At the end of a busy holiday season, the last thing you want to do is sit down and think about resolutions for the New Year. Especially when the list really doesn’t vary from the one you made a year ago. Instead of calling them resolutions, let’s refer to them as tasks – and instead of broad, difficult to achieve items, keep them short. A single line should describe what you want to accomplish.
My to-do list is on my Google home page, but I also create daily checklists of what has to be done or accomplished the next day or during a whole week. I have to admit: I love going to “check” what’s done. It keeps me focused and somewhat organized.
Pick three things you’d like to do in the next year as it relates to your family photos or family history. Here’s mine:
- Find my great-great grandfather’s death certificate. I’ve worked on it in pieces, but a little concerted effort should turn up the missing document. At least I hope so.
- Have my mother identify all the folks standing in her wedding photo. This is something I should have done years ago. I tried this a few years ago, but it’s time to do it again.
- Ask my cousin for permission to scan his family photos. His grandmother was my mother’s eldest sister and from the looks of his collection, she got the biggest share of family photos. There are real gems in there. Wish me luck!
Have fun compiling your top three items for 2010 and you’ll be able to accomplish them. Remember: keep it fun!
About Maureen Taylor
Maureen Taylor AKA the Photo Detective is a professional genealogist, author and journalist on the topic who’s written tons of books and magazine articles, as well as being a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine and editorial board member of Legacy Magazine. She’s also been a featured expert on CNN, the Today Show and in Martha Stewart Living. Maureen can be contacted through her website Photo Detective or on Twitter at @PhotoDetective.
Last month, I went to the Southern California Genealogical Jamboree with other members of the ScanDigital team. While there, we had the opportunity to connect with people passionate about researching and preserving their family history and share our service as an aid to their archival projects. Genealogists may love viewing, sharing and learning about their family’s history, but many admitted that scanning and organizing their memorabilia is their least favorite part. Maybe that’s why so many people seemed relieved to hear about ScanDigital- we do all the hard, time consuming work for them. We chatted with and introduced our company to lots of new people, met with well-known genealogists and had a great time.
We had the chance to meet with some pretty amazing people while at the show. One being Maureen Taylor, otherwise famously known as the ‘Photo Detective.’ She specializes in analyzing old photos, finding missing photos, interpreting unidentified pictures and organizing photo collections. And in the Genealogical World, she’s quite famous. People were on waiting lists for her lectures and lined up at her booth to have her analyze specific photos. For more information on Maureen, visit the 
I also had the opportunity to sneak away from our booth to attend DearMyrtle’s lecture titled ‘3 Months to Better Organization.’ Myrtle is also very well known in the Genealogy World and I was lucky enough to find one of the last available seats. Her lecture was jam packed!
