Fear comes in many different forms

Ok, this post is a bit, well, unusual.  However, if it struck me it might also hit someone else out there in the same way.  Besides, I tend to believe that if I write it down then it has to happen…

This past week I was catching up on one of my favorite podcasts, The Genealogy Professional Podcast hosted by Marian Pierre-Louis.  Yes, I tend to binge listen to podcasts, that’s just the way the cards fall in my life at times.  Needless to say I found myself driving through the wilds of Virginia this week catching up on the last couple months of the show.

If you have not listened to this podcast I highly recommend it.  Even if you are not a professional genealogist, it is still really good information and gives you great ideas, insights, and things to think about concerning the business side in field of genealogy.  Besides, everyone has a great story to tell, and these professional have some amazing ones! 

To show you how far behind in my listening I was, the first one up was episode 29 with Lisa Louise Cooke from Genealogy Gems which aired June 16th. Anyway… Lisa said something that had me scratching my head and doing some soul searching.  This happens occasionally, but honestly the topic was relevant to how I was feeling at the time so it really clicked.

Marian does a “lightening round” at the end of the show where she asks some fast passed questions and expects equally fast answers.  One of the staple questions asks simply what can listeners do in the next 24 hours to help them transition into a genealogy career.  There are always good pieces of advice given here, everyone has a unique perspective, but for some reason Lisa’s answer struck me like a 2x4 up side of the head.

It was simple.  START! She went on to say that “You have to take action” and “doing nothing is doing something, it’s failing.  It’s ensuring that you are going to fail.”  Wow, well that was powerful.  It also made me want to beat my head against the steering wheel.  Cue 2x4.

You see I can be a very fearful and scared person when it comes to my future.  I am full of anxiety, what ifs, and other detrimental thoughts that can paralyze me in my tracks.  Sometimes I will completely talk myself out of doing something before it even has a chance because of those “what if” thoughts.  Thinking about what she said made me look closer at myself over the next few days. 

It struck me like a ton of bricks. What if it is not a fear of failure but a fear of success that is holding me back and causing the problems with where I want to go and what I am doing?  Failing is easy, it is just letting entropy take over and not doing follow through.  Success is much, much harder.  You have to work at it.

With success you have more responsibilities to say the least.  It brings deadlines, goals, those next steps to take you to the next level, and so on.  Then there are the other factors that I don’t think a lot of people really think about.

In this business it is not all about you, the genealogist.  It can quickly become about your brand, your influence, your clients, your followers, and so much more.  As a perfectionist, a bit of a control freak, and someone who dwells on the details success if a very daunting and frightening prospect.  Do I have the time, energy, or drive to even do that?  Plus at any moment I could run into the cold wall of rejection and failure.

Don’t get me wrong, I am intimately familiar with rejection and failure.   The stack of rejections from conferences or ideas that weren’t “quite what we are looking for” is quite substantial.  However, is that failure?  I thought it was at first.  I mean really, look at all those people who don’t want me or my ideas.  That’s failure right? But it’s not!  Those are really successes because I put myself out there.  I keep putting myself out there too, and for an entrepreneur and budding business owner that is key.  I have to keep putting myself, and my brand, out there. 

The key is to pick yourself back up off the ground by your boot straps and keep on trucking.

Nothing happens overnight and it is going to take months if not years to carve out my little niche in the genealogy world, but by golly I am going to celebrate every little victory.  I am not going to ensure my failure by inaction.  You are right Lisa, you just have to start.

August is going to be a big month.  Hope you will stick around to see what happens.  Big plans, big ideas, and swallowing that fear are all forecasted… 

Book Review and Contest Winner

I have discovered another podcast that I LOVE, oh yeah all caps LOVE.  It is Fieldstone Common by Marian Pierre-Louis.  This show covers New England history and genealogy through 1 hour interviews with people who have knowledge of this area.  So far there have been curators, archivists, authors, and genealogists on her show and we are only a little over a month in.

Her show is at 1pm EST Thursdays on Blogtalk Radio.  Until 2 weeks ago I had been unable to listen to it live as I was out running errands or at other appointments on those days.  I was so excited that I would actually be home for one!  When the time came to listen I turned my computer up all the way and sat down to do some work at my kitchen table.

