Once upon a time, I was a highly organized person with tons of energy and vision. Then I turned 40 and, while my organization skills remained mostly intact along with my vision, the tons of energy “lost weight”. Then 50 rolled around and started out pretty good. Fifty is the new forty, right? Well, I don’t know if I can blame it all on the events of 2020 (including turning 52), but somewhere in the last year, my organization skills, drive, vision, energy and focus went kaput. In my immediate family (parents) we had two major surgeries and months of recuperation. In my extended family and loved ones set, we had weddings, babies born, high school and college graduations, moves, job and career changes, and unfortunately, deaths. Some from COVID, others not. However, with all the highs and lows, I have completely gone off the rails on my genealogical efforts. I am no closer today than I was a year ago to becoming a Certified Genealogist. I have lost, misplaced, and forgotten more emails, letters, and phone messages than I can count. I am truly sorry for those with whom I have talked or corresponded and failed to get you the help you needed. My plate has been more full than I would have ever imagined.
Now, why I am writing all this in a blog post on a genealogical site? In part, it is cathartic. Mostly, though, I am putting this out there because I am aware of many of my fellow researchers who have also had different, but equally (and quite often, greater) difficulties than I have had. And there are so many of whom I am personally unaware who have and are struggling. Happily, there have been so many who have been able to use quarantine and lockdown to develop and hone their family trees and help others do the same, but so many others of us have not. And that is OK. This is 2021 and we are moving forward, writing our own histories, and figuring out new — and sometimes — improved “normals.” As we all know, every generation before us had their own particular challenges and time rolled on. If you need, as I do, to recalibrate, let’s do that.
The dead have remained dead while I mostly ignored them for the last year. Now I need to work on finding them and adding some life. Not literally, but literarily.
~Erin