I haven’t been able to do much research lately, which bums me out a little, but I have been busy working on family history projects in other ways…

As always, I’m often busy creating charts. This time, I’ve been working on charts outlining both direct paternal line descendants of the brothers of my ancestor Samuel Cooper (Samuel had no sons who grew to adulthood), as well as descendants of the Coopers who would carry the mtDNA of Samuel’s mother. It’s admittedly such tedious work making charts, but they’re so helpful for visualizing things and so it’s necessary work.

I reached out recently to the administrators of the Cooper DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA for some assistance. Unfortunately, they had no additional info for me, but they did confirm that there are currently no descendants of Samuel’s brothers who have tested their Y-DNA, so that’s something I’ll have to try to change in the future. Besides the Michaels, the Coopers are probably my favorite family to research right now, and I’m so happy for the progress I’ve made over the last couple of years, but I’m unsatisfied and need more answers! lol. Hopefully, with more research, I’ll be able to break down this brick wall and get the answers I seek.

Something I haven’t mentioned yet is that I’m the current coordinator for the Indiana Project on WikiTree. Recently, another researcher, Norman Jones, was appointed leader of the project, and so I’ve been in contact with him lately and we’ve been discussing how best to move the project forward, which I’m really excited about! I took on the role of coordinator around the time I was set to move to Maryland, and so I haven’t been able to make much progress on it by myself yet, so I’m really happy to have Norman’s help. We’ve got over 30 members right now, so we’re off to a decent start, but we’re both really interested in growing the project and expanding its scope so that it can be the best it can be. WikiTree is such an awesome platform that’s so versatile, so I have a lot of hope that we can make the Indiana Project something great.

I also recently began reaching out to some of the Michael family cousins I’m in contact with to see if there’s support for the creation of a family newsletter. I’ve long wanted to establish something more formal to go along with all my research, but I’ve been hesitant to take anything else on. I think a newsletter would be an awesome idea, though, so I’m excited to explore the possibility! So far I’ve only heard back from a few cousins, but the feedback has been entirely positive and so it’s got me hopeful. Eventually, I’d love to go so far as to establish an entire family association that publishes a newsletter and organizes yearly reunions (and maybe other things), but that’s probably something to explore in the distant future. Right now, there are several cousins I work with who are exploring their own branches, but I’m mostly in contact with each one individually and so there’s very little coordination between us as a group, except a little bit on the Y-DNA research we do, so a family association (and possibly even the newsletter) is something that’s a long way off. Regardless, though, I’m excited about the possibilities!

One final thing that’s occupied my time lately is some discussions I’m having with potential clients. I do have my own business, but I don’t currently advertise my services because I’ve only within the last week gotten myself entirely settled in Maryland, but these two potential clients kind of just fell into my lap and so I don’t really want to miss the opportunities to work with them. One potential client has a research question focused on Wayne County, Kentucky and the surrounding areas, which is a location I’m very familiar with (after all, I am the County Coordinator for the Wayne County KYGenWeb Project), while the other potential client has a research question focused on Prince George’s and Frederick counties, Maryland, so I’m actually really excited about both projects! I haven’t done client work since before I moved in April, so I’m excited to hopefully get back into the swing of things with these two projects. I’ve missed working for others, so my fingers are crossed.

Anyway, I think that’s all for now. As always, reach out if you’re a cousin (or even if you’re not)!