Friday, September 10, 2010

Genealogy PMP

My family has always been on the small side: my parents and my 2 sisters (1 older, 1 younger). My father’s parents were long gone before I arrived, and my mother’s parents died when I was just a baby. Each of my parents had 1 sibling; for some reason we just never hung around with the uncles and aunts and cousins we had. We’d get together with some of my mother’s relatives for First Communions, and there was always New Year’s Day at Aunt Olive’s house. But for the most part, we really didn’t have much of an extended family.


Well, that’s not entirely true – we did tend to get together at funerals. The car rides to the wakes and funerals were mainly my mother explaining who all the people were, and how we were related. The car rides back home were mainly my mother patiently explaining again who all those people were, and how we were related. My first introduction to the malady known as FHOS, or Family History Overload Syndrome.

My friends all had grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who were around a lot. I felt left out. One of my friend’s baby brothers told me his grandmother was coming to visit, and then asked if my grandmother ever came to visit. I explained I didn’t have a grandmother. He frowned, and after some serious thought, he said, “You could borrow mine.”

Fast forward to the mid-1980’s, when I taught computer courses at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario in my “spare time”. It was a project course – students selected a project for completion over the 10 week course, with 3 hours a week lab time and all resources I could provide. One student asked after genealogy software as spreadsheets just weren’t doing it anymore. She brought in her family tree, traced back to 15th century France. I was impressed, if not just a little bit jealous. I explained how to research and select software – and then I started my own genealogy research in earnest.

I now have enough information to start writing it all down. The first edition is scheduled for completion by Christmas 2010.

I am, by profession, a project manager. Project Management Professional (PMP) ® certification from PMI and everything. Everything is a project – occupational hazard. Now documenting my genealogy research is a project, too. Welcome to my blog.

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