Genealogy Goals for January

Since it's the beginning of a new month in a new year, and I have the CPA exam and the wedding behind me, I am reinstating my monthly genealogy goals posts I started last spring. I think I posted them for two months and then fell behind when the wedding planning got to be too much. I think it's safe to say that 2011 was a big year for me. I passed the CPA exam, got married, quit my job I had for the last three years, and then moved back across the country from North Carolina to Louisiana (after having just moved to NC from Louisiana a year before). Now that the holidays are finally over, it's time for things to get back to "normal." This is why I have hope that I might actually keep up with my goals.

For January, this is what I hope to accomplish:

• Complete the Intro to Genealogy course offered through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. I started the course on 12/7 and have until 1/29 to take the exam. I am on track so far, assuming I complete the lesson for Week 4 before Wednesday. I have found the work so far to be rather easy. I suppose it's because I'm an intermediate genealogist taking a beginner's course, but it is a prerequisite to taking the more advanced courses. It has been fun reminiscing about my research in my early years of genealogy research.
• Complete the maintenance of cleaning up sources and events for the families of the children of my great-great-grandparents, Lovell and Alvina (Lesperance) Pemberton. I started on this family in December, and have finished with ten of the thirteen children. I am currently working on the family of Leo and Madeline (Pemberton) Carnahan. I have finished cleaning up the sources for them and their children. I am now moving on to cleaning up the Carnahan family sources that I have. I did not do any real research on the Carnahan's beyond Leo's parents and siblings, since they were a collateral line. I do have some info I gathered from online family trees for Leo's grandparents and great-grandparents, so I need to re-evaluate the sources and decide whether or not to delete the connections and move the info to the notes section of my database until I have time or inkling to do the real research. Typically, if an online tree is my only source, I prefer to keep the info in the notes before making a connection in my database. I may be able to find more primary sources in the Michigan collections at FamilySearch and Seeking Michigan. These collections did not exist four years ago when I was doing the Carnahan research. I also need to check cousin Steve's family tree for sources, as he is a Carnahan descendant and has done much more research than I have, since this is more than a collateral line for him.
• I plan to input at least five records from my To Be Entered folder (including my own marriage record!).
• I plan to index at least 500 names with FamilySearch Indexing. I have gotten bad at keeping up with this. 
• I need to write at least four emails to cousins or researchers that have emailed me within the last year about connections, getting together for visits, etc. I am VERY BAD at keeping in touch with people. I need to improve on this.

I think five goals is plenty. I am trying not to be unrealistic with my goals. I should probably have a research goal, but I really want to finish my maintenance project. I will be so happy when my sources are cleaned up in my RootsMagic database. I think I may be happier than when I found out I passed the last part of the CPA exam! I will not be happier than I was on my wedding day, however!