Janus Day: Looking Forward, Looking Back

Looking back: in 2012, I got certified, spoke at a national conference, and finished publishing my first "big-time" article (on my wife's 5G grandfather William Berry and his children and grandchildren).

What's up for 2013? I'd like to do less and do it better, but the specifics remain elusive.

My top professional priorities are researching, writing, and editing -- preferably for pay! Other priorities include education (in the most general sense), giving back to the profession, and speaking.

I won't say never, but in the coming year(s) four kinds of activities are going to receive what the courts call "strict scrutiny": those that require flying, those that require me to get other people to do things, those involving mostly "busy work," and those based on the dubious notion that I'm the only person who can do X.

(Hat tip to Michael Hait, whose more specific blog post inspired this one.)

I can't predict publications, but I do aim to produce a couple of booklets in the next year. It's easier to tell when and where I'll be speaking:

February 12 on citations at an Illinois State Genealogical Society webinar.

March 10 on the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center at the La Porte County (Indiana) Genealogical Society.

April 6 on indirect evidence and William Berry research in Lafayette, Indiana. Indianapolis genealogist and blogger Ron Darrah will have the other half of the program.

April 26 on Indiana research at the Ohio Genealogical Society in Cincinnati.

April 27 on property and probate records at the Indiana Genealogical Society in Bloomington. (Those who don't use these records -- which included me up to four or five years ago -- will find that they weren't really doing genealogy before.)

May 8 on advocacy for preservation and open records at the Association of Professional Genealogists luncheon at the National Genealogical Society in Las Vegas.

May 10 on "Are We There Yet?," a case study on proof, in the BCG track at NGS Las Vegas.

June 15 on "Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives" at the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society in Crown Point.

June 18 on "Organize Your Stuff As You Dig for Your Roots," at the La Porte County (Indiana) Public Library.

August 22 on Indiana research at the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Fort Wayne.

August 23 on "Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives" at FGS in Fort Wayne.

August 24 on speaking ideas at FGS in Fort Wayne (sponsored by the Genealogical Speakers Guild).

See you around!




Harold Henderson, “William Berry (1753-1839) and His Children and Grandchildren in Massachusetts and New York,” in 2 parts, American Ancestors Journal, third and fourth annual supplements to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 165 (October 2011): 368-78 and 166 (October 2012): 365-74.

Harold Henderson, "Janus Day: Looking Forward, Looking Back," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 14 January 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]