If I thought 2019 flew by… then 2020 was literally the blink of an eye! As we all know, the world has been suffering a global pandemic with COVID-19, which I myself unfortunately contracted in mid-April. Given the turbulence of the year and a lot of the uncertainty the year brought (especially as a teacher), I basically had no chance to write on my blog besides one summer post. I wanted to write and publish more, especially now that I actually have a (.com) but unfortunately life got in the way. However, looking over my genealogical goals I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to accomplish a few of them.
You can read my genealogical goals for 2020 as well as my 2019 goal reflection to have an idea of what some of my previous goals were.
Like I have done in previous years, I will be answering each goal with “yes”, “some” or “no” and explaining where I am with each one.
Reflection of Genealogical goals for 2020!
1. Take a Genealogy Course – YES
This was also partially the reason why I had not written once the school year began. I decided to register for the fall semester of Boston University’s Genealogical Certificate Program which ran for 15 weeks and just finished last week. The course was intense (to say the least!), but I really enjoyed it and definitely learned a lot. However, balancing a master’s level course on top of having a full-time job (as a teacher no less where work never really stays in school), was extremely difficult for me to manage at times. There were Saturdays and Sundays that I had to pull 12+ hour research days to complete assignments due, and that’s not counting the discussion boards, readings, virtual/Zoom class, etc. that I was also keep up with throughout the week. Luckily out of four modules so far, I have passed three and I am currently waiting on the last grade for our last module. Fingers crossed that I pass it and obtain the certificate of completion! This is a great step towards become a Certified Genealogist since it taught me a lot about the different steps and abilities one needs in order to become certified. I highly recommend the course, but with the caveat/understanding that it is a highly demanding course and maybe better done in the summer for those that might not work or have a lull in the summer months.
2. Learn/Practice/Better my French – SOME
I was surprised to see that I was able to complete (at least partially) two goals right off the bat! Over the summer I spent some time going over my French textbooks and recently I have been working on Duolingo, completing lessons on grammar and vocabulary. I also applied to an immersion program for the summer, which I am currently waiting to hear back from in regards to financial aid. Given the pandemic and COVID-19, I am not 100% sure that the campus will be open, however, the program is located in a state where COVID-19 measures have been taken quite seriously and the rural-ness of the state has also helped as well. Fingers crossed that I am able to attend (both monetarily and given the pandemic situation), this will greatly help me improve my skills in French given its immersion nature!
3. Get more serious about my platform – SOME
I finally took the leap last/this year and created my own website after many YouTube instructional videos on how to use WordPress. Granted, the site is not at 100% – there are still somethings I need to work on and figure out, but I am happy to say that I have a legit platform now with a (.com) that I can use to grow my followers and continue to inform others about Puerto Rican genealogy. My goal is that now that I have gotten some time back since I have finished my genealogy course, I am hoping to dedicate some more time to learning how to better my usage of my website and continue blogging. I am hesitant to stick with a goal but I wonder if writing bi-monthly (twice a month) is possible?
4. Revisit my lines from Toa Alta, Puerto Rico – NO
I have not gotten a chance to get to this (see reflection #1!), however I know this is something I will research again at some point. I am hoping to revisit the Toa Alta church records and see what I might have missed the first time around, before I paid attention to godparents’ names and the consanguinity listed in marriage records. For example, recently looking at one of my lines in Toa Alta I noticed that my 5th great-grandmother’s siblings married cousins meaning they had to receive permission from the church in order to marry. However, given that the marriages occurred before 1844 the dispensas are likely not available in the records of San Juan, but knowing that there are cousins tied to other branches will hopefully ultimately give me more information on my own branch and track how these branches married each other in Toa Alta and hopefully find common cepas (lineages) like my Rivera branch which seems to have been in Toa Alta for at least 300+ years but currently not matching other Riveras on FtDNA.
5. Catalog/Keep track searched FamilySearch Films – SOME
In some recent searches I have begun to catalog the films I have looked over via Google Docs and this is something I need to continue doing. In the genealogy course we learned about research logs and the importance of using them so now I hopefully have a better idea and system as to how I can go about tracking which films, surnames, and years I have researched. My plan is to keep everything on my Google Drive, that way when I travel I can continue to use them without having to worry about where the documents are originally stored.
6. Continue note-taking throughout my tree – YES
Looking back at this goal I feel like this was a bit of a cheap goal, but in reality I need to “upgrade” this goal and transfer whatever notes I have on my Ancestry tree over to a Google Document instead of just erasing them. We also learned about negative findings in the course, the process of coming up empty handed when researching, and this is still important to keep documented somewhere in case you ever decide to look at the films again. So though I keep notes on my Ancestry tree, those notes then need to be stored somewhere permanently in case a mistake was made and can easily be backtracked. I have mistakenly researched branches with similar names, dates, and in the same town but ultimately had been someone else – having the notes of what/who I had searched for will be helpful in retracing those steps and correcting my tree.
7. Cast a wider net with DNA cousin profiles – NO
Given the pandemic, I decided to not invest further in DNA testing this year. Given the uncertainty of everything, it was important I penny pinched a bit this year in case things went south. Now that a vaccine has been created and hopefully things will start looking up for the world, I can begin considering how I want to cast my net for DNA cousins. There have been a few cousins who have tested and I have been able to identify – but none in the area that I was specifically looking for which is my paternal grandfather’s side of the family.
8. Find a maternal mitochondrial descendant of Eglantine Lautin – NO
This one is an extremely difficult goal, but one that I do not want to give up on! I have identified some potential cousins from this line (maybe only one or two), with whom I have communicated and offered to pay for the test but I have been left on read (no responses to my inquiries). Which I totally understand given the bad rap genetic testing got for a bit. However, with mtDNA testing, this is a bit different than autosomal DNA since it is only tracking one specific line. I will continue searching for a descendant and see who is willing to help see what we can find out about Eglantine Lautin!
9. Try out/learn more Puerto Rican recipes – SOME
At the beginning of the lockdowns back in March, with a two week spring break and nowhere to go, I tried my hand at some different recipes – not all of them Puerto Rican though. However, I was able to try a few recipes from my grandmother such as arepas con bacalao guisado, empanadas, and flan – all except the empanada dough from scratch. I did also make some 包子 baozi (Chinese pork buns) and some Хачапури xhachapuri (Georgian cheese bread). I’ll put some pictures below for those of you interested in seeing how they came out – I was fairly proud of my products and they were delicious as well 🙂
10. Try to crack the mystery of the Orozco/Santana branch – NO
This is another mystery that is definitely going to be hard to crack. Currently, no record points to a father for Benito Orozco with the surname of “Santana” since he was born out of wedlock, however there was a hint of a pair of godparents named Blas Orozco and Hermenegilda Santana – however I did not get a chance to research them this year. I will need to combine my goals above of note taking and tracking to make sure I have done thorough research on this! It is going to be a hard one to crack but it will be worth it if I can get a working hypothesis of potential couples or even Santana men in the area who could have been Benito’s father. Only time will tell!
Very nice goals. I will begin to create a few soon.