Welcome all to 2013!

Another year has passed and I am thrilled to have made so much progress on various lines—largely inspired by maintaining this blog.  I have challenged myself searching out different (fabulous and informative) record types including trying DNA testing for the first time (more coming on that soon). I have hit a point where I have to use my almost non-existent German to work on one of my maternal lines (though I’m not quite out of the country yet). As for trips… it’s been mostly short hops though one was out of the country to learn more about the Alison’s and their allied families. And my professional clear has started to blend into my genealogy as I started co-teaching genealogy classes for my library. All that and I have met new friends and gotten to know some better over this endeavor.

And as I noted this time last year it’s the perfect time for a little goal-setting and I have a few in mind:

I will be doing Saturday research at the Archives of Michigan—when my job permits me—and you should too! Starting January 5th the Archives will be open 10 am – 4 pm. I have had fabulous success with the Archives and found (more often than not) that they had a resource I thought I had to travel farther to get.  If you live in the area please consider supporting the Archives efforts to increase accessibility.

My Roadtrip wish list is long and varied but I’m eyeing trips to ACPL‘s Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, the Burton Historical Collection in Detroit, and back to Fort Wayne in the Fall for FGS 2013.

My current research focuses are Dad’s African-American line and Mom’s German ancestors—which I have come to find equally hard to research just based on regular name variations. So, in the back of my mind Arkansas or Ohio/Pennsylvania field trips are being planned as well.

Plus, I’ll continue doing a little presenting. I have been asked to continue our genealogy classes at my library and will be presenting on African American research at WMGS’s February meeting.

I’ll keep up the posts and let you all know what I’m working on.

Happy Hunting!

Jess