Sherry Stocking Kline
January 2, 2010

Holy Cow!  I just realized that this is the first time I’ve written the date 2010!  I’ve stayed home, stayed in, and haven’t even written a check since Thursday.

The following challenge comes from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings!

Thank you, Randy!

Hey, it’s Saturday Night – time for some Genealogy Fun!! I know – you had a great time on New Year’s Eve, and are just recovering from the holidays, so we’ll keep this one pretty easy.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to accept it (frankly, I’ve noticed that SNGF participation has dropped off in the last month – why? Too much eggnog? Too much work? What?):

1) “What was your best Genealogy Moment during 2009?” This could be a research find, a fabulous trip, a found family treasure, etc. Your choice!

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or a comment to the Twitter or Facebook status line for this post.

I wish I could say that I had one glorious genealogy discovery, one brick wall that I could gloat on breaking down, one great connection with a new branch that I was elated to locate.  But I’ve been spending what little research time I have helping a couple of other folks and butting my head against a Smith and Jones brick wall in Kentucky.

Maybe it’s time to branch out, and spend a little more time on a little less common surnames??

If I have to choose my favorite genealogy moment, can I do it?

Would I choose the moment that I found a clue I’d missed in my Smith and Jones’ previous research?  One that adds a new county in Kentucky to my research possibilities and who knows, may be just the clue that I need to find the information I want. (What I wonder is how I looked at that and MISSED it the first time!)

Or would it be on August 8th, 2009 when I wrote my first blog post, and found out how little I knew about getting a blog up and going.

Would my favorite genealogy moment(s) be when the genealogy blogging community begin sending blogging tips by twitter, leaving me comments, and sending e-mails to help get me up and running and learn each new thing I needed to know.

And oh, my goodness, the kindness you all extended to me each time you did that!  I’d love to thank each one of you here again, but I don’t want to miss even one of you!  (I should have kept a list.)

The Kreativ Blogging Award – One of my favorite moments…

One of my very favorite moments was being chosen by three different genealogy blogging buddies for the Kreativ Blogging Award!

hank you!  That was an exciting moment for this newbie genealogy blogger!

Surviving Wichita Eagle’s Budget Cuts – again…

Another  moment was to continue to ‘make the cut’ with the Wichita Eagle as they downsized the magazine that I wrote for, then did away with the magazine I wrote for, then included my column along with some of my free-lance writing friends in their “Healthy Living” magazine. Whew!  I sure miss my former editor and mentor and the other  neat people I used to work with, though.

And would it be when I learned that my cousin’s husband was as addicted to genealogy as me?  We’re going to get out laptops together and share family info!

Advent Calendar Challenge brought back so many memories…

And I think the most recent genealogy favorite moments have to be the Geneablogger’s Christmas Advent Calendar Challenge!

Thanks to Thomas at GeneaBloggers, so many old memories came flooding back, making my Christmas season a very special one.  Now many of them are written down to be thumbed back through and added to when I have time.  Thank you, Thomas!

And now, I think I will take time to back up my data, (thanks again for the reminder, Thomas,) then set my New Year’s Research Goals (I don’t make resolutions, I usually break those) and pick a day to re-organize the info that I have (again) so that I know which direction to ride off in!

Happy New Year to you all, and Thank you to so Many!