I’m what one might consider a Seasonal Hobbyist. From family history to crochet, reading to making art, journaling to blog posting, there is a definitive ebb and flow to my interests and capacity. This is due, in part, to the fact that I am work-at-home mom who farms full time and homeschools our 10 year old. So, my hobbies, the little extra activities I enjoy, take a back seat seasonally, depending on what my farm and family need.

With November upon us, recent sicknesses behind us, and a few months of more indoor time than outdoor time ahead of us, I’m focusing on getting organized around my general creativity goals as well as my specific family history goals while remaining realistic about how time is an illusion and capacity is ever changing, depending on the day and the world around us all ;-)

So, with my new desk/work space all set up, hot tea in my mug on repeat, and inspiration whispering in my ear, I’ve decided to set a few family history goals for myself for the months ahead and share them here for accountability:

1. Scan 30 pages of my Grandma Eve’s memoir each week. This may seem like a simple task but my scanner is a one-page-at-a-time gig and many of the pages of her memoir, The Glass Hatchet, are brittle and fragile (written about 40 years ago) so each page is it’s own experience. It is not an option to simply plop this heirloom in a fancy copy feeder and have it handled in 15 minutes.

   In total, the memoir is roughly 400 pages long and is a mix of typed and handwritten pages. I intend to use a program to transcribe the handwritten pages into typed pages and fix any mistakes this creates eventually. For now the goal is to simply get it all scanned so there’s not only one copy in existence.

   If I can keep up this schedule (taking into consideration the time suck of the holiday crunch), I aim to have the first scanning stage complete by the end of February 2024.

2. Organize and label all digital photos currently on my computer. This should be a rather simple task as it is largely done. However, there are a few photos and files that I’ve dumped in a general folder that need to be properly taken care of.

   I aim to complete this task by the end of November.

3. Label all remaining photos in Black Box. A couple of years ago I took many of the random photos I had floating about and put them in an archival box, filed by family group and person. As with the digital files, many of these have already been labelled, but I know I still have some solid work to do.

   I’d like to complete this task by the end of December.

4. Cross reference all current digital photos with photos in the Black Box, ensuring they exist in both places. Most of these have been scanned into digital files but I know there are some that slipped through the cracks. As I work on labelling the physical photos, it should be easy enough to cross reference and identify missing scans.

   In tandem with Task #3, I’d like to complete this task by the end of December.

5. Remove all remaining photos from albums to scan, properly label (physically and digitally), and store them safely. If I have completed Tasks 2 - 4 and am on track with Task 1, this final task will be my stretch goal as we slide into 2024 as it’s a bit of a beast. There are hundreds of photos to tackle and I may not complete them all this Winter, but I’d like to try.

   Since this is a stretch goal, I’m going to give myself a bit of flexibility here and say that I aim to get 25 photos fully scanned and labelled each week in January and February. ~Nine weeks would then give me 225 more photos preserved and labelled than I have right now. I’d be happy with that start, but truth be told, I’d be happy to just get 25 done and get over this hump I’ve been tripped up on for far too long.

You can read more about how to best label your photos in this post.

With all of this work, I’d be remiss in mentioning that I’ve also set a calendar reminder for the 1st and 15th of every month to back up all of my family history files to zip drives in addition to what backs up on The Cloud. Call me crazy, but I’m a bit old school in that I like to have something tangible in my hands to believe the digital files exist and can be accessed quickly and when needed if anything were to happen to my computer.

To be honest, now that I’ve written this all down, it kinda feels like a lot, but I’m excited to dive in and see how far I can get. Each of these tasks has been weighing on me considerably and one step at a time is the only way to start.

Wish me luck!

Do tell, have you set some family history goals for yourself this season? I’d love to hear all about them if you have!

Onward,

Melis