I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: January 31, 2026: January Genealogy Fun

Prompt:

“What genealogy fun have you had this past month?  What is your genealogy research highlight of the past month?  It could be attending or watching a webinar or local genealogy society meeting, it could be finding a new ancestor, or it could be reading a new genealogy book, or anything else that you have enjoyed.”

Introduction

As New Year’s resolutions are in full swing, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much genealogy fun I’ve packed into January.

Looking back, a lot of this month’s fun centered on continuity—building, revisiting, and sharing. My runners-up include:

• I received the printed 2025 edition of my Ancestors book – I have written up all the ancestors of my children. The first edition was basically a report from my genealogy software, and each year I clean up and enhance another generation. 2025 was the year I focused on the sixth generation back from my children.
• I decided to participate for a second year in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks but with a twist – the week number corresponds to the ancestor number in the book above, so I have an assigned person every week, and hit everyone until the sixth generation.
• I started participating in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun #SNGF – as evidenced by this post. The idea was to have a little more fun and cut loose a little more than I do in the 52 ancestors posts.
• I got going on my new blog website – I moved from janetbgenealogy.wordpress.com to theancestorwhisperer.com – with thanks to Megan Smolenyak for the domain.
• My uncle sent me an autograph book filled out for an aunt in the 1880s – it contains my ancestor’s autograph under her maiden name. He found it cleaning out his father’s, my grandfather’s, things after the latter’s death.

January Highlight

 But the genealogy task I got the biggest kick out of in January was – I started leading an Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group (AI SIG) at the Northwest Suburban Genealogy Society! We meet on the first Wednesday of the month and the first meeting went very well! I learned only yesterday that the handout was downloaded scores of times. How gratifying is that! I’m preparing for February’s meeting and am excited to see the direction this goes.

Challenge

What genealogy thing did you do that you’re most pleased with? What might be a next step in furthering your success? It doesn’t need to be a big project; sometimes the most satisfying progress comes from taking just one small next step.

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own (and the prompt was Randy Seaver’s).