It’s time to review those all important yearly goals I set for myself.

Here is my 2025 list:

Goal #1 is to attack my software cleanup month by month, beginning with Generation 5. If I stay on task, I’ll be done in August, which leaves the remaining few months to finish those ancient generations. Divvying up the generations by month also makes the job seem way less overwhelming. Completing the really early generations shouldn’t be too hard because most of my data on those ancestors come from one or two scholarly articles covering the family. No birth, marriage and death certificates for people born in the 1400s!

Goal #2 will definitely be to continue my “12 for” series with 12 for ’25. So many more records are becoming available online and, particularly with FamilySearch’s full-text search, making new discoveries is getting easier by the day.

Goal #3 – I’m going to bring back a goal I had left behind a couple of years ago. I need to again beef up the number of comments I leave on other’s genealogy blog posts. I did leave comments, but everyone loves feedback and I know I could do better.

Goal #4 – This goal is very specialized. A second cousin asked for help researching the side of his family that we don’t share. I did a fair amount of work on his lines before our cruise, but there is still more to be found. I’m going to devote some time in January to working on those lines.

How did I do? It’s a bit of a mixed bag.

Goal #1 – I haven’t finished, but I made really good progress during the second half of the year. I’ve finished Generations 5, 6 and 7 and have begun Generation 8. Gen 8 began with the rabbit hole of proving John Adams’ parentage, which I did, thanks to FamilySearch full-text search locating a deed in which John was named, but not included in the deed index. Therefore, with my success, I’ll keep going with this in 2026.

Goal #2 – 100% met. I really like the “12 for” series. My only problem is having to choose one family over another for the major focus of the month.

Goal #3 – I’d give myself about a B on meeting this goal. I’ve left many comments on others’ blogs, but I’d still like to increase that number.

Goal #4 – 100% met. I found all kinds of documented information about my second cousin’s mother’s family and have been writing about the discoveries. Now, his lines head into Scotland and I don’t use Scotland’s People so he’ll have to decide whether to pay and research further.

I’m very pleased with all I’ve accomplished this year, but now need to think about what formal goals I’d like to set for 2026.