Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Christmas Wish List

 Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has another SNGF challenge, for which I am again late to the party.  Well, as they say, better late than never!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas genealogy-oriented dreams:

1) Write your Genea-Santa letter. Have you been a good genealogy girl or boy? What genealogy-oriented items are on your Christmas wish list? They could be family history items, technology items, or things that you want to pursue your ancestral quest.

2) Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook status or Google Stream post.

As anyone in my family can attest, I've never been big on the whole Santa Claus mythos.  That said, I still like Christmas gifts as much as the next person!  I think I've been a pretty good genealogy boy.  My goal has been to better document my tree with source material, preferably properly cited.  This is the part of genealogy, in my opinion, that makes it hard.  Anyone can collect a string of names and dates, but proving them correct and citing your evidence is akin to working on a college thesis!

I have a few items for my wish list, and reasons why those things made my list:

• Flip-pal Scanner - For obvious reasons, a portable scanner would be handy in all sorts of genealogy field trip ways!  Plus, as a technical sort, it appeals to the gadget freak in me.
• Ancestry.com subscription - I've never had one.  That's right, I've been doing genealogy since about 1992, and never had one.  I've taken advantage of their occasional freebie weeks, but that's it.  I've always thought them overpriced.  I still do, but it would be nice to have access to all of those digitized sources.
• Evidence Explained - This ties in with my goal above of properly documenting and citing my tree.  This is THE book that is the agreed-upon standard of how we want to do this in the genealogical community.
• An elf to help me break my McMurry wall - all roads end in Arkansas about 1870.  Family rumors hint at some sort of family schism, probably during the Civil War, with this line breaking off from the rest of the family.  I'm having great difficulty finding any solid documentation.  Maybe Ancestry will have something more?

Did you make out your list?  What was on it? Why those things?


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman