Making Progress

On By mcphilbrickIn Goals

Did you make New Years resolutions for your genealogy work? Or did you create a list of goals or even smart goals? I’ve found that creating a list of goals helps keep me focus my research. Since the year is half over, it is a good time to check my progress.

Previously, I had researched the descendants of my 3rd great grandparents on my dad’s side of the tree. Thus, one of my main goals for 2022 was to do the same for my 3rd great grandparents on my mom’s side of the tree.

Since I am currently researching the descendants of Ozias Wells, I feel like I’ve made GREAT progress on this goal. Even though I don’t do much ‘searching’ for sources for these descendants, it is still time consuming to work the Ancestry hints.

As I’ve completed this descendancy research and used TreeShare to update my Heartland Genealogy tree on Ancestry, I’m also finding more DNA matches with Common Ancestors identified. In one case, this descendancy research has helped me share information about their Kansas roots with a cousin whose grandmother had moved back east over 50 years ago.

While I’m about finished with my goals to research descendants that leaves the other set of goals: the narrative reports. As I’m rechecking the various facts and sources I’ve accumulated for the men on this list, I’m also taking time to make sure I’ve transcribed any records I’ve collected for them. In some cases, this is revealing holes in my research which sends me on a search for more records.

While I’ve made progress on this list of narrative reports, I still have plenty of work to keep me busy for the second half of 2022. If I should happen to complete these goals before the end of 2022, I already know that my next set of goals will be to research descendants and update narrative reports for my 4th great grandparents. Since my fan chart is fairly complete for this generation, I won’t be lacking for tasks on my to do list for at least a couple of years to come!