December 10, 2007

My Genealogical Christmas Wish

by Juliana Smith

The other day I was browsing through some of the genealogy blogs on the Web, and I ran across a post on the "Carnival of Genealogy." "Blog carnivals" collect posts on a related topic and link to them in one place--kind of like one-stop-shopping for bloggers. The current topic they have posted is "Christmas Wish Lists for Genealogists." As I scanned through the various posts, I found myself nodding in agreement with some and took solace in posts by folks like me who wish to get caught up with their filing, database entering, and other little tasks that tend to pile up.

That is my one genealogical holiday wish, and it comes at a critical time. With an upcoming birthday in the family and holiday get- togethers on the calendar, this is a dangerous time of year for my family history. To top it off, I'm working on another project with my mom--a project that has had me pulling out documents for various branches of my family tree and just about every reference book I own. All of this clutter and the nice stack of records I pillaged from the recently added U.S. passports database have conspired to turn my office into a war zone.

The danger lies in the temptation to just box up the clutter and stash it in a closet until after the holidays--out of sight from holiday guests and out of mind for me. But that just makes things worse. Plus I need my closet space to stash presents.

The good news is that my fate is in my own hands. I can do the annual "stash it now/regret it later" thing, or I can take a little time and come out of this holiday season a little more organized than I went in. Today I choose the latter!

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