52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challange: FAIL

Crash and burn. I failed the challenge.

How quickly things change.

At the beginning of the year it looked like I was clear to take on Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. I quickly learned that a three-week cycle was more amenable to my completing the challenge. That is, I would post three ancestors every three weeks. One week to review and update my triad, one week to write a post and one week to edit. My goal was to follow the Ahnentafel of my 2nd and 3rd great grandparents; this would give me 48 ancestors and a family group to work on, one 2nd great grandparent and two 3rd great grandparents. Each quarter would complete 12 ancestors of one of my 4 grandparents. I would then post about the grandparent that descended from each quarter’s ancestors for a total of 52 Ancestors. What I liked about this approach was that it allowed me to review all of my 2nd and 3rd great grandparents as a family group.

Then the challenge got rough. Just after Valentines Day my wife informed me that she accepted a new job in Portland, Oregon. We have only lived in New England for two years. Suddenly I had a new challenge.

For the past month I have been completing a summer’s worth of home projects. I have been busy cleaning, patching and painting to get our house ready to sell. Challenge completed. Next challenge, sell the house and prepare to move. I will be busy purging, organizing and boxing our possessions in preparation for moving. This will happen while trying to keep the house immaculate until we have an actual buyer.

The good news is that we are moving to Portland which has a great genealogy community. I am looking forward to chatting with the members of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. I have already joined as a member. I am especially looking forward to meeting Connie Lenzen in person. Connie was one of my instructors from Boston University’s Online Genealogical Research Certificate Program.

But the best part is that I will only be two hours from my daughter who is attending the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. I will get to watch her run track in her senior year.

Unfortunately I will miss all the great folks I have met in New England and all of the exciting places I still need to visit. I have been focused on visiting the towns of my 17th Century New England ancestors. I have boatloads of Great Migration ancestors mainly from Massachusetts and Connecticut. I have not even made it the American Revolution!

Thank you Rhode Island for hosting my New England adventure, I will return!