June has flown by and so have the weekends, but it is time once again for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver.
Since 30 June is halfway through the year, this week’s challenge is especially appropriate:
1) Marian B. Wood wrote a blog post, Halfway Through 2024: Genealogy Progress and Plans, to assess her progress to date in 2024. This is an excellent idea for an SNGF challenge.
Here is my slim list of genealogy goals:
1. No matter what, stick with the job of cleaning up my software program. I’ve actually completed through my 3X great grandparents, which is the sum total of my paternal Carpatho-Rusyn branch of the tree. However, the maternal side has a few lines back as early as the 1400s, thanks to professionals who published terrific articles. That will still take me quite a while to complete. I really want this off my plate by the end of the year. I’m just going to have to ignore BSOs that might pull me down the rabbit holes and stick with clean up.
Grade: D I am embarrassed to even say this, but I’ve only worked on this goal for a few weeks this year. Here come the excuses – 1. We had a lot of rain this year, which brought on lots of plant growth and the need for yard clean up. 2. Housework, etc. has to get done. 3. There are only so many hours in the days, so how do I spend them? Cleaning up really really boring citations or accomplishing new, fun genealogy research? Guess which won out?
If I don’t get back on track with this, I’m just going to forget about it. I’m using RootsMagic 7 and I’m already three versions behind since RM10 recently came out. We’ll see where I am in six more months.
2. I love Jacqi Stevens’ 12 for ’23 on A Family Tapestry, where she spends a month on a research problem and then moves on. I followed this idea in 2023, using it to seek out more life details and social history for multiple family lines. Jacqi sets her list up before she begins, but I found being more flexible and choosing new people/families each month worked better for me, so I will be working on 12 for ’24.
Grade: A+ I love the timeline of one month per project. it’s enough time to dig deeply and add to or update, but still leaves 11 months of the year for other goals and projects.
If the two grades are averaged, I’m at a C+, which makes the D look much better!
Thank you, Marian and Randy, for this week’s challenge.
I agree with you that fixing citations in a genealogy program is boring. I tend to fix them when I do a write up for the blog or a research report or a bio and then paste that citation into the notes area of the citation already in RootsMagic. I have so many old citations from FHL microfilm days. There are better things to do than go online to update them unless I need to. Good job on the 12 for 24!
Agree that fixing citations in genealogy software is not only boring but takes valuable time away from fresh discoveries. And you’re doing an A++ job on the 12 for 24! Keep it up and have fun.