Following like a Lamb, or set to Lead

Blogging is so much fun. It actually makes you work at doing your genealogy and responding to comments in a forthright manner.

I remember the days of old for a query it was to be short concise and not take up lots of space. Just the basic pertinent facts were used. I wonder how many missed the link to family members because there was no reference to a family story or event.

The story or event may have triggered a thought, OO, maybe they are related we have the same story. I remember meeting a well known researcher and he was doing a presentation.

At the end, I asked him questions about his people he used in presentation and we both had the same story about the person he used in his demonstration. I would have never thought to ask him if related then because I was still not familiar with the name spelling changes that occurred over time.

Nor can I believe I would so blindly follow written data so casually, accepting it as gospel and not do more digging. O we dug and dug in ship records to find when they came. We dug for Land Records, Wills, Deeds and Bible Records but we did not search in the right time frame and did not know that some of the family stories passed down may be true but fit a different generation for data.

So my words to you are make a blog, follow a blog and get your genealogy jumped stated for the New Year.

January is always review month for me. Old Emails, letters and data and sources received into the system in the last year.
It is also the time to remember to use our old sources for connections.

Why do we not hear about usgenweb.org for research at speakers meeting and events on line? They were the first to help us get where we are. So many are abandoning them and newbies have not even heard of them. Let alone worldgenweb.org for Europe and Asia etc.

February is the posting to the Rootsweb lists and various sites for information one is seeking. AHA a Blog, works excellent for this also. Also again remember to use worldgenweb.org and usgenweb.org for searching and posting for help.

February is also Black History Month and that topic should be brought up and delt with as any other topic. If your Indian in lineage you probably have some black. If your Black your chance of Indian lineage is very high. If you are an American with 200+ years of US history you have a great chance of picking up some of this lineage.

March is time to prepare for the upcoming Seminars held around the USA or Europe that may be near you. NEHGS, NGS, OGS, CGS and other major groups plan these events for the year. Generally, a year ahead so we can prepare in hopes to attend them. Alas they are a wee high at times and not near so we are not always able to attend them.

My wish is that the key speakers would allow taping and the availability to sell it so we can take advantage of the data when we are to far away to attend. it could be offered to those who did not attend after the event if they fear people would just order the tapes and not attend the event.

I will say I think the way of the future will be in the form of these new podcast type presentations and anyone can attend by setting in front of a computer.

I helped put on the first online Seminar for Family History Month and we had many key speakers from around the USA and Canada attend. No one left home but we had an awesome attendance a few years back.

Some organizations have 4 events a year some have only one. Some are spread across the USA and some are regional or local but one should attempt to attend one if at all possible.

More to come on this year calendar that I mentally use to keep moving forward.

Due to my thoughts listed above I follow Circle Mending by Jean Wilcox Hibbens, All Things Maine and Genealogy Bank plus many other favorites.

Each offers different concepts and data for genealogists.

My last comment on this today will be there are many ethnic blogs out to help in doing specific names or places research also.

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