Genealogy - personal research - looking back to 2007 and ahead to 2008

Genealogy Goals 2008

2007 - Successes

First, the success in 2007 was finding the passenger listing for my grandparents Iles - first the outbound from England list and then the inbound list to Canada with the information from the first. At the Ontario Genealogical Society conference, attendees had free access to some databases. One was Ancestors on board http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/ Searches are free but to view the records normally costs a fee. This is connected to Find my past http://www.findmypast.com/ Currently in the database are passenger records from 1890 to 1939. You can imagine my excitement when I found my grandfather with his wife and child, his mother and siblings. Once I knew the ship that they had sailed on and the dates, I was able to visit the Library and Archives website and find the record from the Canadian side. I believe that his father, George, came earlier but I still haven't found him on any list. The 1911 Canadian census gives an earlier date for his arrival. Interestingly, my grandparents are shown being born in Ontario, so no year of entry was given in the census. (Makes you wonder who provided the information?)

I spent little time in personal family research this past year. Instead, I completed a history book Churches of Grey Presbytery of the United Church of Canada: Historical Highlights and have worked on a research project concerning soldiers. I will talk more about that in another post.

Goals for 2008

I will divide my research goals into 3 sections. In this posting I will talk only about my personal family research goals. In the other two, I will cover in separate blog postings 1) non-family but my own projects and 2) professional research goals and learning goals relating to genealogy.

Personal Genealogical Research Goals 2008

While putting together a mini-family history for my nephews for Christmas, I discovered a few tasks that need to be done. I put the history together very quickly based on a mini-history I had done in December 2000 but had not been updated since. It was very gratifying putting something together for them. I hope that they enjoy reading the stories that I have included.

Before doing any more new research, some tasks that need to be done are as follows.

1. Enter into my genealogical software, findings from previous research that have not been entered.

2. Re-write the notes field for key members of the family so that they are more readable

3. Clean up citations in the genealogical software

4. Review and analyze the research that I have completed and develop research plans for the next phase of research.

5. Follow up on leads that I have recently discovered and develop research plans for the research.

6. As new information is gained, update the text to the mini-family history so I can produce future editions. Make any corrections to the text that are discovered.

#4 is very important -- analysis of the information

I have two individuals, on my paternal side, who I am really interested in knowing more about -- Emily Pugh and Josiah Dudley. Emily Pugh was born in a workhouse in Gloucestershire, England. Josiah Dudley may also have been born in a workhouse in Warwickshire, England.

I also want to do some scrap-booking.