While research leads turned into dead ends, I began to focus on updating my genealogy database, making up for my carelessness in the early days. You know, entering data based on reliable sources, usually with documents I had saved electronically on my computer hard drive, but no sources cited. Who needed a source citation when I had the original document? When I had finally realized the error of my ways, I suspected that my database really couldn't be in too bad a shape. Wrong again!
Lots of great information and facts about the 12,000+ ancestors are contained in the database however, my rookie way of thinking left me without having all of the facts displayed with proper source citations. Even though I find it easy to add the citations with my RootsMagic 4 software, it is nonetheless very time consuming. In addition to citing the sources, I have been attaching the supporting documents to the facts and although this takes just a few extra computer 'clicks,' it does represent even more time especially because I don't always remember where I filed the original document!
So, although I have been somewhat absent from blogging, I have been tediously busy with genealogy! The only time saver for me has been using a new computer that is so much faster at completing tasks than the five plus years old computer that I thought might last until I retire from my day job next summer. Lesson learned - when it takes twenty minutes for your computer to start up, it's time for a new computer!
As a footnote, I can't let today pass without mentioning that today is the 'anniversary of my death!' While that sounds a bit (?) melodramatic, it was on this date one year ago that I 'flatlined' while in the intensive care unit of our local hospital. I guess if you are going to have that experience, being in the intensive care unit is the best place possible. While I have some clear memories of that day, the moment of crisis is not one of them. Based on what the doctors, nurses and my wife, Ellen, have told me, the ascending paralysis caused by Guillain-Barre Syndrome managed to reach my chest, causing me to stop breathing and subsequently go into complete arrest. Ellen had been called into the hospital very early that morning by the nurses who had been observing my rapidly declining health. She arrived just as the medical emergency was called.
If not for the quick actions by the hospital's medical staff, I wouldn't be here today. I certainly owe them a huge debt of thanks!
Glad you're back and doing better, Ian!
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