Plotting and Planning

There’s always something about a conference that gets me energized and inspired to do more research. All the classes with new ideas, or reminders of old ones. Meeting people both old friends and new. Sometimes, it’s just a feeling of belonging that one gets from being in a group of like-minded people that reenergizes a person. Many of us doing genealogy are doing it alone. There aren’t many people around us that are interested in doing all the research or even care about who their family was. Most of the time, in my family if I merely mention genealogy, eyes will start glazing over. There are two or three people that enjoy it as well, but I don’t often get to spend time with those family members. So for me, it is the conferences and such gatherings where I find people of similar interest.

I was thinking about that inspiration this weekend as I was watching the postings on Facebook. There have been many postings regarding RootsTech this past week. I have seen information about lectures, pictures of people gathering for different social events, pictures of the vendor hall and reports of people at the Family History Library. Yesterday especially, there were many postings of people departing Salt Lake City for home. Meanwhile, I am at home busily working away on various projects. Somehow, though, I’ve caught some of the renewed enthusiasm from this conference. As an added bonus, I don’t have to unpack my suitcase or catch up on the laundry and such that people traveling need to, so I have a bit more energy to tackle all that genealogy!

Where to start? Here is an outline of what I want to tackle- what are your plans? Make a list for this month and next of things you want to get to before winter ends.

1-    Tackle the notebook of my uncle’s research into some of the Wooster family. (I need to see what he’s done and incorporate it into my own research)

2-    Finally finish scanning and organizing all the things he has given me over the past few months

3-    Plan what research I want to do at various repositories once the weather is a little better so I can plan trips to them.

Although this winter has certainly been a mild one here in Upstate New York, I have kept pretty close to home. It is unusual to have this little snow and so I have been leery to plan trips when I expect to wake up any morning to a blizzard. Therefore, I am working on planning out these trips for the spring and summer weather when it is a little easier and more predictable to travel. Let’s make this winter season productive as we organize and plan for future adventures!