That particular show was an interview with John Thomas Grant on his book Final Thoughts: Eternal Beauty in Stone.  Until this show I was unfamiliar with his work, but I love taking pictures; much to the amusement of my family.  My husband sighs when we are out and tells the boys to pause while "mom is being artistic again."  While I am not a great photographer, I have admiration for those who are and enjoy looking at books of pictures to study their techniques.   

 

Mr. Grant is a cemetery photographer and listening to him tell his stories of uncovering headstones, techniques to bring the marble to life, and the reasons he does what he does held me in rapt attention.  I decided half way through the program I was going to call in for the chance at winning the free book; I had to see it!

The time came to call, and imagine my surprise when I found myself on the radio!  I wasn't sure if she was talking to me at first, but decided since no one else answered I must be live... on the air... gulp.  This is when I discovered my voice goes up in pitch when I get excited and I think I sound like some sort of spunky elf on the radio.  There is not future as a regular podcaster for me!  Well, not unless I can bring my voice down an octave that is. 

Marian mailed me my copy and I received it late last week.  It is amazing.  He is a phenomenal photographer and there are times where he makes them so life like I am waiting for the statues to turn around!  Each page also contains words from the headstones he has photographed, and it adds to the flavor and ambiance of the book.  I recommend it to anyone who is interested in photography, graveyards, or beautiful moments. 

Fieldstone Common is available through iTunes as well as the website.  Go check it out!

Lookie at that: a mention on Genealogy Gems Podcast

In the spring of 2011 my good friend Elizabeth turned me on to a podcaster, genealogist, lecturer, and author by the name of Lisa Louise Cooke.  She is the host of Genealogy Gems, and it is a true gem for anyone interested in family history research.

She is the reason I am sitting here writing to you today.  Lisa encourages all her listeners to write and publish their own family history blogs.  Getting your information out there is the best way to connect with others who are also searching for those same ancestors.  Collaboration is one of the fantastic things that genealogists love to do.  The connections I have made prove that, and I can’t believe it took me so long to take that plunge and meet all of you.  Last December I wrote to her telling her about how she was a driving force in doing this.

Her latest podcast came out this week, and imagine my stunned surprise when I heard my name on it.  Her last segment of the show is about listeners who have taken the plunge and written their own blogs.  At one point she calls me the “poster child for genealogists and why we should blog.”  Wow.  I mean… really wow.  I was standing in my living room folding clothes when I heard that and my jaw fell open.  After I regained my senses I was more than honored that she used my letter on her show.

You can listen to her podcasts though iTunes or her website.  Also Check out Lisa’s other podcasts, Family History: Genealogy Made Easy, and Family Tree MagazinePodcast.

photo credit: Colleen AF Venable via photopin cc

Week 12 of Abundant Genealogy

Week 12 - Podcasts make it easy to learn about genealogy on the go. Which podcast is your favorite? Who hosts it and how has that person, pair or group helped your family history research?

The very first podcast I ever listened to was a genealogy podcast.  I was just starting into this obsession, ahem, hobby, and a good friend of mine told me I should check out the Genealogy Gems Podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke.  After I got over the fear of downloading it from iTunes, and figured out how it all worked, I fell in love with it. 

She has such a warm welcoming tone, talked right at my level, and made the hour so much fun!  Very quickly I discovered her other podcasts (Family History Made Easy and Family Tree Magazine) and began listening to them as well.  Heck, she gave me the courage to start this blog, taught me how to do it, and look at what I have done with it.

From there I have branched out into several other shows, each bringing their own flavor to the world of genealogy.  I have to admit, for a busy mom who lives out of her car, this is a great alternative to the radio!  It is compact easy learning while I am out and about.  Yes jotting down a bit of information while you drive is not a good thing, but all I have to do to find it again is rewind or look at show notes.

*Image: Colleen AF Venable via photopin cc

Book Review of Annie’s Ghosts

Last October I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, Genealogy Gems by Lisa Louise Cooke, and heard a fantastic interview with Steve Luxenberg on his novel Annie’s Ghosts.  Her two part interview (episodes 120 and 121) had me glued to the iPod and sparked more than a passing interest to find out what happened in the end.  Lucky for me I was given an iTunes gift card for an early Christmas present and I downloaded a copy first thing to read during our travels.

