The Start of a New Year

I cannot believe that it is 2015 already! I remember this time last year I had just started blogging on my website and was being inspired by the community at African American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research (AAGSAR) and the “No Brick Walls Challenge” that was lead and mentored by Lucky Daniels of Our Georgia Roots. I had always wanted to start a family website for my passion of genealogy and I did it! So again, this year I will reflect on 2014 and start setting new goals for 2015.

I was a little nervous and intimidated to start this blog, because I have not really journaled since the early college years in the late 90’s. I consider myself a novice blogger/writer aka “Story Teller”. I feel like I should definitely brush up on my writing skills and perhaps take a class to get reacquainted with the written word which will hopefully allow me to be a more creative and eloquent writer. What is funny about this is that I use to love to write stories and research papers in high school and college. I hope to reconnect with my “inner youth” which is an essence of hope, inspiration and passion that I seemed to have a lot more of 20 years ago. Wow, I can’t believe I am reflecting on 20 years, it really seems like yesterday that I was just 19 years old.

As time passes, the older I get there are so many things that I want to accomplish and discover, I wonder how I will ever be able to do everything in this head of mine. Maybe I won’t be able to get to do everything that I want, but I definitely realize that it is important to prioritize your goals both personally and professionally. So here is what I have learned about setting genealogy goals in 2014 on my genealogy quest.

Pat your self on the back for setting goals!
I am patting myself on the back because this was the first year that I really wanted to start setting goals for my genealogy research and truly move past and start to crumble down some brick walls. The first step to accomplishing anything is setting a goal to do it. Although I may not have achieved everything I wanted to do, I made some significant strides in my genealogy research and finding many of my enslaved ancestors and their names.

Revisit and Revise your goals often!
This is something that I wish I would have done more of this year. As new discoveries were unfolding I should have been setting new goals to help me answer questions to these new discoveries. I set some general goals but I should have applied the SMART technique: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound. I also find that it is best to have a good mix of short and long term goals to keep you focused and motivated.

Collaboration is a huge help!
Collaborating with other genealogists, family members and others about your research is enlightening and will bring new found knowledge to your research. I would have never gotten so far in my research without talking to family members and other genealogists about my research. I was also lucky enough to connect with new cousins this year who have helped to inspire me with their research and that helps to keep me motivated in discovering new lines of my family.

DNA, DNA,DNA!
This topic will be discussed more by me in the coming year as it has already helped me in so many ways. Any researcher who has brick walls should definitely take a DNA test to help them in their journey. DNA has disproved a very important family story in my family. I would have never questioned it until I received my DNA results. I spent a lot of time researching another family line that was not directly connected to me, however the research did help lead me to the facts that I genealogically had no DNA ties to this line as I had been told. Because I had already researched the names I knew that none of those surnames were coming up as my common ancestors in my DNA matches. But the best thing so far that I have found via DNA is many new cousins that love genealogy research as much as I do! When it is 1 am in the morning and I am up doing genealogy research, it is great to send an email to a fellow genealogy researcher and cousin, who is on the same genealogy quest that I am.

So what new goals have I set for 2015? I have some lofty goals for my genealogy research this year so here are a few:

* Work on taking my passion for genealogy into my primary profession
* Take a writing class
* Write more about my research
* Take a genealogy road trip or two
* Research and learn more about my Vann and Brantley family lines
* Make more DNA connections to help find my enslaved ancestors

I think this is a good start what do you think?