{"id":47089,"date":"2019-01-03T11:04:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T16:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=47089"},"modified":"2023-08-09T14:22:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T18:22:51","slug":"happy-new-year-lets-start-again-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/happy-new-year-lets-start-again-in-2019.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Year! Let\u2019s Start Again in 2019!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article \u2013 to celebrate the start of a new year \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about her genealogy resolution for 2019. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Happy New Year! Now let\u2019s be frank. I\u2019m willing to admit it: I failed miserably at my 2018 resolutions. Yes, I had the best of intentions but life got in the way and before I knew it, I was decorating a Christmas tree and staring at 2019 as it came hurling at me like a runaway train. So, no, I didn\u2019t scan photos, organize, or much of anything else that I had planned to do with my genealogy in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
State (Columbia, South Carolina), 18 February 2008, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What about Your Resolutions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

All of my goals and intentions were good but you know how it is. Most people break their resolutions \u2013 in fact, try Googling \u201cwhy resolutions don\u2019t work\u201d and you\u2019ll receive over 120,000 hits! There are so many articles on the subject that you could spend all of January reading articles about why you shouldn\u2019t make resolutions. So, it\u2019s no wonder my resolutions didn\u2019t stick, but I\u2019m not sure I want to end another year disappointing myself again.<\/p>\n

How did your 2018 resolutions work out? If you accomplished everything or almost everything, congratulations! If not, it\u2019s a new year, so let\u2019s try this again. No, I don\u2019t mean we should resolve to accomplish the same goals again (that train has passed). I want to take genealogical baby steps this year knowing in advance it will be another busy year.<\/p>\n

My 2019 Genealogy Resolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year I want to do something that I noticed needed doing every time I accessed my genealogy database and public tree in 2018.* What I noticed was that I\u2019m missing a lot of information and documents for the people in my more recent family.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually something I warn everyone about. Don\u2019t neglect documenting your most recent generations! Start with yourself and work backward.<\/em> All great advice \u2013 but as I look through my database, I keep questioning what went wrong.<\/p>\n

I am missing basic information on some of my more current generations \u2013 family members I knew in real life but didn\u2019t document as best as I could.<\/p>\n

Are you in this boat? I look at my paternal grandparents\u2019 information and realize that I don\u2019t have their birth certificates. But then I find a marriage license for my maternal grandparents that I didn\u2019t realize I had because I didn\u2019t enter it into my software. Over and over again I realized that I either had stuff I didn\u2019t remember having or I didn\u2019t have documents or information that I really should. Or worse yet, there are facts I know I know but I can\u2019t find the source citation: Which website did I find that on? Did I make that copy at the Family History Library?<\/p>\n

So, What Do I Do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to take this next year and update, document, and cite my first four generations (including me, yes, me). To do this, I\u2019m:<\/p>\n