Lisa at the Accidental Genealogist blogged about her top 10 genealogy moments of 2009. It got me thinking about what achievements I made this year. I think I’ve done pretty darn well for someone who bogged down with family health issues for the first half of the year.
1. I found out that my Great Great Grandfather, Thomas Augustine Jones, who was from Australia, had a brother. this discovery was a surprise since there had been no indication of a sibling in any of my prior research.
2. I finally found the town that my Dolan’s were from in Ireland–Cam.
3. A volunteer at Findagrave.com photographed a couple of the tombstones for my family at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California. It was the first time I got to see my Great Great Grandmother’s tombstone.
4. George Pacheco, a Portuguese genealogist, presented me with information that showed my link to Nobel Laurete, Craig Mello.
5. I found Eugenio de Mello in the Azorean Passporte records migrating to Massachusetts years after the family was supposed to have migrated to Hawaii.
6. The Hawaii State Archives began putting digitized records online. I was able to find several marriage records that were unavailable to me before.
7. Using Google Maps, I mapped out all the houses that my relatives lived on on E. 25th Street in Oakland, California. I then used that information to compare to the database at zillow.com and was able to learn the history of some of the houses (i.e. when they were originally built or remodelled).
8. Familysearch.org began putting the San Francisco Mortuary records online and I was able to find a handful of Irish relatives.
9. I signed up for footnote.com and had a blast uncovering the Kelly-Dolan history in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
10. I joined the Acoreanos.com and GenealogyWise.com genealogy social networks. I found one cousin for myself. I also helped another researcher connect with one of my distant cousins.
The most important discovery was probably finding the town the Dolan’s were from. In 2010, I can explore Cam, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. I will search to see if any records are online. And, maybe, just maybe, I might find the Dolan family and learn who the parents of Patrick, Margaret, Bridget, and Catherine were.
Here’s to 2010!
