Update on January Goals and New February Goals

Well, I did okay on my January goals. Not perfect, but decent. See updates in red below.

• 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. 

I finished the course a week early and made an A+ in the class! The class was actually called Methodology: Part I - Getting Started. The topics for the class were things like types of sources, various forms used in genealogical research, how to complete a research plan, what kinds of repositories genealogists use, how to evaluate evidence, etc. It consisted of six modules, each of which included a written assignment. The written  assignments included two case studies, one which was graded. The graded case study involved transcribing records, writing a research plan, evaluating the sources given, inferring facts from the sources given, etc. I am scheduled to start Methodology: Part II - Organizing and Skillbuilding next week.

• 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 did manage to complete the maintenance for all of Lovell and Alvina's children and their collateral lines. That was quite the feat, as they had 13 children in total! I left the Carnahan links in my database, but I did move my "sources" to the notes field instead since they weren't true sources. I didn't bother to do any research in the online records at FamilySearch for the Carnahan family or any of the other collateral lines. I decided to continue trekking on in my maintenance instead. I did find a death record for Leo Carnahan's father on cousin Steve's tree, which I added as a source. I am now working on cleaning up the Chamberlain family in my database. This is the paternal line of my uncle (see February goals below and my recent posts on Arthur).

• I plan to input at least five records from my To Be Entered folder (including my own marriage record!).

No, I didn't get around to doing this. Boo. It's called being too lazy to hook up my computer to my scanner.

• I plan to index at least 500 names with FamilySearch Indexing. I have gotten bad at keeping up with this.  

I didn't quite get 500 names, but I did get 211 points. I hope to increase this in February.

• 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. 

Nope, didn't do this either. Joan, Cheryl, Steve, Virginia, I have not forgotten you! I promise!

February Goals:

• Finish cleaning up the sources and events for the CHAMBERLAIN family and begin working on the CHATTERSON family. 
• Look up my great-grandparents' and great-great-grandparents' siblings and their spouses and children in the SSDI, just in case access goes away at some point in the future. I really don't think that it will, but just in case...
• Finish my posts on Arthur CHAMBERLIN and family.
• Earn 300 points indexing at FamilySearch.
• Start my Organizing and Skillbuilding course through NIGS.