Since I began blogging in August 2013, I made an effort to never miss a single month as an opportunity to share a snippet of family history on this blog. Over the course of three years, I shared over one hundred research findings, favorite old photographs, and updates on my experiences at genealogy conferences and beyond. However, this past August, a special new addition to our family meant all self-imposed deadlines were off.

Despite the blogging hiatus and the transition to full-time motherhood, which I absolutely love, 2016 was still a banner year for my personal genealogical endeavors:

• I attended the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and shared what I learned on Adventures in Genealogy Education, a blog by Angela McGhie. While in Salt Lake City, I also logged a number of hours with old German records on microfilm at the Family History Library.
• The NextGen Genealogy Network continued to occupy my time, and I contributed a resource for societies interested in engaging young genealogists. My proposal to lead a panel discussion on the same topic at the 2017 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree was recently accepted, and I look forward to the discussion with a fun team of panelists.
• Speaking of the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, I attended in 2016 for the fourth time, hosted a meetup of the NextGen Genealogy Network, and was honored to receive the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Genealogy Grant, with many thanks to Denise Levenick, blogger behind The Family Curator.
• Through the month of August, I also continued in the position of editor of the APG eNews for the Association of Professional Genealogists, as well as in a volunteer position as a proofreader of the NGS Magazine for the National Genealogical Society. I thoroughly enjoyed being involved with these incredible organizations.
• In addition, I was featured on Geneabloggers, wrote about my passion for antique photographs for MyCanvas, completed several memorable client projects (including copyediting Deborah Sweeney’s Lots of Love, Daddy: The World War II Letters of Roscoe and Gladys Yegerlehner), delved more deeply into DNA research, conducted interviews, photographed family historical sites in South Dakota, and made some exciting research discoveries of my own—along with, of course, adding a new generation to the family tree…

2017 is likely to be a less-involved year, genealogically-speaking, but I look forward to researching, writing, and sharing many more family history stories in the months to come!