My 2009 Genealogy To-Do List

The theme for the first January 2009 Carnival of Genealogy is New Year's Resolutions. We're supposed to share some of our genealogical and blogging intentions. I am not one to make resolutions at all. However, I will share a few things on my to-do list.

Prepare presentations and meet all deadlines for the 2009 FGS/AGS Conference. I'm doing four presentations. Some of my presentations just need to be revised to meet the audience needs. One is getting a great deal of new content because I'm changing some of the focus. I'll be updating or creating syllabus materials for all of them in the next couple of months so that they are ready when they need them for the conference syllabus.

Work on articles for publication. I'm currently researching a problem that will make a great article. I'm also working with another researcher on a project which we hope to publish. I hope to make good progress on both of these in the next year. I had really hoped to do a lot of work on the problem that I was working on over Christmas break, but my mother's health issues altered my plans. I'm running behind. At least I'll get off to a good start on the one by keeping my research trip to the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh on schedule. I'm not quite as prepared as I would have been had I been able to complete my research in published abstracts in Knoxville before the trip, but I've got a few things to do and can do those now instead of later when my time may be a bit shorter. I do have hopes of completing at least one of these in 2009.

Submit proposals for 2010 conference presentations. The only way I may be able to go to NGS in 2010 is if I'm speaking. It falls in the academic year instead of after it as usual. In fact, it will be fairly close to finals. I don't have the tentative academic calendar with me, and I'm not sure if I've seen it or not. It should be either the week before finals or the week of finals though. I'm really sad about that because it is in Salt Lake City, and I really want to go. I don't really hold out a lot of hope for getting an invitation to present at NGS, but I can try. FGS 2010 is in Knoxville so it's "local."

Attend NGS, FGS, and regional and local conferences, seminars, and workshops. Besides NGS and FGS, I have the registration form for the North Carolina Genealogical Society's Spring Regional Workshop [PDF] ready to fill out. I usually find at least one worth attending in our area as well.

Blog as I find something to blog. I don't like to force posts. There's nothing worse than re-hashing old posts for an entire month. If I don't have something new to say, I just won't say it. I know that I don't like re-reading old posts, and I'm sure my readers don't really want to do that. If a newcomer to my blog comes along, he or she can easily access the old posts through the side links. The posts are there. My blog has never been entirely devoted to genealogy. It's a reflection of my whole person. I've seen other bloggers with multiple blogs for each interest in their life neglect one when they focus on the other. Now I'm sure there are some that manage these successfully, but I am not one of those. I've badly neglected my Mississippi blog since I resigned from USGenWeb a little over fourteen months ago. It probably needs to be buried! I keep hoping to find another blogger with Mississippi genealogical and historical interests to be a co-blogger with me, but it's just not happening. I simply don't have the time to maintain two blogs. Technically I have four, but one is for my class and isn't used much any more except as a demo. The other is our library's, and I'm not the only blogger there although I am the most frequent blogger. I probably won't be making Randy's list of the best of the geneablogs for the week very often because most of the research I'm doing at the moment is intended for publication elsewhere, but I do hope to make it once or twice in the coming year!