Climbing My Family Tree

First of all, I’d like to look back on last year’s goals and see what I accomplished in 2011 (and in many cases, what I didn’t accomplish!):

1. DAR Membership: I think that I have finally gathered all of my needed documentation.  I now need to print out my information on the fancy paper, send my application in, and keep my fingers crossed that I get approved!! I was close to getting my DAR paperwork finished.  I made copies of needed documents.  Then we moved from Savannah to El Paso and I put it on the back burner.  I attended a DAR meeting here in El Paso a couple of months ago, and I plan on pursing this before we move yet again in June.
2. I plan on getting a month-long Genline membership and working on my Swedish roots for a while. The records here are great and I know that there are ancestors just waiting to be found!  I didn’t get a Genline membership, because Ancestry ended up having the Swedish records I needed.  I worked on my Swedish line for about a month last year, especially tracing the life of my great-great grandfather, Carl Magnus Klarstrom and his children.
3. Get John Edwards’ Civil War Pension File.  I’ve just sent a letter to the VA and am hoping that I receive a response sometime in 2011!!  I may need to  call and remind them that I’m waiting.  It’s been about 8 years since I originally ordered it from the NARA and I WANT THAT PENSION!! I won’t take no for an answer.  I just FINALLY received the pension in the mail a few days ago.  I’ll be posting about that later this week.
4. Find out what happened to Ella Jane Hattery (my 2nd great grandmother).  I need to do some serious research on her.  I am going to try tracking down some living relatives that might be able to answer some of my many questions about her very interesting life. I made a little headway on my very elusive great-great grandmother.  I found a couple of more marriages for her, but I still don’t know when or where she died.  I’m hoping that the 1940 census will give me some much needed clues this year.
5. Find out what part of Kentucky John Robertson was from.  I need to take the information I learned about researching common names and apply it to this problem.  Searching for John Robertson in Kentucky, before 1850 is going to be difficult, but I think that I can do it! I found out that John Robertson is most likely from Breckenridge County, KY.  Still need to pursue this though.
6. Attend the NGS Conference in May and learn a lot of new things to help me in my research. I went to the NGS Conference in Charleston and had a blast!!
7. Write out my children’s birth stories, before they end up being distant memories. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get around to doing this.
8. Interview my parents about their early lives – and actually take notes or record them this time. Nope.
9. Start researching my brother-in-law’s family in earnest.  I’m excited about doing some Italian research! I did begin research on my brother-in-law’s line and it’s been a lot of fun starting with some new names.
10. Contact my Papa’s 2 living siblings.  See if they might have any old pictures or stories they are willing to share. No.
11. Find out how to access the Leavenworth County, KS probate records and order/search for John C. Davidson’s will (and other Davidson family members also). I found that the probate records are available through the Family History Library and I’m hoping to order them at my local Family History Center. 
12. Talk my husband into taking another genealogy-related trip somewhere.  Maybe back to Virginia?  New Jersey?  Missouri?  Iowa? I’m not sure where yet.   We’re moving to El Paso this summer and we’ve decided that we’re stopping in Maine on the drive over.  We are the only people I know that could possibly fit Maine into a trip from Georgia to Texas. The possibilities for genealogical stops are endless…  I did manage another genea-trip.  I went to Woolwine, Va and found my ancestors’ gravestones.  Then I did research in Washington, Keokuk, Mahaska, and Ringgold counties Iowa. 
13. Do a cemetery census of the Ulrich Cemetery in Douglas County, KS.  Take pictures of all of the stones and rubbings where necessary. I guess I ultimately failed in this goal.  I went to the cemetery and took pictures of my husband’s ancestors’ gravestones.  I also took pictures of many of the other stones in the cemetery, but I didn’t to a census of the entire cemetery.
14. And finally (and this is a huge one) get all of the info I have in my big Rubbermaid container actually entered into my computer program so that I don’t waste my precious time by searching for it again. It didn’t happen, but I have started.  I’ve been scanning and then entering in data and will continue until it’s done!

And here are my goals for 2012 (some will be last year’s goals that I didn’t finish):

1. Scan, scan, scan.  I want to get all of my documents (including about 10 Civil War pensions) digitized.
2. Enter, enter, enter.  I also need to get all of those documents entered into Legacy.
3. DAR membership.  I hope to get this done before we move from El Paso.  If not, then I will get started on it at our next duty station.
4. Write out each of my children’s birth stories.
5. Interview my parents, my husband’s parents, and my aunts and uncles to glean further family stories and details about relatives I never met.
6. Continue researching my brother-in-law’s family and be able to give him a nice report on his line by next Christmas.
7. Put together a “book” for family about the descendants and ancestors of Nicanor Gonzalo Sanchez-Tereso.
8. Make another genea-trip this year.  This is all going to depend on where we’re moving to in June (and we wont’ know where we’re going for a few months).  I will most likely make a stop along the way if I can.  Places I’d like to go: Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, New York, or maybe even Salt Lake City.
9. Attend local genealogy meetings regularly.
10. Find out what happened to my great-great grandmother, Ella Jane Hattery.  Hopefully the 1940 census will give me some clues.
11. Keep up with my genea-blogging on a regular basis.
12. Organize my digital pictures and documents.  Make back-ups of them.  Share them with family.
13. Start a research log and fill it throughout the year.
14. Continue to work on my Swedish line – search through the parish records to find further ancestors.
15. Attend a conference of some sort – that will all depend on where we’re living and if I have child care. 🙂
16. Become a Find a Grave volunteer and take some pictures for people who request it.
17. Do some indexing on FamilySearch.

I think that sounds like enough to keep me busy this year!!