It’s time to reset genealogy goals and look ahead to what’s coming in 2021

With a new year dawning, it’s a good time to look ahead to several events and commemorations.

• Georgia’s very own and very unique R.J. Taylor Jr. Foundation turns 50. For a half century, it has funded the publishing of some great Georgia books of records and abstracts.
• Missouri will celebrate 200 years of statehood. Anyone with ancestors there knows that statehood brought on more migration and settlement.
• January also marks the 100th anniversary of the loss of the 1890 U. S. Census, which was destroyed by fire.
• Next year will mark the 200th anniversary of Georgia’s 1821 Land Lottery, which opened up a good deal of this area for settlement, including Henry, DeKalb and later Fulton counties.
• Archives and libraries that are scheduled to reopen next year with larger and better facilities include the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah (georgiahistory.com) and the Georgia Room of the Switzer Library (Central Library) in downtown Marietta, check cobbcat.org for updates. The Tennessee State Library and Archives will be reopening in April in a new building at the Bicentennial Mall in Nashville. All of these will be welcomed by researchers.