Me getting ready to bobsled! It's almost two weeks into the new year and I haven't posted an assessment of my genealogy accomplishments / failings in 2014. I looked back at this post from last January, in which I propose five main goals for the year. Unfortunately, I only accomplished two of those goals: I scanned more family photos from my parents' house and I took a trip to the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
In all honesty, the photo scanning happened towards the end of the year, AFTER an entire section of my parents' home flooded due to a broken pipe. The room where the photos were kept WAS affected, but by a miracle they were unharmed. That event motivated me to do it, though.
I took a two-day trip to Ft. Wayne, during which time I was able to collect some good information about my husband's side of the family. However, the library did not have any new information related to my family. In January of last year, I couldn't have imagined that I was going to visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. However, since my husband took a business trip out there in May, I tagged along and spend about 2.5 days doing some great microfilm research on both my and my husband's ancestors. (Oh, and we also went to Olympic Park and went bobsledding!)
I attended four seminars / conferences in 2014. In March, I attended full-day seminars with Thomas W. Jones and Cyndi Ingle, the former at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland and the latter at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis. In June, I attended an Italian Genealogy seminar sponsored by the Cleveland Italian Ancestry Organization (CIAO) and the Western Reserve Historical Society. And then in August, I attended the Midwestern Roots Conference in Indianapolis.
In terms of blogging, I published 74 posts on The Spiraling Chains, which was down from 2013 when I published 93 posts. However, I attribute that decrease to the extra time I spent building my new blog, Growing Little Leaves. Last January, I had no idea or intention of creating a blog about helping children learn family history. But when I get an idea in my head, I move fast, and the blog was up and running by mid-February. Overall, I've been happy with the positive feedback I've received regarding Growing Little Leaves, and I'm grateful that the Indiana Historical Society has given me a chance to share my ideas with others through programs and presentations. One of my major goals for this year is to continue to come up with fun, new, hands-on family history activities and worksheets for young children and to share them via my blog and new website, GrowingLittleLeaves.com.
©2015 Emily Kowalski Schroeder
In all honesty, the photo scanning happened towards the end of the year, AFTER an entire section of my parents' home flooded due to a broken pipe. The room where the photos were kept WAS affected, but by a miracle they were unharmed. That event motivated me to do it, though.
I took a two-day trip to Ft. Wayne, during which time I was able to collect some good information about my husband's side of the family. However, the library did not have any new information related to my family. In January of last year, I couldn't have imagined that I was going to visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. However, since my husband took a business trip out there in May, I tagged along and spend about 2.5 days doing some great microfilm research on both my and my husband's ancestors. (Oh, and we also went to Olympic Park and went bobsledding!)
I attended four seminars / conferences in 2014. In March, I attended full-day seminars with Thomas W. Jones and Cyndi Ingle, the former at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland and the latter at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis. In June, I attended an Italian Genealogy seminar sponsored by the Cleveland Italian Ancestry Organization (CIAO) and the Western Reserve Historical Society. And then in August, I attended the Midwestern Roots Conference in Indianapolis.
In terms of blogging, I published 74 posts on The Spiraling Chains, which was down from 2013 when I published 93 posts. However, I attribute that decrease to the extra time I spent building my new blog, Growing Little Leaves. Last January, I had no idea or intention of creating a blog about helping children learn family history. But when I get an idea in my head, I move fast, and the blog was up and running by mid-February. Overall, I've been happy with the positive feedback I've received regarding Growing Little Leaves, and I'm grateful that the Indiana Historical Society has given me a chance to share my ideas with others through programs and presentations. One of my major goals for this year is to continue to come up with fun, new, hands-on family history activities and worksheets for young children and to share them via my blog and new website, GrowingLittleLeaves.com.
©2015 Emily Kowalski Schroeder
