My October Genealogy To Do List

Yesterday I wrote about my new strategy to get through my genealogy to-do list: Post it on this blog. Today I am posting my October to-do list.

I still haven't quite remembered how much I can get done during the school year. Since my schedule changes weekly, I never know how much time I will have. Even when I think I have a day off, it can become an afternoon of work pretty quickly. So this was something that I struggled with while compiling my to-do list for October. What can I realistically get done?

The other thing I struggled with was prioritizing between what I want to do and what I need to do. I've been working hard on fixing my source citations and reanalyzing my sources to find more clues about my family history. I was able to finish my EISWERTH line yesterday. I want to start my ECK line, but I really need to address the bookmarks that I have amassed and also the items in my to-file folder on my computer.

So here is my list for October:

• Deal with the bookmarks. Get through all the MATTHEWS family bookmarks and try to tackle the rest.
• Start to go through the "to-file" folder. Deal with any items for the already reanalyzed SUCKLING and EISWERTH lines.
  
• Complete new University of Toronto - National Institute for Genealogical Studies course: US: Probate Records.
• Order death certificates from England for John ELVEY and his wife Ann.
  
• Work in Vevay Newspaper Index. Complete a year a week (4 years: 1878-1881).
• Attend Military Symposium at Allen County Public Library on October 9&10.
• Attend International Black Genealogy Pre-Conference at ACPL on October 29.
• Attend Scrapbooking (for genealogy) at ACPL on October 17.

One of the challenges this month is that it is family history month, which means I will be spending more time than normal at ACPL. I will have to make sure that I don't do "too much" research there and create more work for myself.

I also created some longer term to-do lists.

By the end of November I need to:

• Finish compiling coffee table book for my grandfather's WWII photos so that family can order them for Christmas.

By the end of the year I want to:

• Finish sourcing ECK line.
• Get through all bookmarks.
• Get through to-file folder.

I am hoping that once I get through my resourcing project I will be better organized and not have so many virtual piles of stuff to go through. Once I finish the ECK line, I'll be half way done. (I have two binders for my hard copies and the BASCOM line takes up one on its own.) Hopefully by the end of 2010, I'll have figured out how to keep everything organized. (Yeah, I know. I don't think so either.)