I’m sad to report that progress on my work-in-progress, The Teachings, has fallen behind. In fact, I’ve done nothing on it since Monday. Instead, I’ve filled those hours with something equally pleasurable: genealogy research.

One of my goals for 2020 was to get back to work on, and perhaps publish, the book on Stephen Cross and Elizabeth Cheney of Ispwich. Elizabeth is Lynda’s 8x-great aunt on her dad’s side. Her father, John Cheney of Newbury, will be the subject of a future book. I have lots on him, but want to get more on his children. Elizabeth is the youngest of his 12 children (10 lived to adulthood; 9 of those had children), so I decided to start with her. Three or four years ago I began the research and realized I had so much stuff that it would make a book by itself.

I started on that book, got it up to about 60 pages, and quit. I had done the easy part of the research by then, with some hard slogging to go. This week I worked on the hard slogging.

And I made significant progress. On the book part, I deleted duplicate and most extraneous material. I expanded the bibliography. I created a couple of side bars. I like the look of it.

The research I picked up is into Stephen and Elizabeth’s children, as well as Stephen’s siblings. Elizabeth’s siblings I have down, but Stephen’s are a puzzle. That’s where I found lots of disagreement among researchers, and information added that seems to have no basis in documents. I really want to get this right. Stephen’s siblings are tangential to the book, but, again, I want it right.

What do I have for my four days of effort? A better organized book. A more correct and complete book. A better understanding of Stephen’s and Elizabeth’s life. An expanded bibliography. And a ton more work to do.

But, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Each day I left my research for a little while and went to the sun room. There the Christmas cacti are blooming again. Well, at least some of them are. They and the many other plants in the room provide enjoyment for my reading.  At times I look up at the blooms, or at the other plants, and just enjoy them.

When will I get back on The Teachings? At this time I have no idea. Once I start genealogy research I just have to let it run its course till I the interest wanes. It might be another week, perhaps sooner. The fact that I’m working on the book at the same time makes me think this will last a while.