Year End 2020 - Onward to New Challenges

 

The end of this long year has finally arrived! Now is the time to review the goals I set for the year and set new goals for 2021.

I have finished to work to prove my daughter and son’s relationship to their Revolutionary War patriot. It was a long process, but I am proud that I was able to complete it.

Once again, I was part of Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” project to encourage writing regularly. Sadly, my posts were even fewer than last year. I will still belong this year and hope to do better.

As the world changed in March, so did all our lives. Genealogy classes went online and soon we all learned Zoom so we could participate. My local genealogy group began holding their regular monthly meetings on Zoom. National genealogy institutes adapted their classes to Zoom and we could learn from home.

Since March, I have taken eight genealogy classes of various intensity. Some were week-long, held daily from 9 until 5, some were  three hours weekly for 7 to 10 weeks, one meets monthly for a one-year period. All were taught by highly qualified instructors with a firm grasp of the material.

In June I made the decision to become a certified genealogist. I set a timetable for my self and began to implement in. I resigned as program chair for my local genealogy group. I took two institute classes and two virtual classes with the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) and will attend two week-long sessions at SLIG in January. I will also be taking a session at SLIG academy in February that ends in April.

As part of my preparation for submitting my portfolio, I have asked members of my local genealogy group to give me their “brick walls” so I can practice doing Research Reports for clients. I am currently working on the second case of the four I have lined up.

My plan is to spend the time from June 2020 until June 2021 further educating my self and practicing writing client reports. I will also identify the lines for the case study and kinship determination proof. In June 2021 I will submit my application to the Board for Certification of Genealogists and officially “go on the clock”, which will give me until June of 2022 to submit my complete portfolio.

Hey, I just planned not one but two years of genealogy! Now to get cracking.