My two-year family history quest is rounding the bend. 9 months until the ship docks and the paper makes its way via the United States Postal service to family wide and far.
And I am a timely one. I keep trying to show up late to work to express my general displeasure over my library being torn apart and I just can’t manage it. Every day I am my routine 2-3 minutes early no matter how many days hubby and I run through the coffee drive through or I decide to fancy do my hair or I deliberately stand around the living room drinking coffee watching the clock. Today I was late for the first time. By 10 seconds. I just can’t NOT show up on time. You can thank my family 😉 for the work ethic.
I’ve begun blocking out the rest of the project. May 9 is the last day I accept new content from others. Between now and then I will have a phone conversation with my Aunt J., send some specific questions that I really hope my mom’s cousin C. will send answers to, and shoot out quickie questions to various family members. I will also be having more serious conversations with family in Canada whose research will be invaluable to this finished product.
I have set aside May 9-Aug 31 to finish writing and assembling all supporting materials such as census docs for the appendices, etc.
Sept 1 – Oct. 1: Then, then, you wouldn’t believe the formatting job that is ahead of me. Total nightmare. Now that I’ve been working with the end-result product details (things such as margin width and the fact that I have to TURN EVERY DOCUMENT I’VE GOT INTO A PDF AND GET IT IN THE RIGHT ORDER), I have left an entire month for that alone. And I will be taking a few days off of work for concentrated effort. I had thought I would just photocopy it a bunch of times, but that won’t work after all. Just this extra formatting work on my part will create a much better product and it won’t cost more so I’m going to do it.
Oct 1 – Nov 30: Eight weeks for publishing (I’m doing research on this part now, I’ve gone through 6 places looking for price, quality, and product longevity).
First week of December: Ship in time for the winter holidays.
And then the project will come to its conclusion near to the two year anniversary of my grandmother’s death (January 4). This work is dedicated to her and my grandpa Fran.
I didn’t intend to become a life-long genealogist. I may pick it back up at some point, I’ve made great connections during this period, but this is it for now. It’s 9 months away but I can glimpse the end now. It makes me both sad and excited in equal measure. And overwhelmed by the workload.
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