Time for a “state of the genealogy” retrospective.
I spent much of 2025 in “housecleaning” mode:
- I moved my genealogy database from TNG (“The Next Generation”) to RootsMagic 11. The main reason for doing this is that I’m worried that TNG is too “niche” and it would be hard for anyone else to pick up my work. RM11 is a mainstream software package that creates robust GEDCOM files and will better preserve my research long-term. I am still using TNG for my online family tree presence and I’m still keeping a local version on my computer just because I like the way it looks. I will still be exporting from RM11 to both TNG installations periodically.
- After moving to RM11, I cleaned up ALL of my Swedish sources and source citations. That took several months, it was painful! Some of my source citations were obviously from the late 1990’s and were pretty bad. I have stuff in my database that has been carried over since the PAF days! I have become very disciplined about citing sources now so I feel like I’m in good shape going forward.
- I landed on Mylio as my software platform for writing metadata to all my historic photos. I’m working my way through my dad’s collection of 1800+ converted slide images. I think I’ve got about 400 done so far. I’d sure like to complete the project in 2026 but that’s a tall order. After that, I’ll need to move on to my own genealogy photo collections (over 5,00o photos 😭). It’s horribly daunting, but “a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
- I renewed my DISBYT membership (a Sweden-based genealogy tree-sharing service) and uploaded my tree. I’m looking forward to connecting with relatives in 2026, it’s a fantastic resource and I have TONS of matches.
Other accomplishments this year:
- I attended the Swedish American Genealogist (SAG) Workshop again this year; always a fantastic experience! It’s a week-long deep dive into Swedish genealogy, hosted at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. They bring in Swedish experts from around the United States and Sweden and we get the best of the best as far as instruction goes. And the people are fun.
- I made 11 blog posts in 2025, which is kind of lame. I’m hoping 2026 will be better with so much of my “housecleaning” work behind me.
- I got through some tricky research for the John Martinson Project and should be able to move a bit faster on that in 2026.
- I’m continuing as the Webmaster for the Swedish Genealogical Society of Colorado and really enjoy hanging with my fellow Swedes each month.
On tap for the blog 2026:
- I accidentally started a “Whatever Happened To” series last year, exploring the fates of Emma Christina Petersdotter and Hilda Maria Petersdotter (both sisters of Gust Rudeen, my great-grandfather). I’ve already started working on Anna Charlotta (Petersdotter) Bjorklund and I’ve even found a new cousin so I hope to report on that soon. That just leaves Carl August Petersson – the sibling who stayed behind.
- I say this every year, haha, but I hope to wrap up the aforementioned John Martinson Project this year.
I am thrilled to report that I am making HUGE strides in my research on my 5x-great-grandfather Peter Dill (an ancestor on the Timmons branch of the family). Interestingly, it’s being fueled by Artificial Intelligence – specifically, Google’s Gemini. I will have much more to say about AI in a future post. Rather than using AI to generate images or write text, I’m using it to direct my research. And I’m “feeding” the AI models with structured data organized into Markdown files using Obsidian. It’s pretty cool and very nerdy/techy, I will write about it soon. But I have made some AMAZING discoveries about the Dill family in Georgia. It’s been fun to do some American research for a change…
It feels so good to make progress on the Dill line and yet the Frasier line is still stuck. I had a promising DNA match this year but the contact went cold. I will try again but will also keep fingers crossed for more matches. There are so many more American lines that I’d like to follow on my mom’s non-Swedish side, and now that I’ve got this Obsidian/AI thing going, I feel like I have the tools I need to make some real progress.
I have deliberately cut back on participating in institutes, classes and webinars (except SAG). Sometimes all of that seems more like entertainment and is all too often a substitute for action and actual research. I do continue to follow the Research Like A Pro podcasts, and have added The Family History AI Show to my routine as well. I listen to those in the car or on walks, so they don’t cut into my research time. I am keeping my subscription to Family Tree Webinars but I use that resource on a targeted, as-needed basis.
I see a lot of the tech nerds posting about their tools as they start the New Year, thought I would give that a try, too:
- 🖥️ Computer: Mac Mini
- ✉️ Mail service: Gmail
- ✅ Tasks: Things 3
- 🗞️ RSS client: News Explorer
- ☁️ Cloud storage: iCloud
- 🌅 Photo library: iCloud
- 🤳🏻 Photo editing: Pixelmator Pro
- 🌐 Web browser: Safari (mostly) and Chrome (as needed)
- 📆 Calendar: Apple
- 🌤️ Weather: Apple
- 🎙️ Podcasts: Apple
- 🎶 Music: Apple Music (in and out of Spotify though)
- 🔐 Passwords: Apple Passwords
- 💸 Budgeting: YNAB
- 🍿 Movie discovery/tracking: Letterboxd
- 💁🏻♂️ Social: Facebook (ugh) and BlueSky (ugh but not as bad)
- 🧩 Morning Games: NY Times – The Mini, Connections, Wordle, Spelling Bee
- 📝 Notes: Apple Notes and Obsidian
- 🔎 Search: Google
- 🧑🧑🧒🧒 Genealogy: RootsMagic 11 and TNG
- ✨ AI chatbot: Gemini Pro and ChatGPT (I cancelled Claude, I might reinstate it and cancel ChatGPT instead)
- ⏲️ Time Tracking: Timery
- 🎛️ Local server: MAMP
- 📠 File transfer: Transmit
- 🚲 Workout: Peloton
- 👩🍳 Recipe App: Paprika
Finally, I got to enter two more names into my database this year: Ryan Louis and Ridge Weston. Grandkids are the best!
