My Genealogy Quest

The Stories of our Ancestors past

Get updates!

Subscribe here to receive email notifications on new post, tips, offers,.. so you won't miss any update!

Goals

Reflecting on 2014 and setting Genealogy Goals for 2015

by 23,681 Comments

Blog wordle Goals-2

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?

Reflecting on 2013 and Setting Genealogy Goals for 2014

by 33 Comments

I must say that I ended 2013 off with a bang!  I have had two amazing genealogy things happen just in one day.  I have set some very lofty genealogy goals for myself in this upcoming year and I have also accomplished a few things this past year that I had not even set out to accomplish in the first part of the year.

One of my overall goals that I am continuing to work on is setting goals that I can accomplish even if that means setting them on a smaller scale first so that I can work towards the larger goal.  I think sometimes we fail to realize that we can accomplish many things, if we put a plan in place and and execute the plan methodically and as organized as possible.  I listened to a great audio book over the summer called “Chose yourself” by James Altucher and this year began my decision to “choose myself” on so many different levels.  My passion for genealogy was something I decided that I wanted to revisit and immerse myself in this forever addicting past time.  I always wanted to create a family website and I decided to take the plunge and just do it.  I watched a lot of videos on WordPress and how to build websites and shabang!  I did it!  I also had the great encouragement and resources of the many online community Facebook groups such as African American Genealogy and Slave Ancestry Research (AAGSAR), Our Black Ancestry and Technology for Genealogy.  I strongly recommend joining similar groups when you are on your quest for genealogy resources and support.

So although the website was a great success and accomplishment of 2013 I also had other genealogical successes.  One of the most important messages for me to convey to other African American family historians is that genealogy research can be done.  It may be more challenging, but it is possible.  That is one of the great things about being part of this growing community is that you are able to see the success of others and learn great skills.

I decided over the weekend to go back to the “genealogy basics” so that I can truly be methodical and consistent in my approach and make sure I am not missing anything.  I decided to go back through old records and notes that I did from over 10 years ago and see if there was anything I missed.  Sure enough there were some gaps on data I had not completely gathered between the 1870 and 1940 censuses.  There was also some contact notes that I had from connections I made from a distant great,great cousin.  When I talked to my great,great cousin Geraldine Jackson (Hogan) over 10 years ago she was about 80 years old.  I decided to google her to see if she was still alive and if there would possibly be any other cousins to connect with.  Unfortunately, when I googled her I found out she had recently passed per her obituary, but her obituary gave me the names of her kin.  Sure enough I searched via Facebook and already made a connection and many more to come.  Although one door closed, many more were opened up to connect with this family.

The 2nd thing I decided to do in going back to the “genealogy basics” was to start interviewing my family, starting with all my fathers living brothers and sisters.  The first on my list was my Uncle Buster who carries the namesake of the many Herbert Jackson’s that run through my family.  I would have to say that was one of the best phone calls I had all year!  My Uncle Buster is the oldest of all the kids on my fathers side.  We talked for about and hour and it was the most insightful information that I had ever learned about my uncle.  He told me about his service in the Korean War and how he was drafted and how he was one of the first integrated troops in 1952 as Harry Truman was the President who lead the integration of the military.  Uncle Buster stated, “race didn’t matter when you were in combat, that all went out the window when you are trying to survive”. He was a radio guy and the mountain he was on during battle was referred to as K4FM. He also discussed with me that he had a hard time proving his age when he was drafted because he didn’t have a birth certificate.  He was born at home and Dr. Dick (The physician that delivered him) never registered the birth so he had no birth certificate.  This seemed to be an issue at the time with many men who were drafted and enlisting in the military at the time because during the time of his birth most people were born at home.  The military ended up saying that he was born in 1934 but he said that was incorrect he was born in 1932.

See the following links about the Korean War integration:

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/desegblurb.htm

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/index.php?action=chronology

Uncle Buster

When I was talking to my Uncle Buster, I got a completely different perspective on life that I was not initially seeking, but I am so glad for it.  He has opened the door for me to learn about about my fathers service as well as my other uncle’s service in the military.  What a great gift Uncle Buster has given to me.  I look forward to many more conversations with my Uncle and other family members.

This past year I also reconnected with an uncle on my mother’s side as well as made a connection with a cousin on my maternal side via Ancestry.com.  More blog posts to come from this side as I reconnect with family I have never known.

So 2014 is looking to be an exciting year with my new discoveries.  I hope you all follow and share with me your knowledge on my genealogy quest.  Happy New Year!

IJK

↑ Top of Page