Motivation Monday – March Madness

Public domain image, from
Wikimedia Commons.

Between “Censusmas” (April 2^nd) and Easter, I lost the first week of April, after a crazy March! Here is my status on my 2012 goals:

Client Research

• Ongoing heir search in the Midwest United States
• Full family history project as a gift for a family friend’s 80^th birthday.

Personal Research and Organization

• Using the Surname Saturday prompt, I blogged each week about one of my ancestors. With the first week of April included, I’ve made it through all my great-grandparents. Next weekend I start with my 2^nd great-grandparents; while I have done considerable research on some of them, there are others who really need some attention!
• I transcribed four deeds for Amanuensis Monday postings. I did not get as many other documents organized as I wanted; however, I did spend several hours processing (including writing proper source citations) and organizing about 40 documents and photographs. There are still many more to do!

Writing

• Continued weekly participation in Amy Coffin’s 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy with a total of four posts in March! I got behind, spent some time catching up and I’m behind again!
• In March I wrote 20,801 words for blog posts, Examiner articles, and the family history project. I wrote another 23,902 words at 750words.com – a total of nearly 44,703 words!
• My editorial calendars went by the wayside for March – need to try again!

 Speaking

• I presented “Countdown to the Release of the 1940 Census” at the March 16th meeting of the San Fernando Valley Genealogical Society.
• Scheduled a workshop on “Source Citations for Beginners” for the Genealogy Garage scheduled for May 19th at the Los Angeles Public Library.

 Education

• Completed my research report assignment for ProGen.
• I participated in several excellent webinars and a mentoring meeting sponsored by the Association of Professional Genealogists.
• Participated in the Mini-Professional Management Conference sponsored by the Southern California Chapter of the APG.
• I’ve finished reading Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg, and now need to write the review for it, as well as review The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried and True Tactics for Researching Your Elusive Ancestors by Marsha Hoffman Rising.

Giving Back

• I went to Wilmington Cemetery to take photos for Find-A-Grave and to research a burial for someone. I took a few photos and created about half a dozen memorials. I was disappointed that I was unable to get good photos because the grass had nearly grown over several of the grave markers in the area in which I was working. I’ll be taking some gardening tools along with me next time.

 So that was March…time to get back to April!

© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research