2012 Genealogy Goals

It is the time of year for Resolutions: accessing last year’s resolutions and setting new resolutions for the new year.  I find resolutions to be intimidating. Just the word ‘resolution’ sounds formal and difficult to achieve. I am not trying to form a new government or cure the common cold.

I am, however, setting
Genealogy Goals for 2012.

1.  I will concentrate my genealogy research on my mother’s family, broadening my knowledge of the Coyle, Mullane, Brady and English families in Ireland and the Gardner family in Austria.
2.  Once again I will look through my Nana’s old trunk, my paper & computer files and my photographs for any clues I may have over looked in the past. 
3. I will stay in touch with my cousins connected to these families and try to contact new cousins who may have more bits of information that we can piece together.
4. In order to expand my Irish research I will organize my current findings with a timeline for each family & a list of findings & a list of questions still to be answered.
5. This winter I will visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and search by names and locations for my mother’s family. I have never been there so I plan to research how things work there so I can get the most out of my time.
6. This summer I will go to Ireland and walk where my Irish ancestors walked: going to County Tipperary where the Mullanes lived and to County Cavan where the Coyles lived. Hopefully, the above goals will show me more precisely where I should when I get to Ireland.
7. In the fall I will organize and write my findings.  I plan to publish a book on my mother’s family but that will probably happen in 2013. 
8. All along the way I will use my blog and my website to share my findings and my questions with my family.

I welcome tips for achieving my goals! Do you have tips for Salt Lake City research? Do you know a useful Irish website? Do you have experience in Ireland? Let me know.

Writing down these goals helps me to clarify the direction my genealogy is headed. Plus, the only thing better than making lists is crossing things off those lists and I plan to do lots of crossing off!