Start....Week 1

On the suggestion of my fellow genealogy-obsessed cousin, I decided to try the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  This challenge involves blogging about all the genealogy I have been researching and compiling the last two years.  If the research doesn't get out of my computer and to my family (or to people who care), why do all this research?  

I love the idea of publishing on a blog and sharing with my family new tidbits I discover. I did create one blog post a couple years ago and have not done it since.  Why you ask?  It's a personal thing. I like to do things linearly and in order; however, as I have discovered in genealogy, you don't always find everything about an ancestor in order.  You constantly feel as if you have exhausted all sources only to find a bunch of new information when you stumble across a new cousin or new website. I think I keep waiting to publish stuff after I am ready, organized and feel like I know EVERYTHING about an ancestor.  I NEED TO LET THAT GO!  I just need to start!  Start.  There I said it!  Just start!  Who knows where this will lead.  I don't have to know where I'm going with this thing.  Just start!  

As you do more and more research, you realize you would have loved to talked to each family member and get some first-hand knowledge from them before they passed away.  You start feeling like you know some of them personally, even though you didn't and there is so much more you could have understood if you could have just talked to them or read their journals.  This revelation reminds me that I need to just start getting down the stories and not be so obsessed about being ready.  If I had a diary to read that my great-great-grandmother wrote 100 years ago, I wouldn't be able to put it down. I would say I hit genealogy gold!  This inspires me to make 2018 year a year of writing down the stories.  If I don't write them down, who will?  If for no other reason, I need to do this so that my great-great-great grandchildren will be able to say they hit geology gold in 100 years!

I have high aspirations to start blogging about my research, and I want to stick with it.  I don't want to say it's a New Year's Resolution, but rather it's a start.  If I skip a week, I need to just pick up and blog the next week. Don't sweat it, just restart!  So get ready to learn about your ancestors, discover the stories I went through to find the facts, and hopefully fall in love with your family!