I ended 2016 in a rather reflective mood as it was a year with mixed blessings for me. I wonder what 2017 will bring. In my December post I preferred to use the term ‘aspirations’ rather than ‘resolutions’ and Helen in her post last week spoke about setting goals for the year. We all seem to have the same idea of looking forward in its broadest sense.

Thomas MacEntee in a recent Geneabloggers post (http://www.geneabloggers.com) explained that he’d been contemplating whether he should adopt a standard New Year resolution, such as ‘get organized’, or do something different. He announced that the Genealogy Do-Over was returning in 2017 and, like 2016, will focus on themes rather than actual resolutions. He titled the post ‘Navigating the Genealogy Cs’.

He’s developed seven (7) themes to guide him during 2017, all beginning with C and shown in the graphic. These are: clean; collect; curate; create; connect; conserve; and continue. The meaning of clean is fairly obvious; tidy everything up so you can find what you have to make your future research easier.  Collect is creating a solid and timely system for capturing information, whether this is digital or manual. By curate he recommends reviewing source material, writing source citations straight away and considering how the material either proves or disproves a fact. Create entails writing a concise proof for specific facts and relationships. This proof can then be used in many other ways. Connect reiterates the point that many of us make of not relying solely on online resources, but connecting with the wider genealogical community through genealogical societies, blogs, etc. Remember to conserve your research for the future by regular back-ups. I like his idea of developing a ‘successorship’ plan so that there is someone or some organisation to carry the research forward. Finally, continue to learn by attending a conference, webinars, classes or education sessions, and keeping up with new technologies, apps and programs. He also supports the notion of developing a broader reading list to add contextual background to research. We have mentioned this regularly in our own blog posts.

If you would like to follow Thomas’s Genealogy Do-Over which provides a monthly theme to underpin your research go to http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-returns-2017/.

GSQ is offering two sessions which may help in getting your Genealogy Do-Over on the right track. I am offering a hands-on session on Saturday 21 January on Organising your research. This is a practical course which provides suggestions on how to manage your paper records as well as your digital records. Later in the year there will be a mini-seminar on Proof and Citation, following up on the one offered in 2016, using case studies to show how the theories or models can work in practice. 

As well as these two sessions in which I’m involved, GSQ has a wide range of other offerings in 2017. We have Saturday morning sessions, which are mostly hands-on sessions, Wednesday evening talks, as well as our seminar. Details of all these events will be on the website and we look forward to seeing you.

Until next time

Pauline