{"id":12180,"date":"2015-12-31T10:43:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T15:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=12180"},"modified":"2024-12-30T12:56:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T17:56:35","slug":"20-new-years-resolutions-for-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/20-new-years-resolutions-for-genealogy.html","title":{"rendered":"20 New Years\u2019 Resolutions for Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Introduction<\/em><\/strong><em>: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak \u2013 with tongue firmly in cheek \u2013 presents 20 New Year\u2019s resolutions for genealogists as we head into 2016<\/em>. <em>Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As we head from 2015 to 2016, remember to <em>quickly document 2015<\/em>, as it is now your past.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12181\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12181\" style=\"width: 518px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1231-2015-new-years-cartoon.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12181\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1231-2015-new-years-cartoon.png\" alt=\"Illustration: cartoon showing an infant representing \u201cNew Year 1905\u201d chasing \u201cOld Man 1904\u201d into history\" width=\"518\" height=\"594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1231-2015-new-years-cartoon.png 518w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1231-2015-new-years-cartoon-262x300.png 262w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12181\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration: cartoon showing an infant representing \u201cNew Year 1905\u201d chasing \u201cOld Man 1904\u201d into history. Credit: John T. McCutcheon; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But seriously, when asked by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/\">GenealogyBank<\/a> for some timely genealogy resolutions for the New Year, my serious side left the building. Wouldn\u2019t it be fun to use these resolutions!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Locate deceased relatives in order to figure out which ancestor is haunting the family house \u2013 or better yet, invite one to become the family ghost and leave you clues.<\/li>\n<li>Resolve to donate a black sheep to the local petting zoo. Family historians will understand the innuendo.<\/li>\n<li>Resolve to never purchase a house with a real brick wall. It\u2019s very unlucky when trying to solve the family puzzles.<\/li>\n<li>Add a genealogically oriented cornerstone to your home. Include the pertinent data as to the family name, its pronunciation, when you moved there, etc.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/explore\/newspapers\/birth-records\">Find birth records<\/a> to make genealogy quilts for family members with the names of your ancestors and their countries of origin.<\/li>\n<li>Resolve to only donate to politicians who have supported funding for genealogy and historical preservation. While you\u2019re at it, search military records to see which of your ancestors served this country.<\/li>\n<li>Threaten to disinherit the family down-at-the-mouthers when they sneer at your genealogy.<\/li>\n<li>Write your own glowing obituary \u2013 then add a clause to your will disinheriting anyone who dares replace it with another version.<\/li>\n<li>Read newspaper archives and historical documents to create a genealogy quiz for the executor to distribute at the reading of your will. Anyone who can\u2019t answer questions, such as \u201cwhich ancestor built the house on 7th Street\u201d or \u201cwhat was Grandma\u2019s maiden name\u201d has to retake it until they get an A. Leave a bonus to the top scorer, along with all your family research material and a stipend to preserve it.<\/li>\n<li>Create birth, marriage and death announcements for ancestors who missed out on having them.<\/li>\n<li>If you hear a relative sneer with \u201cblah, blah, blah\u201d to your latest genealogy find, respond with: \u201cthanks, I think I\u2019ll \u2018blog, blog, blog\u2019 about your disinterest, so it will be out there when you finally get interested.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Record the GPS coordinates of the family headstones and present the data to disinterested relatives. Make sure you take their photos to record their \u201cOh gee thanks\u201d expressions!<\/li>\n<li>Use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/explore\/books\/all\">historical books<\/a> to find your living family\u2019s doppelgangers (ancestor look-alikes) and frame their images in side-by-side frames.<\/li>\n<li>In order to hook your grandchildren on genealogy, search family names to figure out how they are related to their favorite pop stars.<\/li>\n<li>Create your multi-generational family tree and engrave it into your headstone! (No joke. Some genealogists have already thought of this.)<\/li>\n<li>Engrave your headstone with a statement noting your better qualities. (\u201cLoving mother, or grandmother, genealogy diva &amp; the family favorite\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>Persuade your local library board to provide special parking places for family history researchers.<\/li>\n<li>Petition your state legislature for vanity license plates that grant free &amp; convenient parking for genealogists at all state and national archives.<\/li>\n<li>Hire handwriting experts to determine just who mislabeled the family photos. If it turns out it was a living relative, label this person\u2019s really bad photos accurately.<\/li>\n<li>Lastly, to complete the family DNA tests \u2013 resolve to do it surreptitiously during a family get-together. Here\u2019s how: cover your desserts and say \u201cEveryone. Open your mouth and close your eyes, so you can have a little surprise.\u201d Instead of inserting a tasty bite, take a cheek swab.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember: all New Year\u2019s resolutions go in one year and out the other! Make this one a safe one!<\/p>\n<p>Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/sign-up\">Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak \u2013 with tongue firmly in cheek \u2013 presents 20 New Year\u2019s resolutions for genealogists as we head into 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":101461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12641],"tags":[12,5322,6108],"class_list":["post-12180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor-sayings","tag-genealogy","tag-humor","tag-new-years-resolutions"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1229-2017-featured-graphic-happy-new-year.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101463,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180\/revisions\/101463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}