Outlining April's Tale

In April I plan to:

• Put my Ancestry subscription to use for Acquard records
• Visit BallinStadt, a museum and research facility on emigration from Hamburg.  Thank you to Joan of Roots'n'Leaves for leaving me a comment about this!
• Complete the NGS online course Working With Deeds
• Finish month two of ProGen and do assignments for month 3
• Put information from the England BMDs I received into my genealogy program and write a blog post on them
• Catch up on my Google Reader posts
• Write blog posts on interesting topics from classes such as Intercultural Communication, Web Usability, Long Term Preservation and Library Services for Older Adults
• Visit Hamburg family history centers to see if they have films I need for my German ancestry

Watch for postings on these and other topics this month:-)

A Tale of March's Research

I am constantly amazed by how much I can get done when I am busy, compared to how little when I have a lot of free time.  For the first time in 10 years I am not working, only going to school and have more free time than I know what to do with.  As such, I have fallen behind on blog reading and writing, barely done research and generally just slouched around;-)  The upside to this is that I am more relaxed than I have ever been and hope to be moderately productive in my research in April.

In March I:

• Completed NGS online course in Transcribing, Extracting and Abstracting Genealogical Records
• Completed month 1 of the ProGen course and did assignments for month 2
• Received BMD certificates from England which I need to enter into my database
• Read Roots by Alex Haley.  After having it on my shelf for years, I have finally read the book that launched many genealogists hobby
• Joined Ancestry.com for 3 months on the World membership.  Did a little research into census records for my father's family

Outlining Februaries Tale

My goals for February are going to be pretty light, as I want to spend as much time as possible with Aaron before I heard to Europe.

1. Do my ProGen assignment for Lesson #1 and blog about it
2. Continue to hope, wish and wait for my FHL films to arrive
1. Go through them for information once they arrive
3. Continue census transcriptions of WNYGS
4. Start organizing my box of genealogy paperwork into binders
5. Research Eberstadt, Germany for an entry to the Carnival of Central & Eastern Genealogy

The Tale of January Research

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...  January - a new month, a new year, a new decade.  The worst of times was the cold of a Central New York winter, but it's mostly been a rather mild so winter, so I'm pretty lucky. For the best of time it was the first time in 4 months I didn't have school, which meant I could actually research, though mostly I organized.  I have decided monthly reviews make more sense than weekly ones, as I don't do enough genealogy things in a week to dedicate a whole post to it, usually.  Thanks Barbara for the amazing monthly reviews which gave me this idea!   


Best of times:

• Research
• Ordered death certificates for Katherine Weiss Eichhorn Gorndt and Charles Gorndt
• Found census and civil war info for Charles Gorndt
• Found Amelia Casillo's marriage date
• Ordered 5 films from the FHC for Knockholt, Kent, England and Roccaromano, Casera, Italy
• Organization
• I transcribed two binders of records into my genealogy program
• Education
• Became a member of ProGen Group #6
• Attended RUSA's (ALA)
• Listed on Randy's
• Joined APG
• Transcription
• Began transcription of the 1865 East Aurora, Erie, NY census for the
• Reading:
• Finding your Italian ancestors : a beginner's guide by Suzanne Russo Adams
• Social networking for genealogists by Drew Smith
• In search of your German roots : a complete guide to tracing your ancestors in the Germanic areas of Europe by Angus Baxter
• Blog:
• Participated in first Carnival of Genealogy of the year
• Participated in weeks 1 - 4 of 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy
• Wrote 3 Surname Saturday Posts
• Participated in Data Back-up Weekend and won a prize