google-site-verification: google65e716d80989ba07.html Open Thread: What are Your Genealogy Goals for 2011? | The Armchair Genealogist

Open Thread: What are Your Genealogy Goals for 2011?

With the New Year only hours away, I can’t help but set my sights on what genealogy adventures I wish to accomplish this New Year. I love setting new goals and making fresh starts. Like the start of any good game, all things seem possible.

Therefore, as cliché as it may sound to make New Year’s resolutions, it can be a successful tool to achieving your genealogy goals. The key is to set realistic, achievable goals, to write them down and to share them. You are more likely to commit to a goal you have proclaimed publicly.

It is also very rewarding to look back at your year confidently, acknowledging that you smashed a few balls through those goal posts. Therefore, here is my public proclamation of this years genealogy goals.

My Genealogy Goals for 2011

1. This year I’m going to start a new family history book. Last year, I published my Dad’s family history, an accomplishment I am very proud of and over the next 2 years I intent to publish my Mom’s family history.

2. I want to continue to seek out my Irish family history, the Stapleton family continues to intrigue me, and they will be one of my key priorities this year.

3. I’m going to start my husband’s family history, rooted deep in the heart of Italy; I’m looking forward to uncovering his lineage. He currently does not know his ancestors past his grandparents who he never met. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

4. I would like to try to make contact with cousins in Poland, descendents of my great-grandfather's siblings who remained in Poland after he immigrated to Canada.

5. Finally, I’m going to stretch my writing prowess and write a novel. Incorporating my love of genealogy, history and families, my inspiration for this novel is drawn from a family I have spent years researching and it will focus on the the real life struggles and successes of 3 generations of women.

What are Your Genealogy Goals for 2011?