It has taken a hot minute (or 6 months) for me to trust 2021 is going to be great.
But first a quick look back at 2020. The year started with promise and a long weekend in Whistler with the family. This was followed by some more fun and a visit from my parents. Five days after they left, California announced we would be shutting down for the Covid-19 Pandemic. The rear view on those early days brings back memories of the unknown, hope and anxiety, kids trying to figure out remote school, and a bobcat taking a stroll through my backyard. We were truly naïve to think we would be home for 2 weeks and the world would be all better.
As we adjusted our lives to keep those we love and those we don’t know safe, there were some bright spots. Finding ways to adventure away from everyone added some imagination to a couple of car trips Another highlight is my friends supporting each other while parking our cars in my cul de sac six feet apart. One of the things I am most proud of is how my children floated along the ebb and flow of the school schedules (remote, hybrid, in person, and quarantined). I am also thankful my husband was able to keep working. We ate together almost every day and worked through all of the changes and crazy details together.
At the beginning of the pandemic I believed since we were home I would accomplish every genealogy goal I ever had. I even pulled out all my genealogy boxes and placed them on the dining room table. Insert any laughing GIF from the internet and you will know how that turned out. Between sharing internet bandwidth, supporting a dyslexic kid with online learning (not for the faint hearted), and either cooking or cleaning the kitchen most of the day, my genealogy goals sat on the table for a couple of weeks before getting packed back into the office closet.
While my personal genealogy sat by the wayside, my local genealogy society, Marin County Genealogical Society found a great way to exist in a virtual world. We embraced Zoom early and often. Not only did we successfully move to meeting online, we created a new special interest group called Genealogy Social Hour. We have a topic for each month and come together with stories about our families in relation to the topic. I have learned so much about the other members of our society and am so thankful for the opportunity.
I did try again in September to get things going for my personal research but did not create any kind of research groove until the last days of 2020.
And then in 2021 I went crazy! I have so many new family stories to share. My husband gifted me a slide scanner for Christmas. I found answers to a branch of the family I have been researching for 20 years. I also learned some basic genealogy Latin for another branch leading me back another hundred years and 2 (or sometimes 3 or 4) generations. I also did research for a friend that gave me an incredible education in African American research. I have tackled the organization of DNA matches. My paternal side is already setup and my maternal side is about 50% there. And to catch us up to the end of May, I gave a presentation last week about the Scottish research that got my genealogy groove dancing again. I have so many blogposts to write to catch you up with it all.
My kids are now in their final days of school for the year. Thankfully school is ending with in person school. I have much to be excited for including continued genealogy research. This combined with vaccinations and hugging my parents again for the first trip in 14 months, I can now say 2021 is going to be great.
