A Marathon, not a Sprint

It's been an eventful few days.  I had ten copies of my mother-in-law's family history book printed to distribute to relatives.  This one I did myself on word and inserted all the photographs, then took it to Fed Ex Office and had them print it double-sided and then bind it.  It isn't as good as a professionally printed book, but since we only needed a few copies, it worked just fine.  As long as everyone treats it carefully, it can last a long time. 

I also sent off the Eterovic book to the book designer, finally!  I had thought it would be ready to print by now, but the book project snowballed and as we met more and more cousins, we were referred to more and more relatives who had information we wanted to include. So things were delayed a bit.  Now it will be a matter of phone calls and emails between me and the designer to get the book to look exactly as we want it to.  In the meantime, my daughter in law is designing the cover.  The next step, about six weeks from now, will be to send everything to the printer, and by late June or early July, we should have the book. 

So with those books completed, I had to choose my next project.  And with our upcoming trip to Ireland, I decided to start with the Irish research.  Almost a year ago, I paid for a preliminary search by a genealogy firm in Ireland.  They found some promising areas to research and I just hired them to continue and see if they can find anything else in the records.  Ireland's records are very spotty, most of the census records from the 1800s having been destroyed intentionally or unintentionally, so I don't know how much we may find, but at least I'll know if we've reached a dead end or not.  The history I have only begins with my 2nd great grandparents, Ned and Mary Brennan, who came to America in 1861.  Before that, I have only names, and even those I'm unsure of.  So we'll see. 

I also want to research my paternal grandmother's family - the Shaw family and their ancestors.  There is a possible connection to the early American colonies and I need to confirm two generations with very few sources available to me.  I have recently sent for a book on the Bland family - one crucial line - and have been searching through it for clues, but I may have to go to source records in Ohio and other states.  That will mean some interesting travel and I'm up for that. 

A researcher in the Czech Republic once told me genealogy is not a sprint, it's a marathon, and I now understand what he means.  I have much more to learn and discover about my side of the family, and even with my husband's family history books complete, there is still more to discover about his family.  So, after a short break to relax and recover from the last two projects, I'll be back in the archives, learning what I can about the people who made it possible for me to even be here.