The (Half) Year in Review

Since 2013 is about half over, I thought I'd put together a little list of all my genealogy accomplishments so far, as well as what I'd like to work on in the last half of the year.  Although this blog doesn't reflect it, this has actually been a really fruitful few months:

• I found my grandparents marriage and re-marriage records
• I found marriage records for my grandmother's siblings
• I found a death date for my great-great-grandmother, Marion Wood Allen
• I found a death place and confirmed the death date for my great-grandfather, Joseph J. Allen
• I found WWI service information for Joseph J. Allen
• I found burial records for numerous ancestors and relatives
• I found naturalization records (YAY!) for my great-grandparents, Giuseppe and Maria Nicoletta Riccia Lapiccirella
• I found my great-grandfather's brother's naturalization record, which finally led me to the ship manifest with his name on it
• I found a birth record for one of my biggest brick walls, Heman Doyle, and the names of his parents
• I found War of 1812 service information for Peter Doyle, Heman's newly found father
• I found at least two siblings for Heman Doyle
• I found numerous newspaper articles, mainly for my Wood and vonAllmen ancestors, which filled in many holes in my research
• I found various land records for New York ancestors and relatives

Now for what I'd like to accomplish before 2014:

• Find Peter Doyle's pension file and learn the pension laws surrounding the War of 1812
• Find Peter Doyle's War of 1812 service record and more information on the Siege of Fort Erie (he was killed in that battle)
• Find more information on Heman Doyle's siblings and half-siblings and learn more about Heman's mother, Rebeca (especially who she remarried after Peter's death)
• Find more information on the 11th US Army Infantry Regiment during the War of 1812 and 270th MP Company during WWI
• Find naturalization records for my grandmother's siblings
• Explore the 1921 Canadian Census (if it is ever released!) and hopefully locate various Wood, McFadden/Morton and Beam relatives in Ontario and British Columbia
• Get death records and obituaries for Joseph J. Allen and Marion Wood Allen
• Find a burial location for Marion Wood Allen
• Make ancestor timelines and update the ones I've already made
• Revise or create research plans for my remain brick walls
• Return to researching lines and families I haven't in awhile (I've been pretty heavily focused on just a few families in the past couple months and want to break out of that)

So there it all is.  If my research this year has a theme, it would be to look in surprising places - as nearly all of my discoveries have come from searching "outside the box."  

While I see that I've done a lot, I still have plenty to keep me busy in the months to come.  Onward!