You can read a wonderful description of the book, by the author himself, on his website.  The press section of the website has some wonderful links to other articles that have been written about the book’s release and people featured in it.  There is a section there as well called behind the book filled with pictures and documents the author used in writing the book.  Personally, I wouldn’t read it until after you read the book; I feel it would be more meaningful then. 

So…my opinion of the book?  I loved it.  It was part history lesson, part detective novel all with an eye to find out who this mysterious Annie was.  In particular I enjoyed how he wound the background information into his narrative giving the reader the information they needed to understand where he would be taking them next in the story.  It was enlightening to read about the care of patients in mental hospitals and just how easy it was to have someone "locked away" less than a hundred years ago.  Reading the sections about escape during the holocaust were gut-wrenching; however it added poignant scenes that needed to be told for full understanding of the situations in the story.

He also gives me hope that I could one day write about all those secrets and mysteries I have yet to fully uncover in my family. 

Week 1 of Abundant Genealogy

Week 1 – Blogs: Blogging is a great way for genealogists to share information with family members, potential cousins and each other. For which blog are you most thankful? Is it one of the earliest blogs you read, or a current one? What is special about the blog and why should others read it?

Wow, this is quite the question isn’t it?  I have gone from reading no blogs, to dozens in about 6 months.  Each one is unique, and helps in different ways with my family history journey.  Picking one is a real gut wrencher, so here are a couple of my favorite and the reasons why.

Daily Genealogist, by NEHGS:  This blog has been a wonderful source of current information, historical stories, happenings at the society, and editorial pieces.  I love reading the “Name Origins” articles; there have been some interesting naming practices over the years!

Genealogy Tip of the Day, by Michael John Neill:  He has wonderful little tid-bits every day that keep me coming back for more.  There is information on sources, research strategies, trips, webinars, and conferences.  If you haven’t check out his site (or his Facebook page) you should.  He has several other blogs too that might be of interest to you as well; all are listed on his blog's homepage.

GenealogyBlog, by Leland and Patty Meitzler:  Leland calls this his “free daily online genealogy nautamagazine” and it lives up to the name.  You can find a plethora of varied information here on the genealogy community.  Each day I learn something new or find out about a new source of information that I have to go and check out.

Now I challenge you to go out and read a blog, or ten.  If you have not read any of the thousands of family history blogs out there I encourage you to do so.  Start out by checking out GeneaBloggers where you can look through the listing of genealogy and family history blogs that they have had submitted to them.  Thomas MacEntee does a fantastic job with this site, and has a weekly podcast, GeneaBloggers Radio, you should check out to.  If you don't want to listen to it on the computer you can download it from iTunes after the show.

*Image from the Library of Congress, Children learn art from computers at the ArtWorks center in the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama

Online Resources

I have started to read a lot of blogs over the last few months.  Mainly to get an idea of what was out there, but also because there are some really good resources in the blogosphere.  I have to admit that until recently, I really didn’t read blogs.  A friend would post an article on Facebook or live journal and I would click on over to read about what they were talking about; but I was not an on line reader.  Hard to believe coming from a 30-something huh?

To be honest, I never listened to podcasts either.  Don’t look at me like that.  The radio was just fine, especially since I have satellite, so I didn’t really see the need or interest in it.  Yes, I heard people going on about this podcast, or that podcast, and wasn’t so-and-so’s really neat…still didn’t get it.  However, when you start out brand new in something, and you are winging your education, blogs and podcasts seem like your new best friends. 

Some of my favorite blogs are listed on the side of this site.  But those are not the only ones I “check-out” by far.  I have been using Google reader to gather them all into one spot and reduce the amount of clicking and page hopping I was doing.  Sometimes I am sure my husband just shakes his head at all these “new” discoveries I am making.  He can’t deny it either, as there is this look he gets in his eye as I am telling him something he has known for ages.

There are also some very good free podcasts out there I encourage anyone interested in genealogy to go and listen to.  They are not all just from genealogists either.  NARA has a good series, as does the British National Archives.  For you history enthusiasts out there, you can’t imagine how many history centered podcasts there are.

So go forth and check out some cool online media.  I am going to hunker down for a few days and do the final holiday prep-work that needs to be done.  Happy Holidays! 

*Image from the Library of Congress, Agnes Lee, standing, with arm around older daughter, (Agnes Lee), seated, reading newspaper(?) on lap