Happy New Year

Wow, two big blog posts today after a couple months of silence. 

Here are some major accomplishments in 2024:

• The SAG (Swedish American Genealogist) Workshop was my only significant coursework this year. As of a couple of weeks ago, I have processed all of the records that I retrieved during that week. That feels good!
• I had planned to visit the National Archives this year but that got derailed due to scheduling issues here at home. Not sure if I will reschedule or not. But I’ve done quite a bit of preparatory work that will help me out someday whether I do the research myself or hire it out.
• I’ve done some major source-cleaning and error correcting in my genealogy database. I think I spent more hours on this than anything else. 
• I’ve learned a lot about our ancient Frasier Y-DNA. I keep tabs on new DNA matches in the hope of finding new connections.

Here’s what’s in store genealogy-wise for the coming year:

• After going through my notes from the October SAG workshop, I realized I had quite a bit of information about Magnus Johansson, my 3x-great-grandfather. So I pulled it all together and polished it; that’s one of today’s blog posts. It turned into a nine-page document, yet there’s potentially still more information out there about him. Aren’t Swedish genealogy records wonderful?
• Based on research conducted at SAG, I intend to prepare similar biographical profiles for others in the Rudeen paternal line and on the Louis (Lars) Hansson line.
• I am part way through my research on Mathilda Martinson, my great-great-aunt. I got bogged down in land records in Saunders County, trying to figure out which Martinson kids got which farms. Still a work in progress.
• The poor John Martinson Project has been neglected. I’ve got the next post partially written and will try to finish it in February.
• I received the book “24 Famous Swedish Americans and their Ancestors” via interlibrary loan (it is out of print). They have a chapter dedicated to Greta Garbo. The book has detailed family tree listings. Portions of her family tree go back thirteen generations! The books confirms other sources that I have seen about her ancestry and her connection to my family. So I am in the process of adding all the data to my family tree and, of course, verifying against original sources as I go. (I got burned on my Hultman family tree, I won’t make that mistake again!) I’m going to try and find my own copy of the book, who knows what other relatives might be lurking there?
• I still diddle around from time to to time trying to figure out who Peter Dill’s parents were. I wish I had a Y-DNA tester. I’ve made a couple of inquiries to testing candidates but have gotten no responses.
• I intend to donate a Frasier family ledger and a Rudeen family photograph to the Saunders County Historical Society in Wahoo, Nebraska.
• I’ve got some ideas cooking about better management and organization of my digital photograph collection. That will be something I can bite off a little bit at a time and make major progress through the year.
• I will be participating in a study group this year. We will apply what we learn to our own study subject. I think I’ll look into a neglected female ancestor, perhaps Augusta Mathilda Rudeen’s paternal grandmother Maja Lena Israelsdotter and/or her mother.
• I should really pay more attention to Dale’s family tree. 

I could make a list three times this long…so much genealogy, so little time.