A few years ago I had great intentions of participating in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge created and maintained by Amy Johnson Crow. Yeah, I failed.

Why did I fail? I’m not really sure except recently I’ve discovered that I struggle with Executive Functioning skills required to plan & break down tasks into bite size chunks. I also am easily distracted by bright, shiny objects a.k.a. new databases, ancestry “hints” and dna technology.

So I’m at a complete loss as whether I should commit to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. According to the “Let’s Get Started” email that Amy sent out, I don’t have to worry if I can’t do all 52 weeks because “anything that you do will be more than what you had before you started”. True enough. Here’s my start:

This week’s prompt is “Foundation”.

Merriem-Webster defines “Foundation” as “a basis (such as a tenet, principle, or axiom) upon which something stands or is supported” which leads me to think not about a specific ancestor, but rather my entire tree and the research behind it. For me high quality, well-documented research is the foundation of my tree. It always has been. I will not add a person or relationship to my tree until I have the genealogical proof that he or she belongs in my tree. I love sources. I love documents. My dopamine seeking brain will only move on to another task if I have discovered and documented the proof I am looking for.

Over the years I have accumulated alot of proof. Newspaper clippings, death records, marriage records. Hundreds of documents that sit on my hard-drive collecting dust. These documents represent the Foundation of my tree and it is my intention to use the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge to bring these documents to light.