Six weeks since my last post. Numerous tests, three operations and now into a weekly chemotherapy routine and a new look. Fortunately the future looks positive although the path there is long and tough. I'm still managing to do most things although I do seem to be sleeping more.
Thanks to everyone who have sent virtual cards, hugs and kisses and to all those who have visited and left chocolates, flowers, books, tea towels, procrastinator pencils, a worry doll and crystals. You have all made the last two months much easier.
Blogs
I haven't written anything but as my treatment will span 12 months, I have given a lot of thought to a new personal challenge. For years I have been gradually reducing my paper research, scanning photos and certificates, writing draft family histories and organising my digital records. But always in fits and starts because I get bored or something else hijacks my priorities.
My illness has made me focus again on what happens to my research in future - no one in the family wants it. Therefore I need to get it all into a more manageable and accessible format. Books, magazines, paper files, photographs, albums, memorabilia, erecords, emails, digital family histories and of course the genealogy database.
To keep me on track over the next 12 months, the plan is to do a monthly blog on my progress with the end goal that all my research will be in a more portable format to pass onto others. How hard can that be? First task - to think up a catchy title for the blog challenge.
Books
It's been a good chance to catch up with my backlog of genealogy print and ejournals and the pile of must read novels and other genealogy or local history books. The big challenge is not to fall asleep reading!
Resources
Webinars/videos are also a great way to learn more. Check out the RootsTech 2019 Salt Lake City sessions, do a search of YouTube for 2019 London RootsTech, or the regular FamilySearch monthly webinars and also some free ones on Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Of course, these just encourage me to do more research at a time when I am trying to finalise and tidy up, not create new records.
As part of my cleaning up paper files, I am discovering new resources online. Thanks to Ancestry's Wiltshire parish records I've managed to get digital copies of many of my baptisms, marriages and burials. I've even pushed back a few lines another couple of generations. It is amazing how many ways Forder can be spelt/indexed - but when you look at the handwriting from the 1700s it is not surprising that the indexers couldn't identify the surname.
And why did I start with the letter F? I randomly opened a filing cabinet drawer and pulled a file out without looking. This way there is an element of surprise and it won't be easy to see how much has been done or still to go. Whereas with A to Z it would be a negative until after I passed the half way mark in the alphabet. Although some letters do have more family names than others.
Talks
I had to cancel my presentation to the Genealogical Society of Queensland DNA Group but I managed to do a small talk on Ancestry matches to the Bribie Island DNA for Genealogists Group at the Library.
There are also a few talks booked for next year that I am looking forward to.
I am still tutoring my U3A class for Writing Family History every Tuesday fortnight but I have had to give up tutoring the Advanced Family History class as it clashes with the weekly chemo. Still the class will be back next year, something else to look forward to.
What's Coming Up
In some ways getting sick at the end of a year is not too bad as the genealogy world slows down in December and January and by February I should be past all the hard yards. Diary should now go back to a regular fortnightly blog post and I'm hoping for another couple of Trove Tuesday blog posts before the end of 2019.
Until next time, happy searching.
Blogs
I haven't written anything but as my treatment will span 12 months, I have given a lot of thought to a new personal challenge. For years I have been gradually reducing my paper research, scanning photos and certificates, writing draft family histories and organising my digital records. But always in fits and starts because I get bored or something else hijacks my priorities.
My illness has made me focus again on what happens to my research in future - no one in the family wants it. Therefore I need to get it all into a more manageable and accessible format. Books, magazines, paper files, photographs, albums, memorabilia, erecords, emails, digital family histories and of course the genealogy database.
To keep me on track over the next 12 months, the plan is to do a monthly blog on my progress with the end goal that all my research will be in a more portable format to pass onto others. How hard can that be? First task - to think up a catchy title for the blog challenge.
Books
It's been a good chance to catch up with my backlog of genealogy print and ejournals and the pile of must read novels and other genealogy or local history books. The big challenge is not to fall asleep reading!
Resources
Webinars/videos are also a great way to learn more. Check out the RootsTech 2019 Salt Lake City sessions, do a search of YouTube for 2019 London RootsTech, or the regular FamilySearch monthly webinars and also some free ones on Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Of course, these just encourage me to do more research at a time when I am trying to finalise and tidy up, not create new records.
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| Herbert William White from Pitton & Farley, Wiltshire |
And why did I start with the letter F? I randomly opened a filing cabinet drawer and pulled a file out without looking. This way there is an element of surprise and it won't be easy to see how much has been done or still to go. Whereas with A to Z it would be a negative until after I passed the half way mark in the alphabet. Although some letters do have more family names than others.
Talks
I had to cancel my presentation to the Genealogical Society of Queensland DNA Group but I managed to do a small talk on Ancestry matches to the Bribie Island DNA for Genealogists Group at the Library.
There are also a few talks booked for next year that I am looking forward to.
I am still tutoring my U3A class for Writing Family History every Tuesday fortnight but I have had to give up tutoring the Advanced Family History class as it clashes with the weekly chemo. Still the class will be back next year, something else to look forward to.
What's Coming Up
In some ways getting sick at the end of a year is not too bad as the genealogy world slows down in December and January and by February I should be past all the hard yards. Diary should now go back to a regular fortnightly blog post and I'm hoping for another couple of Trove Tuesday blog posts before the end of 2019.
Until next time, happy searching.
Wishing you well Shauna. Will read your progress with interest. Be kind to yourself . . . sending virtual hugs across the Ditch!
ReplyDeleteSeonaid xxxx
All that you do in your "slowing down" phase, is far more than many do in their "intense concentration" bouts. Above all, Shauna, be kind to yourself and work at the pace that suits you, whatever it may be at the time.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the reading and the naps as needed.
I’ll be following your challenge with interest. I need to do the same. I keep promising myself to do it. Perhaps 2020 will be the year. Good luck with your health issues
ReplyDeleteAll the best for the challenges you have and will face over the next 12 months. I'm in awe that in the middle of all this awful stuff, you've been able to map out a strategy to keep yourself occupied. Wishing you a successful outcome from all your operations and chemo.
ReplyDeleteShauna Hicks - thanks for sharing this heartfelt message, of your health, its impact on you and the way forward for ensuring your research is not lost. My maternal grandmother died in her mid 50's - so I have also felt the need to document my research so it is not lost. Back in 2012 I decided to start the first of what became a collection of blogs on the various ancestral lines of mine and my husband's.
ReplyDeleteAlso one of my cousins set up a Tribal Pages website for our McCosker family which contained 17,000 names and 2000 photos. Then in early 2017 he also discovered he had Stage IV cancer and sadly within 6 months he had passed away. However he transferred ownership to the Tribal Pages site and the McCosker Facebook group from his personal email account to a family google account, where I am the main administrator. I told him I wouldn't have the time to put into these sites that he had - however I would ensure that the sites continued.
So I'd recomment that if you can, that you try to find someone else who can be a trusted co-Administrator of your blog site(s) who can look after them when you are not up to it.
CONGRATULATIONS! Your blog has been included in INTERESTING BLOGS in FRIDAY FOSSICKING at
ReplyDeletehttps://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2019/11/friday-fossicking-8th-nov-2019.html
Thank you, Chris
Wishing you well, Shauna... the main task is to be kind to yourself... the rest will happen or not...it can wait.