The year started out normal but by start of March news and events of the virus now known as COVID-19 changed everything. Here are some of things that I was able to accomplish during this year for my business and endeavors in Genealogy.

1. In early April I participated in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s COVID-19 Journal Project. The Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections sent out a request for people to participate in a journal project to document their daily activities, views, and thoughts on personal events during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Individual participants could document in various formats, textual journals in digital format, traditional writing, video, web-based journals, blogs, and other formats that meet the needs of those participating. I did a daily journal for 2 and half months or April through June 2020, with various thoughts of my day, world events and other personal insights I felt were relevant to share. My hope was that some of my words would offer future researchers some insight into how one citizen viewed the world and events during very changing world of 2020. If I am lucky, some future historian or genealogists in 100 yrs might review my journal and see something they thought was interesting or funny. I enjoyed the experience and it felt like I was also giving back to an institution I highly respect and use today – Wisconsin Historical Society.
2. I was fortunate that I had a few clients established for work in late 2019. I was able to work steady on several genealogy and history projects with the Pope Farm Conservancy and Friends of the Pope Farm Conservancy for 8 months this year. A link to some of the work is included in their final project entitled “The History of Pope Farms: Owners, Settlers, and Farmers” is a product of the Friends of Pope Farm Conservancy Education Team. See https://www.popefarmconservancy.org/stories-of-the-land/the-history-of-pope-farms/ Rettammel Genealogy Service is given acknowledgement on page iii. I thank Mel Pope, Chair of the Friends of Pope Farm Conservancy for his request of my service. It was great to learn from him and also research the historical families that came from Germany and settled on farms in the Town of Middleton area in the 1850s and 1860s.
3. On the continued education in the genealogy field I am in the process of taking steps to become a certified genealogists through the Board of Certification of Genealogists (BCG). To actual start the clock in early 2021, I am currently busy being involved in a monthly Certification Accountability Group via Zoom. The participates are those currently on the clock and those who plan to submit the BCG Application in 2021. The group has met a couple times and we all indicate what we are working on, what we accomplished in the past month and what we plan for the next month. So far it has focused my efforts on the requirements for becoming certified by 2022. I have a good start on my chosen Case Study requirement, I am nearing my completion the Development Activities requirement, I have a Research Report Prepared for Another Person requirement picked, and an idea for the KDP Project requirement (Kinship-Determination Project). So that is keeping busy and a better genealogist for the future.

Looking forward to 2021 and better times for all genealogists doing interesting work