Thinking About 2014 Resolutions

Thomas MacEntee has a great post for December 30, 2013, entitled “2014: Putting the “Gee” Back in Genealogy,” at http://geneabloggers.com/2014-putting-gee-genealogy/. In this post with a great leading image, Thomas shares his genealogy goals for 2014, and talks about “Reclaiming the Wonder of Genealogy.” I like how he talks about a kinder, gentler genealogy community too, sort of like in the good ‘ole pre-computer days of a SASE with every query. The article is a good read and provides some food for thought, as do so many of Thomas’ posts. I am definitely a follower of his blogs and always enjoy and learn from his webinars.

As an aside, I really like his title because it suggests the ‘proper’ way, i.e., the way I think,  “genealogy” should be pronounced. All those phonics lessons in a midwestern Catholic school would require that first “e” in “genealogy” to be a long vowel- if a short vowel, it would be spelled “gennealogy.” Additionally, since the first syllable is “ge-,” again, Sister Mary Phyllis would insist that “e” be long. It seems these days that the short-vowel “gennealogists” are now out-numbering the long-vowel “genealogists,” and now dictionaries include both pronunciations. (Long “e” first though in all I checked.) So I guess I just need to move on and direct my energies to finding the parents of Wiley Anderson Murrell (1806-1885, see http://heritageramblings.net/2013/12/09/mystery-monday-the-murrells-of-virginia-and-iowa/), rather than worrying about pronunciation of my favorite hobby.

Happy 2014 to all!