Sitting in a Snowstorm, Thinking of Summer

It's been a beautiful day today, watching the snow fall from the window of my office, and now, cozied up at home in my pjs... but I can't help but think ahead to the warm days of summer. One of my genealogy goals for 2011 is to go "on location" somewhere. The closest option was Cabell County, West Virginia... about a 6 hour drive (but only an hour or so from my grandfather's house in southern Ohio.) I've also considered North Carolina, in hopes of uncovering the parents of James Hamilton Cummons. However, over the past few days, a little idea has been forming, and it seems that my husband is in favor of it (after all... I can't haul him off to Timbuktoo, then leave him stranded while I do research the whole time, can I? Hmmm... can I? heehee).

I'm thinking of Maryland. In particular, Point Lookout, Maryland... site of the confederate prison camp where the before-mentioned James Hamilton Cummons was held POW before pledging his allegience to the Union army. You can read about Point Lookout at mycivilwar.com

What gave me the idea was a web page I ran across this weekend for the Descendants of Point Lookout POW Organization. In May, they are hosting a "pilgrimage" to the site, which could be interesting, or admitedly cheesy... so I'm not 100% sold on going THAT weekend. I think I need more information. However, the location is gorgeous, and from the sounds of it, there is plenty of interesting things to see and experience there.

Of course, on the way to Point Lookout, we would pass through the nation's capitol, which I've only been privileged to see once before (and that, for only a short afternoon during my college years, with friends who were more concerned with finding the Hard Rock Cafe, than taking in American history. Thankfully, the Hard Rock was just down the street from Ford Theater, so at least I got something out of the experience.)

But for now, it's all just a snowy evening dream. By the time warm weather comes, and it's actually time to plan a vacation, I may have uncovered a new piece of family history, and decided on a new place to haul my dear husband!

Genea-Goals for 2011

It's time I get some direction with this blog, and decide where I want to go, and what I want to accomplish this year!

1. I would like to organize my blog by family names, if possible. I tend to jump around with my research, and I think it gets confusing when going back and reading through my blog. I see that you can add stand alone pages, but I'm not sure if that's what I need or not. Does anyone have any suggestions?

2. I need to branch out. I rely so heavily on ancestry.com that when, like now, I have an expired subscription, I flounder, and my research comes to a stand still. I've been to other sites, had some good finds with a free trial on footnote.com, but I keep coming back to ancestry.

3. I want to blog at least once a week about my ancestry. Even if I haven't uncovered any new information, there are stories to be told, people who need to be remembered. They deserve my attention.

4. I want to research "on location" for my Cummons ancestors, firstly in Huntington, WVA, and then on to Guilford County, North Carolina. I've never done any hands on research before, and won't even know where to begin searching court house records and such like, but I can't help but wonder what treasures are out there that haven't made it to the internet yet!

5. Hopefully, if I can achieve goals 1-4, it will lead me to goal number 5... find concrete information on the parents of James Hamilton Cummons, and with any luck, be able to pinpoint where in Ireland my Cummons ancestors came from, and when they made it to the states!

Well, that's a lot to accomplish, but seeing it all spelled out gives me hope that I'm moving in the right direction! It's time to get my genealogy boots back on!