2012 Goals: Writing

Instead of just rattling off my goals for 2012 in one post, I'm going to do individual posts on each and then a summary post which includes how I did with my 2011 goals.  My goals fall into four categories: Research, Writing, Organization and Wild Card.  The inspiration for this, as was the case in 2011, was the We Tree blog.

My Writing Goal:

So I finally wrote the book on my grandmother's grandfather that I had been kicking around in my head for three years.  I gave it to her at Christmas and she really liked it, as did the other relatives who saw it. I'm happy with the book, though I knew from the time that I wrote it that I would be updating it at some point.  I thought about waiting until I felt it was truly "ready" but who knows when that could be, if ever?  And more importantly, the person I wrote it for is not getting any younger (or more lucid).

As an added bonus to putting it out there now, older relatives were able to comment on it and share what they knew about the subject (my great-great-grandfather, John W. Berger).  And, in doing research for the book, I discovered new avenues and databases I hadn't realized were out there.

My goal in 2012 is to update the book.  I want to include what my relatives related to me about John, and the new records I will be requesting come January.  I also want to make it more scholarly (meaning footnotes and source citations).  I did a straight narrative for the audience I was presenting the book to, but if I put it online (which I want to do) I want it to be fully sourced.