December Genealogy Goals Recap

Research

• Send out letters to members of my paternal line asking for information, documents and pictures. Done. Keep your fingers crossed that they will be fruitful.
• Continue work on family wiki. Done.

Organization

• Now that my paper files are in order, it's time to start organizing my digital files. Thanks to my husband fighting the Black Friday crowd, I now have a 640 GB portable hard drive. I'll be setting up a digital filing system on it and moving all my genealogy and picture files to it. Done. You can read about it here.
• Set up a location for filing in progress research. I have a wall file organizer that should work for this. It will allow me to keep in progress files within reach without having to dig them out of my main files every time I go to work on them. Done. My husband mounted the wall file organizer to the cabinet beside my desk.

Writing

• Since National Blog Posting Month has shown I can do daily posts (on one blog at least), I've decided there's no excuse for only two posts per week. While I can do daily posts, I found that I spent more time writing than researching. I decided on 15 posts for the month or one every other day. I'm not setting the same goal for my other blog, but I should have several guest posts going live there this month. Done, I ended up with 16 posts here and only a handful of post on my other blog. If you missed it, my first guest poster at Free Genealogy Resources was Michael Hait who shared some free resources for Maryland land records.
• Develop research plan for family of paternal 3rd great grandfather James William Radcliff. Done. You can read it here. Suggestions are always welcome.

Education

• Update education binder. I've been so focused on getting my genealogy files in order that I neglected to keep my education binder up to date. I need to get in the syllabi and notes from the Georgia Family History Expo, notes from a couple webinars I've watched and printouts of some great blog posts I've read recently. Done.
• Stalk mailman for special handouts from Arlene Eakle due to arrive sometime this month. Between waiting for the handouts and all the books I ordered, he has been thoroughly stalked this month.

Other

• Finish filling out 38 generation pedigree chart so I can get it framed and up on the wall. Done.
• Get pictures of ancestors printed and framed so I can hang them with my pedigree chart. Partially done. While I have the pictures printed, I'm still in search of all the frames I need. I know I could just go to the dollar store and pick up some cheap frames, but I don't want plain ones. I want antique-looking frames with character. I've found a few already by haunting local thrift stores..
• Added during the month. Set up research plan for one location I want to visit. Done, I chose Hancock County, Kentucky, which you can read about here.