It's the time of year when people stop to take stock of how their year has gone before making plans for the coming year. I was reminded of that recently when the person who runs one of my DNA groups sent out the itinerary for our December meeting. The plan for the meeting is to share our successes/breakthroughs for 2025 and to reveal our genetic genealogy goals for 2026. Nice to do if things have gone well but my year is like the sinking pirate ship in the picture. It has been scuttled by events beyond my control.
I did make a DNA breakthrough in 2024 when I used DNA and genealogical evidence to work out the parents of two of my 2 x great grandmothers, Mary Maidment and Sarah Minister. That task made me aware of the time and concentration needed to make those kinds of breakthroughs. Checking through my family tree, I see there are a few more 2 x greats that I can use similar methods to attach to their parents, so that could be a goal for 2026 but most of those family lines are from the UK which adds to the difficulty.
A more realistic goal for 2026 would be to continue expanding my family tree with the families that ended up in North America because it is more likely that descendants from those lines will have tested their DNA. I want to be able to identify those descendants in my match list. And then, if I have time, I hope to be in fine form to start working on the Acadian lines that attach to mine through marriage. Maybe I'll be better equipped to deal with those entangled genealogies once I've straightened out my own North American family links.
