It's Monday, which means it's time to offer up the fruits of my weekend brainstorming session. Which only sort of happened. But here goes. This blog is now officially about anything that is even remotely related to public history and public history research. I'm particularly interested in genealogy and architectural history, as well as the sort of thing they do on History Detectives - looking for the provenance of a particular object. Some of it will be about my own family history, while some of it will be about the research process, or anything else regarding public history that I happen to think interesting on a particular day. Wednesday will be family story day. I'll offer up a bit of my own family's past - the more interesting bits, I hope - to entertain and enlighten my dear readers. So that's it.

So for today's genealogy bit.... This weekend I checked two books out from my local library. First, a basic genealogy book on how to get started with your research. The fact is, though I've done lots of archival research looking up other people's history, I've never done what I would consider actual genealogy research. So I thought I'd start with this very basic book. Second, The Great Republic by Sir Winston Churchill. My boyfriend recently expressed surprise that I would be interested in being a historian of any sort because I have no interest in history. That is not true. What I have no interest in is memorizing dates, or, history as it is taught in our public schools today. Sir Winston is thus going to help me fill in the gaps in my American history knowledge.

As I mentioned above, I've been watching a lot of PBS's History Detectives lately. I even added it to my DVR recordings, which I almost never do. I don't like to have too many television shows to watch because it keeps me from doing other things. But History Detectives is great. It's reminded me how very much I loved the archival courses I took in grad school, especially the course in recognizing forgeries! Watching the show motivates me to get back to this thing that I so wanted to do then. My problem was that I didn't want to be an archivist - I wanted to do archival research. And at the same time I thought I wanted to work with kids, so I changed my focus to Public Library Children's Services, despite the wonderful mentor I had in the Archival field. Looking back I wish I hadn't done that, but at the time it really felt like the right thing for me. So now here I am three years later trying to squeeze my way back into the archives by doing public history. I just hope I can make the time to get in there, and not just think and write about it.

This blog has only been up and running for about a month, and I'm already having to re-assess and make some changes. But I figure it's better to do that now while there is probably no one reading it anyway than to do it sometime in the future when I (hopefully) have readers. I've been looking closely at some of the blogs I read and enjoy on a daily basis and have decided that I need an overarching theme and a gimmick. For example, one blog I absolutely love, The Happiness Project, makes every Wednesday tip day. So I'm going to go off and do a little brainstorming this weekend on what my weekly "thing" could be. I also want to be completely upfront and honest here - this blog is going to be used to make money. First, I've joined Google AdSense. I haven't set it up yet, but I will this weekend. Second, I'm working toward blogging at least three times a week so that I can join Blogitive. Blogitive gives you opportunities to review other websites and products in your blog, and get paid to do so! Not all of my blog posts are going to be based on Blogitive, and I will always make clear when they are. I'm not in this to fool anyone - I'm in it to get experience blogging and make a little money while I do it. So stay tuned, by Monday this blog will have changed a bit, and I'll be ready to unveil my new "once-a-week gimmick."

It has recently come to my attention (or rather, I've been ignoring until recently) that I am very much in debt and need to do something to help myself out of it. To that end, I'm going to be doing a lot more blogging, making some changes to the blog, and joining a few "pay for content" sites like schvoong.com and helium.com. This does NOT mean that I am giving up on the genealogical research goal, just that I am putting it on the back burner and extending my time frame a bit. After all, the simple fact is, I have a great job that I love and no reason to want out of it any time soon. The professional researcher dream is destined to be a second, mid-life, career change - not an immediate future thing. The immediate future must involve doing everything in my power to make extra money that I can put directly toward my debts. The ultimate goal here is to get my credit score up (honestly, I've been afraid to check it, but I'm sure it's lower than it was two years ago when I last checked it) so that I can someday afford a bigger and better house and a life that doesn't involve living from paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes I wish I'd chosen a more lucrative career path, but then I remember two things. First, I love what I do. Second, I know that if I put my mind to, someday I'll make money doing what I love to do. That keeps me going.

Hello again! My primary job has gotten crazy over the past few weeks, leaving me little time to think about anything else. So my blog and my self-training for an information broker career have been pushed to the side. At least, physically they've been pushed to the side. I've still been thinking about the "secondary career" idea incessantly. I'm just trying to figure out how to fit it into my schedule without sacrificing quality at the primary job. That's yet to be worked out. It will involve a meeting with my boss in the hopes that she will be a little lenient with my schedule. I plan to propose that I work from 7am until 5pm, but with a two-hour lunch break in the middle of the day to allow me access to records offices and courthouses that are only open 9-5.

And I think I may have settled on a specialty. More or less, anyway. I want to do geneaological research. Which is slightly different from being an information broker, but not significantly. The main difference, as far as I can tell, is that instead of working for companies, a genealogist works for individuals and families. I like that idea. I'm also fascinated with public history, so this would be a great way to earn a living doing something I love.

My first step is going to be familiarizing myself with local resources. I'm going to talk to my best friend's mom who grew up in Huntsville and see if she'll let me research her family. I've been going through all the free online classes I can find, and I want to take some of the pay classes too, like the ones from the National Genealogical Society, but that'll have to wait until the budget is under control. And someday - after I've been earning a living as a genealogist long enough to make it my primary job - I want to get my PhD in Public History. Though, I reserve the right to change my mind on that last point. I want a PhD in a lot of things.

So wish me luck, dear readers (if there are any of you out there), as I try to fit training for a second career into my schedule.