I always love geneamemes popping up, so was very pleased to see Jill Ball’s 2021 Accentuate the Positive questions appear.

Here are my answers:

1. I got the most joy from: completing my one-place study of St. Dimitry’s Church of Udol & Hajtovka, Slovakia, the ancestral home of my paternal grandmother, Julia Scerbak Sabo. So many of those families emigrated to Passaic, New jersey and founded what is today the Cathedral of St Michael the Archangel, a Byzantine Catholic church.

2. The Covid situation gave me an opportunity to: sit and focus on completing the project described in Question 1 and to complete my U.S. digitized county histories project.

3. I managed to attend a face to face event at: nowhere, as my local societies are 100% virtual and we haven’t ventured far from home.

4. My main focus this year was on: my two long-term projects, as I spent  6 months in total, full time 7 days a week on them.

5. A new piece of technology or skill I mastered was: certainly not mastered by any stretch of the imagination, but I learned just enough of the Cyrillic alphabet to decipher most of the church entries from 1851-1857 in my St. Dimitry’s Church project.

6. A geneasurprise I received was: Santa brought me a book I had wanted for a while – Andy Warhol’s Religious and Ethnic Roots: The Carpatho-Rusyn Influence on his Art.

7.  A Facebook Group that helped me was: I don’t use Facebook very often.

8. My 2021 social media post that I was particularly proud of was: Aside from my blog, I don’t use social media.

9.  A new genealogy/history book I enjoyed was:  The White Ship by Charles Spencer, detailing English history, both pre-and post-reign of Henry I.

10. I was impressed by: both the Texas Genealogical Society state conference and the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society’s annual conference. Both used a virtual event platform I’d never heard of – Whova. It made communicating with other attendees both easy and fun. There were numerous chat threads and participants could start as many new threads as they liked. I learned a lot at both virtual conferences because of this format.

11.  A great journal or newspaper article I found was: The English Origins of Walter Tybbot, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and His Wives and Daughters by Chase W. Ashley in the current issue of The Register (NEHGS). I love when scholarly articles about my ancestors pop up in journals! I feel very fortunate when they do.

12. I got the most value from this subscription: AmericanAncestor.org For anyone with early New England roots, it is invaluable.

13. I progressed my DNA research with:  one of my husband’s cousins, as we figured out where yet another surprise relative fits in the family tree.

14. I taught a genimate how to: navigate the FamilySearch catalog.

15.  A blog post that taught me something new was: No single post pops into my head, but there are a number of bloggers whose posts I learn from: Genea-Musings, Climbing My Family Tree, The Legal Genealogist, Genealogy Jude, DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy, A Family Tapestry, Writing My Past, Fortify Your Family Tree, Genealogy Pants and more. I know I am leaving out some favorites!

16. A DNA discovery I made was: None, as I’ve yet to find anyone closer than 3rd cousin who I can’t identify.

17. A newly found family member shared: No new family contacts this year.

18. I finally found ……… six feet under: Over the years, I’ve tried to find elementary school classmates who grew up with me in Passaic. I found one this year, as their family attended St. Michael’s Church. There were six siblings and the eldest was my age. We were in the same class up to 6th grade. I was quite surprised to learn that this child was a stepchild and the siblings were actually half siblings AND that this classmate, aged 15, changed their surname to that of the birth father. This family always seemed so close, so the surname change, especially in the middle of high school, would seem to indicate some family stress. Even more sad was learning this classmate passed away in 2007 – way too young.

19. I splashed out and purchased: a last minute registration (at full, expensive price!) to the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society’s virtual conference. I learned a lot and, now that I am aware of this conference, I’ll register for the Early Bird price in the future!

20. Another positive I would like to share is: It’s been a good year for genealogy, the best thing about 2021. May 2022 not only bring more genealogical successes, but also worldwide recovery from this pandemic.