Review of 2014, did I meet my goals

Well it's the end of the year, time for goal reviewing and setting.

My professional goals:
1. Attend 20 sessions of #genchat
        I attended 22
2. Do 2 webinars or videos for genealogy education
        I can't remember that I did any so need to do better at this
3. Go to 2 genealogy conferences
        Done
4. Blog twice a month or 24 times a year, and blog about 12 ancestors this year
     I think this makes blog #25, and I did blog about 12 ancestors, done

My volunteer goals:
1. Finish cemetery directory by Memorial day
        Done on the Tuesday before Memorial day
2. Finish photographing one cemetery and add photos to another on Findagrave
        Done taking the photos in one, and made progress on the other
3. Start indexing marriage licenses and put online
         Done with surnames A, and they are online
4. Update my US GenWeb site
         I did some of this, so made progress

My personal goals:
1. Finish husband's Mayflower application
        Made progress, sent an email asking how I'm doing, and ready to order another record
2. Go to Family History Center to research
         No, didn't do this one, so maybe next year
3. Continue working on research
          Yes, did some so progress made
4. Continue regular backups
          Did some so progress made, not sure about the "regular" part
5. Do timelines for all my ancestors
            I did 2 in the year, so progress made, and I probably bit off more than I could chew in saying "all" my ancestors, I probably should've limited it to 12

So overall not too bad, especially considering I have 2 young children (one school age and a toddler), a husband, and a part time job. So I have to keep the house running too, maybe when I'm retirement age and my kids are adults I will be able to take on more.

With my goal setting, I feel it helps to separate them like this, put them in an Excel file where I can regularly look it up and keep track. Stay tuned in the next few days when I hope to blog about my 2015 goals. Happy New Year's Eve!

December Ancestor: William F. Foster

My ancestor for this month is from my dad's side, William F. Foster. From me, he is my third great grandfather: me, my father, my grandmother, my great grandfather, my 2nd great grandfather, then my 3rd great grandfather William F. Foster.

I have William F. Foster was born in Fleming county, Kentucky 27 Jun 1813 to Samuel Foster and Mary Powell. I don't know much about his early life.
He married Jane Kirkpatrick in Ohio (likely Adams county or the next county over) in 1847. William and Jane become the parents of a number of children (3 sons and 4 daughters), namely Hiram Irving (born 1848), Nathan Miller (born 1850), Mary Margaret (born 1853), Elizabeth Louisa (born 1857), Alexander Douglas (born 1860), Martha Ann (born 1862) and Sarah E. (born 1864). From 1850 to 1880 I find William and Jane living in Liberty Township, Adams county, Ohio.
William F. Foster dies in Adams county, Ohio 17 Aug 1893, and he is buried 2 days later in Hopewell Cemetery. My efforts to request a gravestone photo have not yielded one, so I assume he has an unmarked grave.

Likely no birth records exist back that far, so a baptism or church record is probably what I need to look for. I have not located a marriage record either as I am not sure what county they were married in, but I could try Adams county. I have found him in the US Federal census from 1850 to 1880. I don't have a death record either, as I have just not put as much money into records for this line.

I do not have any photos of him. There is a Foster reunion held in Eastern Illinois held and attended by many of his descendants in Ford county. I had the pleasure of attending that reunion one time many years ago with my parents before my father passed away. I really would like to go back and see if anyone has any photos or documents that I don't.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Dear Genea-Santa

Well tonight is Saturday night so Randy Seaver proposed we write our letter to Genea-Santa. Well we don't teach our kids to believe in Santa. When the clerk in a store told my kids and I that Santa was there, my son responded that he's not real. But in case anyone wants to know what's on a genealogist's list, this is mine.

Dear Genea-Santa:

I tried very hard to be a good genealogy girl this year. I have worked hard doing a few presentations: two at Family History Expos and one for the Northeast Library group. I met with my local genealogy friends, attended many sessions of #genchat on Twitter, attended 2 genealogy conferences, am planning a genealogy conference, tried to write 24 blog posts, indexed marriage records and put online, took many cemetery photos and put online, and worked some on my own family as well as my husband's and a few clients'.

Thank you (and my husband) for last year's gifts. I liked all the genealogy books I received but I haven't had time to look at and read them all. You know that job I have now and my 2 kids and life makes it hard to get much reading done.

Well you know everyone always asks for WAY too much, like my son wants all the toys in the catalogs, so here goes.

1. Genealogy books from my Amazon wish list, I would say "Mapping and Documenting Cemeteries" would be near the top, and "Digging for Ancestors: In-Depth Guide to Land Records"

2. Organization of my genea-piles, so send an organization fairy please

3. Break throughs on my brick walls: Williams Lindsey's parents and my Irish ancestors, more on my Dacy family

4. More digitized records everywhere! And not just so we have easier access but to preserve them in case another courthouse burns down (or floods, or tornado, or some natural disaster).

That's pretty much it. Yes I'd like Windows to get a decent operating system figured out so I could get a new laptop, and while my camera is fine, now they have cameras with GPS.

Oh, and world peace.
Merry Christmas all!