PODCAST Episode 217: Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020! (with transcript)

It’s been a year, you know? Like, a YEAR. In fact, this has been Year 2 of From Paper To People, and it saw some successes as well as some…shortcomings. This is my chance to mull over what worked and where I fell short, and to thank all of the people who have supported the podcast with reviews, participation, or through Patreon support. I also discuss what’s coming in 2020. CLINK! Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 217 of From Paper To People. My name is Carolynn ni Lochlainn, and I am your hostess with the mostest, come to say Happy 2020 to you!!! Yes, It’s the last episode of Season 2! January 3rd of 2020 will mark the first day of the Season 3 of From Paper To People. This means that I am thinking about the successes and shortcomings of 2019, and making my gratitude list. If any of this flies past you, know that everything I discuss, every link I cite, is in the show notes.

First thing, I’d like to say that I didn’t get everything done this year that I would have liked to, and I appreciate your patience with me. I wanted to get an episode out every week, and that definitely did not happen. I recorded some episodes, but haven’t edited them yet, so I know that some interviewees are wondering what the heck happened there. I shot for goals that circumstances ruled out in 2019, and for that I apologize.

Then again, 2019 saw a massive redesign in my website, increased activity on Instagram (@ancestorsalive) and on my Patreon blog (patreon.com/ancestorsalive), and me getting honest with you about how depression and PTSD make some performance levels hard to maintain. That honesty took a load off my mind. Also, I started a new daily newsletter called The Ancestors Alive! Daily that you can subscribe to at paper.li/AncestorsAlive/1557599531#/. You’ll get it in your email. And I created TONS of new products at Zazzle, most with vintage art of some kind or other but also plenty of items with the podcast’s logo. You can follow the store and shop for goodies at zazzle.com/store/fppppodcast. That ought to entertain you whenever you feel like seeing some truly weird t-shirts, mugs, and housewares. And best of all, I made the podcast 100% accessible by posting complete transcripts of almost all of the episodes in my blog. Those transcripts are translatable to different languages using the Google Translate extension, and now you can download all transcripted episodes as copyrighted pdf files in the language of your choice, if the visual medium is more important or helpful to you and your learning style.

For next year, I can promise you that there are some interviews waiting in a line for editing and publication. We have a nice line-up that includes the long-awaited audience participation episode, Skelly Rellies; an interview with Trae Wisecarver, The Outlaw Historian; my dad telling family stories as we discuss the art of taking and weighing folklore; and Audra de Falco of GetItalianCitizenship.com. There are other interviewees who have committed, but I don’t want to count my chickens, as they say. If everything works out as planned, however, we have a few surprise blockbuster episodes coming in 2020.

I will also be improving communications about Reparational Genealogy Project trees, posting updates on the work that I have completed myself or with others, and making it easier for you all to join in the work. And for the episodes not yet transcribed, I’m working on completing that, as well as making certain that all YouTube versions of podcast episodes are properly hashtagged and have closed-captioning.

In terms of the guts of this thing, I want to thank Curt Brady for my theme music, Denise Lange of Pleasant Street Creative for my logo and website input, and Olivia Dorsey for saving my brain from total freeze when I hit some other website issues.

On the funding level, I have two big thank-yous to give – to our two newest Patreon patrons, Kara Carey at the Roots level, and Peggy Weaver, our first-ever Berries-level patron. I am so grateful to you both!! Kara has already been active in the Facebook group for some months now, and this added support is really cool. For her patronage, Kara gets a 30-minute support call or phone lesson, a mention on the podcast and a mention on my website.

Peggy’s Patreon support is at the highest level – it gets her one initial hour of phone support or individualized lesson time, one hour’s lesson per month, an interview on the podcast, and a mention on my website. PLUS – she gets to help craft an episode, a lesson, or an interview – whatever we can brainstorm together. Peggy is already in the Facebook group, too, so she has the fun and support of the group in her work.

Did you know that financial patrons like Peggy and Kara make this podcast possible? They absolutely do. In anticipation of the New Year, which is a time of gratitude and reflection for me, I want you to know who all of them are, past and present, because they formerly supported or currently support the work that I do, and that you enjoy hearing.

