Looking Back at 2010

It just seems appropriate to be retrospective today, the last day of 2010. This year was filled at it's onset like all others with great promise that somehow became derailed. For the first time in my life, I experienced a time of poor health. And, of course, I picked an illness in Guillain Barre Syndrome that I had never heard of and couldn't even pronounce properly. I now feel I have a certain expertise in the affliction - and I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

When 2010 started, I posted that I had five genealogy related resolutions: to cite sources for all the facts in my genealogy database; to organize my hard copy family history records; to maintain and deepen my family connections with cousins around the world; to continue collaborating with other family historians/genealogists; and, to get more involved in the local genealogy community. Not much progress was made with resolutions two and five but I did okay with the others. I have put some real effort into citing my sources though at times I wonder if the task will ever be complete. I continue to enjoy relationships with an ever growing number of cousins around the world with whom collaborating on our family's history is a great joy.

On January 24th, I shared the recollections of Sara (Caskey) Breithaupt, the wife of Ellen's cousin Louis Orville Breithaupt, regarding their attendance at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. To date, this post remains the most popular of all my blog posts. On February 19th, I had the opportunity to introduce you to Shape Collage, a free software product that is used to generate photo collages in a variety of shapes. The software is still available so I recommend you give it a try.

2010 was filled with conversation about the NBC television show "Who Do You Think You Are?" that shone a spotlight on genealogy by showing celebrities as they discovered their family history. On a personal note, 2010 saw a very successful Ontario Genealogical Society annual conference. I shared a conference lunch with Lisa Louise Cooke and Dave Obee - and my post reporting on the conference got me a mention in Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog - pretty 'heady' stuff from my perspective.



The big event however for 2010 was the wedding of my son, John to Maryann (Grubisic), pictured above. The wedding was a true celebration of the happy couple: a time filled with laughter, dance, story-telling and, more than a few tears. The wedding also produced a rare occasion where a photo was taken of my father and his three 'kids.' Pictured below, from left to right, Ian Hadden, Lou-Anne Hadden Doody, Lewis Hadden, and Bob Hadden.


Finally, 2010 saw our cousin, Pamela Gaull become a published author through her first novel, "The Darkness of Dreams." We're all quite proud of our wee cousin for such a significant achievement!

I don't know what 2011 has in store for me but I'm resolved to not develop GBS again. I am equally resolved to return to the family fonds holding about 125 linear feet of records for Ellen's family at the University of Waterloo and, in addition, to finding and documenting the lost graves of some ancestors. It should be a busy time.

May the New Year bring health and prosperity to all of you!