As someone who works a genealogy-related job (coding genealogy software), you’d think I would be spending a lot of time on my own research. That’s how it ought to be, but I’ve let other things consume my time and attentions. And yet genealogy is important. I like it a lot. I just haven’t been doing it.

So, how am I going to change that?

One idea I got today was to “reconstruct” one or more of the villages my ancestors were from — either Torre de Passeri in Pescara, Italy, or Petersburg, Virginia, or both. By reconstruct I mean go through the records and keep track of everyone in the village over time, seeing where connections happen, to get a better feel for what life was like back then.

The other mini problem right now is not having a good system to capture the research as I’m doing it. It needs to be web-based because my laptop is still dead and I don’t yet have the money to buy a new one, so I’ll mostly be using various lab computers on campus. Lately I’ve been thinking about throwing together a very lightweight system based on a Wiki (to keep the data model simple) that would at least give me a place to put stuff, since that’s the main thing I’m lacking right now. (Alternatives would be using a combination of Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Backpack.) But I’m going to talk about this on Beyond… :)

Anyway, I’ve also been thinking about putting together a family website, since mine doesn’t have one. I did put together a very minimal one four or five years ago, with everyone’s contact info, but that was the extent of it. I’d like to make one that has blogs and forums and calendars and stuff. It has to be enough of an experience that members of the family will actually want to use it. With that, I’d either find a lightweight CMS that gets out of my way, or else just roll my own. We’ll see. I need more time! :)

Technorati Tags: genealogy, family history

Hmm, I’m not updating this as often as I’d like. Which means, basically, that I’m not doing as much genealogy as I ought. :) Beyond has fallen by the wayside (no time!) and will probably remain there for the time being. But I shouldn’t let that stop me from working on my genealogy. So, this week I’ll do some more research and (hopefully) set up a regular time so that I don’t fall behind like this. Blogging about it all will help make me accountable, too. :)

Um, I’m not dead, I promise. :) Things are wee bit busy right now (both at work and with other projects, like Beyond), but after August I should have more time. And by then I’ll be spending most of my free time on Beyond, which will lead to more research. In the meantime, I’ll hopefully be able to make some time here and there.

Since Top of the Mountains is probably not the best place for me to write about my genealogical research (because there are already a bazillion categories there), I’ve decided to create this blog, Footprints from the Past.

What will it be? My genealogical research, basically. (There will be occasional references to Beyond, the genealogy web app I’m developing, but I expect the two blogs to generally remain separate.)

As a brief outline of where my research interests lie, my dad’s side is from North Carolina and Virginia back till the 1700s, and then mostly from Great Britain (with a few lines in other parts of Europe such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland). My mom’s side is from Cuba, Spain (almost entirely in Polanco, Santander), and Italy (Torre de Passeri in Pescara, Castiglione Messer Marino in Chieti, and a few other locations).