Mid-Year Review of 2019 Genealogy Goals

My Genealogy Goals for 2019  are to organize my genealogy files, digital and paper.

Several weeks ago Lauren asked me about the progress on my resolution and I thought it would be useful  to review how the Goals are coming along.

It keeps me accountable to accomplishing my goals and lets you know how we all struggle with our genealogy research.

First a quick review. I broke up the process into six steps:

1. Dedicate a  minimum of 2 hours per week on the project. It is important to schedule time for this task.
2. File all of my loose papers that are currently covering multiple surfaces in my home.  
3. Organize my digital files.
• Assign naming scheme to ALL my files. 
• Convert JPEG files into a format that isn't "lossy", such as TIFF. 
• Do this before tackling my paper file folders, so that any papers that I want to scan can go into the newly cleaned up digital folders.  
4. Keep both digital and paper files. L.O.C.K.S.S. - Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe.  I back up my computer files regularly.
5. Tackle my paper file folders. Again, I have created a system that works for me, but it needs to applied to all the file folders.  
6. Clean up my binders (remember #4!) 
• Binders that family members can browse. 
• Updated, and cleaned up
• Using archival materials.

So how are my Genealogy Goals coming along?

1. Dedicate 2 hours per week on the project. I will admit that I don't always get in 2 hours every week. But then there are weeks that I work 4-10 hours on the project, so it evens out. I have gotten distracted several times. A first cousin once removed contacted me about our DNA connection. Since we had lost contact with that branch of the JOHNSON family, I couldn't let that sit. I now have filled in that branch considerably. Several "cousins" were very active on a Facebook page dedicated to the home county. We were comparing notes on what we knew about the many, many, many offspring of our common Great Great Grandfather.
2. The loose papers are filed. And while it seems that I am constantly generating more and more paperwork, I am keeping up with it.
3. Organize my digital files. Oy vey! First, know that I only meant the digital files that comprise my FAMILY HISTORY Research. Not all my photo files from the 90's onward taken with various digital camera devices. But still, I should have evaluated just how many files that encompasses.  Several months into the project, I did an inventory and this is what I discovered: 

Screen shot of my Family History folder on my computer. Each
surname has a folder. Folder names that are all in capital letters
have been "cleaned up."

1. I had over 10,000 files in 30 main folders and 344 subfolders. 
2. The smallest folder, the COCKERELL surname, had only 1 file in it. 
3. My largest folder, the JOHNSON surname, contains 78 subfolders and 3,018 files.
4. Another inventory shows that only 1,403 files have been "cleaned up", or only 14%.

WHEW!

The project suddenly seemed really overwhelming.

Okay, knowing this, maybe it isn't reasonable to get this all done in one year.

But that doesn't mean that I have to give up on my goals.

I will just keep plugging away at it and if I don't get everything done by the end of the year, I won't beat myself up about it.

But I won't stop working on it either...

Since I started this blog last week, I have finished 3 of the 78 sub-folders in the JOHNSON folder...

How are you doing with your 2019 genealogy goals?

DIARY UPDATE

Morgan Andrew's Diary

Since I first posted about the Civil War Diary of Morgan Andrews on December 5th, I have continued transcribing it, and within its pages additional information came to light about Morgan's death.

Morgan Andrew's Civil War Diary

In my previous posting I quoted what I thought were the last entries in the diary that were dated July 6-8 1862, in which Morgan very matter-of-factly says that he isn't feeling well for several days and then blank pages.  The image from the company roster said Morgan died on July 30 in Cumberland Maryland of disease.

Roster of the 84th Regiment, showing that Morgan died of disease.

However, several pages in, the diary continues in someone else's handwriting...

The first entry, under July 21 lists the names of the household where Morgan is being cared for: "Jacob Riser, Cumberland Maryland When (sic) Julia Riser Mary E Riser }Daughters"

July 21st Diary entry. It is not certain that this entry was made on the 21st.

At first, I thought one of the members of the Riser family had undertaken to update Morgan's diary.

But further down, this entry tells a different story:

Diary entry dated 23 July 1862.

It reads in part, "Got to Cumberland 9 P.M. Found M. deranged Continued so untill morning when partly rational   recognized us"...

Got to Cumberland? The Rizers lived in Cumberland they would not have arrived in Cumberland. This is someone else. Recognized us? Who would Morgan recognize?

His family! Someone in Morgan's family had traveled to Cumberland to assist in his recovery. The diary does not give many clues, but since it was had been handed down in his brother Fairman's family, it was most likely Fairman Andrews.

The entries continue for several days as Morgan's condition varied, sometimes giving hope and sometimes offering none, until the final entry:

Morgan died at 2 oclock this afternoon...

The disease that took Morgan's life is never named. It could have been any of a dozen diseases that took the majority of the casualties of the Civil War. Whichever disease it was, it was probably waterborne because in this entry from July 5th...

The July heat in the Washington D.C. area was taking a toll. The young soldiers did not drill and
took the opportunity to bathe in the Potomac River.

Morgan brags, "I swam across 6 times without touching (the bottom)"

Even before the Army camped on it's shore, the Potomac was a foul river as this quote from Wikipedia illustrates:
      "Beginning in the 19th century, with increasing mining and agriculture upstream and urban sewage and runoff downstream, the water quality of the Potomac River deteriorated... It is said that President Abraham Lincoln used to escape to the highlands on summer nights to escape the river's stench"

Particularly at the beginning of the Civil War the importance of proper sanitation measures was not understood. The soldiers would drink from the same water that was used for bathing and as a toilet. Tens of thousands of soldiers died from diseases like typhoid and dysentery as a result.

Morgan was one of them.

2019 Genealogy Goal - Organizing my files.

Here's an update on my 2019 goal of organizing my genealogy files. 2-4 hours each weekend have been dedicated to filing all the many, many papers that were piled in different areas of my house. I was convinced that I was going to conquer this mountain of paperwork. Until...

Sequestered "educational" papers.

I found several "hidden" piles of paperwork; in the bottom of a file drawer, shoved between two shelves and filed in with published histories.  UGH!  Most of the papers were from workshops and conferences that I had attended and covered topics of particular interest to my personal genealogy education. BUT, among those educational papers were family history documents and printouts.

But thanks to a minor snow storm and a quiet Saturday, all the papers have been evaluated, sorted and filed. Whew! That was some marathon session of organizing!

Now, on to my digital files!