Next March....

....remind me not to start any projects! I'd decided to work on a wee project seeing how Family Historian (as an example of traditional family history software) could be adapted and used for a one-place study, as well as making a good dent in the 1910 valuation books project, not to mention continuing to process my photos taken last year at my brother's wedding and the associated trip to UK and Antigua (there's a deadline ticking on some vouchers I have to get a photobook printed). Unfortunately every year I underestimate how busy we're going to get at work approaching the financial year end and therefore how much energy I'm going to have left over for personal projects. Yes, I've done it again this year. Maybe next year I'll remember?

1910 valuation books - an update

I see it's been more than a month since I last blogged - quelle horreur! I bet you think I've been busy on the genealogy front, since I clearly haven't been online as much but alas, I have not. But I'm here now, holding myself accountable.

Let's revisit the moving target list. Target 1 was already achieved back in January. Target 2, transcribing the 1910 valuation book for Wing for the Buckinghamshire Genealogy Society, is underway. I've transcribed 25 of the 75 pages. I wasn't keeping track of how long it was taking me, although I think the 20 hours total for the project still seems pretty fair, which means there's around 13 hours to go. That's only phase 1 of that project though. While the columns I've transcribed are those that the BGS require, there are some additional columns in those books that they don't need and I'll be going back and grabbing the information in those as well. It would be good to get all this done by the end of March. It might take a little bit longer before that information makes it to the website though, as I also have the accompanying maps and it would be really good to translate that information into Google Maps or something similar so you can see exactly where the property that your ancestor owned or leased was.

I haven't done anything on the other four targets on the list. Do I get to count this as a win on the grounds that I've evidently resisted the temptation to hop around? Given that I've been pondering a wee side project looking at the use of traditional genealogy software for an OPS, perhaps a pat on the back isn't entirely warranted!

It never rains...

but it pours - the microfilm of the Wing marriages for the initial period I am going to transcribe has arrived as well. While I should be able to head over to the library this weekend and take a look, I'm going to be too busy at work (i.e. my real job with real deadlines that involve real extra hours to be put in) to have much time to work on either this or the valuation book project over the next fortnight. Still, they ARE both jobs that break down into individual pages, so a little bit here and there might be manageable...

Back in business

I'm back! And you didn't even know I was slacking off, did you? My computer has been ever-so-slightly not-at-all functional so has just spent several days at the hospital - hence no genealogy time for me.

It's back now though, and the images for the 1910 valuation books project have arrived. There's also some other Wing-related emails I didn't get to respond to before everything went kaput, along with some followup emails (anyone else out there with BONHAM or FOUNTAINE connections?). And if that wasn't enough to keep me more than occupied this weekend, a brand new one place study has emailed me asking to be listed on the One Place Study website - and it's in a brand new country which makes it a 1-hour job not a 5 minute one to update that website, but I'm not complaining as it's so great to hear of new studies!

Wing As It Was vol 2

If anyone would like a copy of this out-of-print book, there is one currently for sale on Ebay via Buy Now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230731947124&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123
I'm not affiliated with the seller in any way.

This book contains various postcards and photos of Wing in the late 19th century. I have an index of names included on the website: http://www.wing-ops.org.uk/waiw2.html

Good intentions

You will no doubt remember that I have spent the last week creating my project list for 2012. You may also remember that I wasn't supposed to do anything that wasn't on that list.

Downloading the 1851 eccesiastical census returns for the Leighton Buzzard registration district (free from The National Archives digital films section) and getting excited because the original returns have slightly more information than the summary I'd previously seen - not on that list.

So that's about 24 hours I lasted, then.

(I'm also downloading the letter books of the Leviathan for 1837 to 1839 - our pal William ADAMS was on that convict hulk from late 1838!)

The moving target - other targets

There's some other, non-Wing genealogical goals I have this year:

Version 5 of Family Historian is due out next month. I plan to upgrade to this version. Furthermore, I plan to actually read the manual and work through any suggested tutorial material. The mailing list for this software inevitably makes me feel like a complete newbie as I simply haven't explored diagrams, queries and the like in any logical manner, and there's no point having top-class software if you aren't using it properly. 2012 is the year!

Another good idea would be to work through and update Family Historian by family so that sources and the like are consistently recorded. I have a bad habit of getting underway, then putting things to one side and returning three months later only to have no idea which family I was working on and where I might have been up to. For some reason I seem to have a mental block as far as getting a good system going for tracking that sort of thing.

I'd like to write some more articles for the One Place Studies website. While maintaining the index section of this website doesn't take too much time, I didn't add as much new content as I'd like in 2011. 

I should also do some actual family history work on my own actual family tree. Poor neglected thing. I think I should just pick a couple of surnames that I haven't really worked on much (both on my Dad's side, as I 've already written up mini-books for Mum's side) and get stuck in revisiting the information I have, updating Family Historian, then expanding their stories. WILLSON of Lincolnshire and Islington, and PACKER of Sandford, Devon, step on up!