Transitioning to Blogger, and getting organized

I've decided to save myself $70 a year by moving my blogs over to Blogger. It's been a bumpy ride, but I'm sure it will be worth it in the long run.

The major downside is that, while I managed to keep my original domain name, all of the links to individual posts have changed. And there doesn't appear to be any way to override that.

Another issue is that I lost all of the comments from the original Sifting Through the Past blog due to incompatibilities between Wordpress and Blogger. So, sorry about that to all who commented on posts. I still have the exported files if I ever figure out a way to make it work.

I'm still experimenting with the gadgets to figure out what is actually useful, and which ones are just clutter. Any feedback or tips from other Blogger bloggers (redundant much?) is always appreciated.

In other news...
Though I haven't been posting very frequently, I am working on organizing my genealogy data. I've been toying with spreadsheets in OpenOffice for compiling data into a more user-friendly, at-a-glance type of format, but I'm still in the beginning process.

Mostly I have been writing up transcripts of pension applications and relevant census data for easier referencing per individual ancestor. This is going to take quite some time if the days it took to complete for a single ancestor is any indicator.

Ultimately, I'm shooting for a well-sourced timeline for each ancestor in an effort to make the events in their lives more coherent. There is a lot of troubleshooting involved as I experiment with different methods, but hopefully I will stumble upon a way to make this endeavor much more efficient.

I'm back... and I have a plan

Well, my genealogy research burnout had a much longer impact than I had anticipated. But a stress-free Thanksgiving and West Caribbean cruise have given me a much-needed rest.

I've indulged in many of my other interests; painting, learning about digital photography, aquiring new and improved household cleaning products (loving the Swiffer Wet Jet!), and even collected a few more tidbits for my genealogy research.

I realize the key is to pace myself so I don't find myself chasing dead-ends for days at a time. And I really need to focus on organizing the data I already have.

My plan is to spend one or two days a week working only on organization. I'll need to test out several genealogy programs for the computer and decide which is most suited to my needs. Then move on to data entry.

I know the hardest part will be when I get to the data entry, because I'm going to want to go chasing down ancestral siblings I have limited information on. But I will try to just stick to entering everything I already have first.

And try not to be too intimidated by formulating source citations. Yes, I'll go back and reread Citing Your Sources Can Be Fun. I can do this. I will do this.