Well jeez – if I thought 2020 was the blink of an eye then 2021 was the second blink! This year definitely flew by as well as we continue to grapple with the pandemic. Now, with the Omicron variant making its way through the United States, things seem almost to be heading backwards as the rates continue to climb as 2021 comes to a close.
Fortunately, most of the year felt “normal” – being accustomed to masks and teaching in them, finally being vaccinated in the spring, and still maintaining pandemic protocols has helped me to feel normal as normal can get. With that, came a busy year both at work and with genealogy. As always I like to end my year by reflecting on my goals and seeing where I am at.
You can read my genealogical goals for 2021 as well as my 2020 goal reflection, both linked, to see what I planned for this year and how things previously went in 2020.
Like I have done in the past, I will be answering each goal with “yes”, “some” (didn’t quite fully reach where I wanted) or “no” and explaining where I am with each one.
Genealogical Reflection of 2021
1. CONTINUE MY GENEALOGICAL EDUCATION (WEBINARS, CLASSES, ETC.)
yes
After finishing my Boston University course I swore off all genealogical education for the year… and didn’t last long. I, of course, shortly after decided to explore other options I was interested in after joining a BU Genealogy Alum group on Facebook and hearing about other educational opportunities. That’s how I found ProGen’s 14 month course. Wanting to get started sooner rather than later I decided to sign up because usually there is a waitlist for the course. Luckily however, I was able to snag a slot to begin in February 2021. At this point I am 10-11 months in and rounding the corner to almost finishing which is exciting! I have really enjoyed the program and might post about the comparisons with BU’s program sometime next year (especially as a Puerto Rican genealogist having taken both courses).
I have also taken a ton of webinars this year – at first, I had only taken one webinar in February but then as a part of ProGen’s program for one of the assignments we had to create an outline of action we’d like to take. One of mine was watching the FamilySearch RootsTech videos I was interested in. So finally in October I buckled down and created a plan to watch as many as I could throughout the next months. So far I’m at 15 webinars! I still have some left I want to watch as well before the year is out!
2. Post more on my blog – ideally twice a month
some
Like every year, the same seems to happen to me – I start posting and then fall off. I made an entire plan to post each month and this is what came out of it:
January- 1/2
February- 2/2
March- 2/2
Abril- 0/2
May- 0/2
June- 0/2
July- 0/2
August- 0/2
September- 1/2
October- 3/2
November- 2/2
December- 2/2
Granted, from January-April I was still facing health issues while from June-August I was away all summer at an immersive French program. So in the end I only got five months with two posts and two months with one post each. I got 13 posts out of it which isn’t half bad. I definitely want to continue trying to post twice a month and will continue with my whiteboard at home to stay on track!
3. AIM TO GET 25 SUBSCRIBERS TO MY NEW BLOG (.COM)
Yes
I am very happy to have accomplished this goal because even though I didn’t get a chance to publish over the summer, people are still interested in what I have to blog about – thanks/gracias to everyone that follows my posts! So far, I have 48 subscribers and can’t wait to continue to grow this number.
4. Try to publish an article via one of my genealogical societies
NO
My main goal was to publish for the Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía. However, after joining ProGen I realized there was still a lot I had to learn. So though I didn’t get a chance to publish yet, I have written an article which I hope to submit in January of my ancestors that came from Martinique and Guadeloupe to Puerto Rico. I wrote the article in Spanish since I figured that way it will reach the audience in a language I don’t usually get to via my blog post. If all goes well and the article is accepted, I hope that it will come out in one of next year’s publications. I’ll keep you all posted!
5. Cast a wider net of DNA profiles
NO
Given the pandemic and my goal #6, I am not too upset that I did not get to accomplish this, and mainly because… money! There’s still a lot of uncertainty with the pandemic and sinking money into potential unnecessary DNA cousins for me at the moment seemed like a lot. Though I am still interested in targeting certain lines in my tree, I guess I will have to wait until things settle down a bit.
I did reach out to one potential person but they never got back to me and so I held off unless I thought it was absolutely necessary, which for most of them I did not. Instead I completed goal #6 (twice) which definitely required money.
6. Reach out to French genealogists about research in the Notarial Archives
YES
I am excited that I was able to accomplish this goal! Over the summer and in the beginning of the fall I hired Mickaël Mange, a French genealogist, to complete research on my Martinican and then Guadeloupean ancestors in France. Via the research I learned a bit more about Eglantine being sold as a slave and the family that owned her, Julienne, and Pauline (both daughters of Eglantine).
You can read about my discoveries here and if you’re interested in hiring a genealogist and want to learn more you can check out another post here.
There is probably still more to learn/search for in the French notarial records, but for now I am happy with what was found.
7. Continue modifying/fixing/adding to my blog
soMe
Though I did not do much maintenance on my blog, I added a few plug-ins that in the back-end give me more information about searches, queries, numbers, etc. in regards to my blog. I also count writing on my blog as “adding” to it which as you read earlier I got to do 13 times. I have not modified much else on the “front-end” of the blog since I do not think much needs to change. There are a few things I would like to do like upgrade to a better logo and fix up some of the pages’ layouts with minute things that probably are only bothering me. But first I’d have to do some research to fix those small quirks I haven’t been able to fix just yet!
8. Give a lecture, be a volunteer, etc. as a genealogist
yes
I was not sure I was going to be able to complete this one given COVID, but with the power of Zoom I was able to give my first two presentations. One was to a genealogical society in Texas back in the spring and the second presentation was to a public group from a New Jersey Public Library in the fall. Both presentations had to do with beginner genealogical searches in regards to Puerto Rico and so I covered basic things like the Registro Civil, Registro Parroquial, the use of Ancestry and FamilySearch and seasoned some information about the Registro Central de Esclavos, Archivo Histórico de Puerto Rico, Archivo General de Puerto Rico which are more advanced level of research.
It felt good giving a presentation about Puerto Rican genealogy and I hope I can do more of it in the future!
9. Read more genealogical books
NO
I’m actually surprised I did not get to complete this goal – I usually read a few books here and there about genealogy. Yet, at the same time I haven’t read as much as I wanted to this year either. With little time outside of work and being a part of a book club already, I don’t get to read too many books I’d like on my own.
Granted I am reading the “Professional Genealogy” textbook for ProGen so I can count that one!
10. Investigate a few of my maternal haplogroups and their paper trails
YES
At first glance I thought I hadn’t accomplished this goal but then I quickly realized I did! Recently, with the help of the church records from San Sebastián I was able to research one of my 2nd great-grandmothers on my mom’s side. With the church records I was able to discover/confirm three generations of women all who are on my great-grandfather’s maternal haplogroup line of U5b1b1b – a relatively young line that seems to have begun on the Iberian Peninsula, according to 23andme. Likely a woman immigrated from Spain to Puerto Rico on this line and then daughtered out with my great-grandfather. Right now, it seems I’m stuck again with the paper trail – though I’m happy I was able to discover information given that I had none for a long time.
I also recently found a death record for a 4th great-grandmother on my mom’s side of the family which brings that family to the late 1700s, she belongs to a branch that has an indigenous haplogroup!
And as always there’s still a lot to discover!
Saludos, any chance either of your first two presentations were recorded and available for viewing? This might be good to post on your website for us beginner genealogist to get started.
Feliz navidad y prospero año nuevo!
Alfredo
Hi Alfredo, great point! I’ll see if I have permission to share the video from the library and then add a section for people to easily find it on the homepage! ¡Feliz Navidad y próspero año nuevo!