In the blink of an eye, here we are closing out another year! It is a bit surreal to think that 2024 is coming to a close and that 2025 is just around the corner. As I do every year, I want to close out the year by reflection on my genealogical goals I set for myself back in the beginning of 2024. This is my sixth year doing these which is awesome to see that I have continued this “tradition” for so long and honestly it does help me focus on keeping myself on task with what I want to accomplish. So let’s get to it!
Genealogical Resolutions of 2024
1. Get on the BCG Clock
No
This one is a no and I am not too surprised. I have had quite a few changes in my life with work and moving back to the United States that this goal fell to the wayside. Now that I am back to working full-time (which I will talk about in a bit), I do not have that much time to work on my own genealogy which I do want to get back to. I also feel like the more time I spend away from BCG, the more I forget… so I definitely need to get back to attempting to get my portfolio done!
2. Research in Andalucía, Spain
SOME
I did not get to spend as much time researching as I wanted to in Andalucía; however, I did get to go back to San Juan del Puerto and get some research done at the local church. I also went to Huelva and was able to find some marriage dispensation records dealing with consanguinity which was cool to see. With these records I was able to learn more about a line from a town where the books were lost due to the Civil War. I published two posts based around the south of Spain.
Related post(s):
3. Understand more about genetic Endogamy
SOME
Over the course the year I did look at some webinars dealing with DNA; however, I don’t think I am better at understanding genetic endogamy. It’s definitely a deep topic to understand especially when DNA itself is no walk in the park. I think the only way I will understand this is by “doing” – taking my results and comparing them with other DNA cousins and trying to find out how we are related. The main issue with this is finding someone who is equally as dedicated to finding our mutual ancestor which has always been the case for me. Since genetic endogamy influences how far someone is actually related to you versus it actually appears – it is difficult to convince some genetic cousins to do the dirty work of rooting out the actually line we match on.
4. Continue learning Catalan
YES
I have not been able to study Catalan as intensively like how I did when I was in Spain, but I have kept up with it through music, podcasts, and following Catalan-speaking Instagram accounts. I would like to find some more time to sit down again and study from my textbook, as well as using Duolingo to keep up with the vocabulary and grammar. I inquired about an online course in the late winter-early spring 2025 so we will see if it pans out. I would love to continue learning the language and get to the point that I can have conversations in it.
Related post(s):
5. Attend a genealogical conference in person
NO
Unfortunately, the one conference I thought was going to occur in person actually occurred virtually. I was slated to attend the APG Professional Management Conference this past fall in person but it was announced that it would happen online. Which I totally understand for people who are APG members and live around the world, but I was not able to fulfill this goal. There are other conferences out there I would like to attend; however, I find that a lot of the conferences are heavily American concentrated (makes sense) and for someone like me with an internationally focused genealogical area, I don’t feel like I will benefit too much from very specific courses on say Irish ancestors, U.S. land records, etc. Granted, you can always learn about methodology and that’s what I hope to find . I am still hopeful about attending a conference in person so maybe for 2025 and if not definitely in 2026.
Related post(s):
6.Get paid for a genealogy event
YES
Now that I am back in the United States, I can focus on giving chats based around my genealogical specialty – Latin American and Caribbean genealogy. I was fortunate to give three chats this past fall, one through my job and two through my own accord. From the latter two, one was for a genealogical society and the other was for a public library here in New York. It was fun being able to speak about my passion and I hope I can continue to do this from time to time.
7. Reach 25 hours for APG's "continuing education"
SOME
I hope to finish this goal by the end of the year but currently I am at 18.15 hours of “Continued Education”. Technically you only need 12 hours of continued education but I do try to push myself to watch more webinars and take advantage of all the material that is out there. Also, since I can pick and choose what I want to watch, when I want, I get as general or as granular as I want (if it’s available). For example, this year I have watched webinars on Haitian genealogy, DNA, Laws in the Spanish Indies, and the challenges of endogamy of Jewish genealogy. I am hoping that in the next week I will watch some more webinars to round out my 25 hours.
8. Complete at least two elements of the BCG Portfolio
NO
This goal was tied to my first one of getting on the clock and since I have not gotten on the clock I also have not completed any parts of my portfolio. I will say I have some of them organized with what I need to research, which families I want to study, and what resources I will need to get my hands on to complete them; however, I have not actively started writing any part of my portfolio. This is definitely something I want to get done but I will need to be super disciplined about it!
9. Look for genealogy jobs
YES
This is probably the coolest accomplishment of all my goals. I started working as a full-time genealogist this year! I currently work for a genealogical company doing research on the international team, specifically focused on research dealing with the Romance languages (right now mainly in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). Though I am not a speaker of Italian and Portuguese, my knowledge of Spanish is strong enough for me to be able to read genealogical documents, analyze them, and extract information in these languages in order to complete my research (I also have previous research experience with these languages). It has been pretty surreal doing this 8 hours a day and I am very excited in my development as a professional (and corporate) genealogists.
10. Begin planning a trip to Guadeloupe and Martinique
SOME
This goal is definitely a long haul goal, but I have gotten some things “down on paper”. I have started researching some museums and memorials to visit on the islands whenever I come across something online. I also would like to find places that would show me what life was like on the islands during the time my ancestors would have lived there. Though this is not related to this goal, reading more books about Martinique and Guadeloupe will be helpful as well.
Final Score
Here is the final score of goals broken down into “yes”, “some”, and “no”. Overall, it is fairly balanced out.
YES: 3
SOME: 4
NO: 3
I am not sure if I want to make my goals a bit more “bite-size” for next year. A few of them like goal #1 or goal #8 were pretty big goals looking back at it – especially considering life itself. So this is something I will be thinking about in the next two weeks, how I want to divide up my goals and how I want to approach them. Let’s see what 2025 has in store!