2011 Goals - A Final Update

It's nearing the end of the 2011, and (reluctantly) I thought I'd see where I stand with my goals.

1.  Plan (and execute) a trip to the National Archives in D.C. 

Check.

2.  Request NARA files for my military ancestors.

Technically, I did request records on the ancestors for whom I had sufficient information.  I requested two of them.  I didn't get anything (thank you, 1973 St. Louis fire), but I still requested them. 

3.  Break down the brick wall that we call my grandfather's biological parents!

This one isn't done, but I'm changing my plan of attack.  I'm actually giving up on the goal of unsealing his adoption records for now.  I'm going to try approaching it from a DNA standpoint and see if I can "back door" my way into figuring out who my grandfather's biological family is.  More on this later.

 

4.  Scan and organize all of my photos.  

Epic fail.  I still have a box of photos and negatives on my closet shelf to be scanned.  This one might be a carry-over to 2012 (especially now that I have my new handy-dandy negative scanner).  We'll see.

5.  Re-source all of my research ... well, some of it is sourcing for the first time, but I just need to make sure everything has a source!  

All of my known direct ancestors have been entered, documented, sourced, and media-ized in RootsMagic.  I have continued to source all documentation that has been newly added to my database, so I'm doing pretty well on this one!

6.  Keep a to-do list in ONE place, and actually work on it!  
I am really getting the hang of using the to-do list in RootsMagic, and now that I have updated to RM5, I can add those to-do items to my research log as I finish them.  This makes keeping track of my research a whole lot easier!

7.  Increase my FamilySearch Indexing output by at least twofold.

I am ashamed of myself here.  While I have done some indexing, it's not anywhere near twice what I was doing before.  It might be about equal ... maybe.  I have requested off work for April 2, so I will be doing a LOT of indexing on that day.  Maybe that will make up for it.

8.  Finally take a trip to the Family History Library in Ooltewah, TN 

Done!  

9.  Transcribe all the documents I have obtained (and will obtain).

This is still a work in progress, but it will remain one of my resolutions.  

10.  Last but not least ... start writing my family history!  Note: it will probably be 2064 before I actually FINISH it, but at least I can start writing it.

Still a work in progress, but at least it's started.

So I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought.  One lesson I learned this year (thanks to Laura and our Success Team) is that goals I set need to be obtainable within the proposed time frame.  I also need to make goals that are in smaller bites - from a quantitative standpoint ("I will scan xx photos per xx") rather than huge chunks ("I will scan ALL of my photos").  My goals for 2012 will definitely be more reflective of these valuable lessons.