Thursday, January 1, 2015

New Year 2015

Happy New Year.

Well I have moved out of another past year and into a new one. Things were exciting in 2014 and I had many accomplishments.

The biggest one for me was finishing the Wanzek project. This was the complete family history that spanned from the 1700's in Germany, Holland and Poland to 2014. The family came to the United States in the latter half of the 1900's locating in Minnesota. Half the family shortly after arrival would move to North Dakota. Amazing the hardships and the challenges these families had to survive in a very under populated area of the United States. The project lasted for two years and will culminate in the publishing of a genealogy this year.

Secondly I was hired by Seneca Social Services to help in the location of family members for the possible connection to children that are in the process of going in to the foster system or have reached the age of eighteen. This has been a fascinating way to use my genealogy skills to help others. It has opened my eyes to the many problems in the Social Services System. The people that work in Social Services face many unique challenges on a daily basis. Not to mention what the children go through.

Thirdly, I continued to do my talks across the Tri State area. Lapeer was a highlight as usual. Enjoyed speaking on behalf of the Ohio Genealogical Society for their chapter training. Look forward to participating again this year. Teaching at the OGS library was also a highlight.

I also had some things that changed. The largest one was the discontinuation of my teaching at Lourdes. This was sad for me. I had been teaching there for four years. Hard to believe that people were not interested in learning more about their families history. Finally I discontinues administering the Indiana, Michigan and Ohio Genealogy research communities. Learned a lot from this experience and hope to use some of these skills moving forward.

Excited to see what lies ahead in 2015, but I will save that for tomorrow.

As always please share your thoughts and ideas.