, Part 2: Turn of the 19th Century,  Part 3: Daily Life in the 1800s and Part 4: Industrial Revolution & Village Emigration

If you have family ties to St. Dimitry’s Church in Ujak (today Udol) and Hajtovka, leave a comment if you would like to access my one-place project.

5. Social Context & the Life of Stephen Kucharik (1855-1933) – a look at my great grandfather’s life, based on social and cultural context affecting his life as a Rusyn.

6. Importance of the FAN Club: Margaret (Peggy) (Broadway) (Robinson) (Smith) Henry of TN & Lawrence County, IN, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

7. When the Ancestor Trail Leads You to a New Locale, Take Your Research Plan with You!

That’s it for my Best of 2021. I’ve accomplished a lot!