My thanks go out to Amber Rose, Barbara DeJesus, Chiara DellaVecchia Osborne, Chris Olson, Christopher Tanner, Connie Sabo, David Mee, Dee Cotts, Denise Lange, Jane Richards, John Gray, Kate Londagin, Krysta Nelson Farber, Linda Gail Price, Liza Thompson, Lori Collier, Maigen Connally Beaulieu, Margaret Eves, Marisa Kolka, Mary King, Maryann Sezaki, Matthew Arthur, Richard Leonard, Rose Mullice, Sarah Kroh, Scott Evans, Sean Cooper, Sheri Walls, Simona MacAngus, Stacy Stanley, Melissa McPherson, Suzanne Olden, and now Peggy Weaver and Kara Carey. They have been outstanding supporters, and I hope they will continue to be.

You can join them for as little as $1 per month, and if you join at higher levels, you get TREATS!

In fact, if you join Patreon between now and January 31st, and maintain your support for a minimum of three months at $5 per month, the Roots level, you will get more than the standard Roots rewards, like those that Kara just signed up for. If you support at $5 per month between now and January 31st, and you maintain that support at least through the end of March, I will send you a From Paper To People logo shot glass. They are really fun little glasses, with a nice heavy bottom and a beautifully-printed podcast logo. If you don’t drink, use it to hold paper clips, or as a paper weight for your desk. It’s a cool little thing to have. Normally, you’d have to support at $15 per month, the Leaves level, to get one of those.

How do you support? Simple. You go to patreon.com/ancestorsalive and pick your support level, fill out your info, and whammo! You are a part of my Patreon Army, fighting the good fight to use and maintain best evidence and best practices in genealogy everywhere.

There’s another group of really great supporters I’d like to thank – everyone who wrote me a review at iTunes, or at the Facebook page – facebook.com/ancestorsalivegenealogy. Reviews particularly at iTunes, which you can find at apple.co/2MLZW4H, and at other podcatcher sites like Soundcloud, really matter a lot – they help me to gain more listeners, to build the community, and to interest possible corporate sponsors in the work I do here. To all of you, thank you so much for taking the time to leave reviews.

Financial support aside, reviews aside, this year has been a difficult one for me, and those who have participated in the Facebook group or who are on Twitter have really been a source of hope and inspiration in bad times. We now have 195 members in the Facebook group. If you want to join, please go to facebook.com/groups/FromPaperToPeople/, answer the questions, read and agree to the admin rules, and you’re in! I’d love to see more of your bright and shining faces there. We have a lot of fun, but we also help one another out with look-ups and ideas for research. It may sound hokey, but it really is a community. I want you to be part of that community, too.

I promise that I will continue to do more to engage you on Twitter, on the Facebook page, in the Facebook group, on Instagram, in the Ancestors Alive! Daily News, on my Patreon blog, on my regular blog (as promised in the last episode), and here on the podcast. I hope that the work I produce helps you when YOU have a low day. And, of course, I hope that 2020 is a fantastic year for us all.

Thank you so much for being a part of my life this year, and thank you for the honor of allowing me into yours. Happy New Year, pumpkins. Celebrate, but not too much; don’t be a Jeffrey, and above all, Expect Surprises!

Please rate and review the podcast on your podcast provider, at https://apple.co/2MLZW4H, at facebook.com/AncestorsAliveGenealogy, or at Thumbtack.com.

If you want to be on the podcast from ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD using the Zoom platform and a good mic and earphones (how about that Family Cookbook series??), you can contact me at https://bit.ly/2Kxb6rm.

Stop by the website at ancestorsalivegenealogy.com, IG @ancestorsalivegenealogy and Twitter @ancestorsalive

Sponsor the podcast at patreon.com/AncestorsAlive for super-fantastic rewards, including SWAG for different levels of sponsorship.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/2lmhYha and the newsletter at paper.li/AncestorsAlive/1557599531.

Check out my Zazzle shop at zazzle.com/store/fppppodcast for the aforementioned swag.