Warning – self-indulgent post alert.

N.B. I do know that the decade can and perhaps should, be regarded as ending at the end of 2020, not 2019, as there was no year 0 but I am going with the popular conception here.

This post is mainly for my own benefit but you are welcome to share in my memories and plans. Maybe you’d like to compose something similar for yourself. It is insightful to look back and fun to make predictions for the next decade.

It is only as I sit and write this, that I realise quite what an amazing decade the 2010s have been on a personal level. If the 2010s have not been good to you, I sincerely hope that the 2020s will bring you all the good things that you deserve. May the 2020s do for you what the 2010s did for me. If I had written a post like this ten years ago, I could not have imagined that my life would be as it now is. I am conscious that, given my age, the 2020s may be the last full decade during which I can do many things, so I have many hopes and dreams to fulfill in the next ten years.

Of course, although things have gone well for me, the national and international situation can scarcely be described as positive. I cannot pretend to like the complexion that the country and the world has developed in the past ten years. We need to take care of each other, to be considerate and tolerant and to respect difference, whether that be race, creed, sexual orientation or political views. It is fine to have different opinions, it is healthy to discuss these but it should be possible to calmly agree to disagree. We need to look after our planet, for ourselves, for our children and for our children’s children. This is not something we can ignore.

Family: With the deaths of my mother and her cousins in the 2010s, I am now the oldest generation, which is sobering. The past decade saw the marriage of one daughter (the other was already married) and the arrival of three wonderful grandchildren.

I do not anticipate the addition of any more family members in the 2020s but I look forward to watching my grandchildren blossom into young adults. I also hope that, early in the new decade, one set of descendants will be living nearer to me. Obviously, spending more time with those that I am closest to is a priority for the next ten years.

Home and Community: In 2010, I was already living in this house and involved in the local community.

I would expect this to be something that changes little in the next decade, although the projects that I engage in may vary. I really do want to get my house ‘up together’ but that is a never-ending task.

Work: In 2010 I was already employed in a version of the job I must not mention. The decade brought three promotions but ironically less work and less money. On the plus side, it is now less time-consuming. A very recent development on this front should allow me to use my writing skills as an adjunct to this role. I was also already working as an historical interpreter ten years ago but now I am running a team of interpreters, rather than being an employee. In 2010, I was a speaker in genealogical circles but only well known in my home, or former home, counties. During the 2010s, I have had the privilege of speaking at many premier national and international events and was twice voted British gold medallist in the ‘Rockstar Genealogist’ poll.

If the goalposts are not moved again, I will reach official retirement age in the 2020s (something that should have happened in the 2010s). I would like to say that my work will lessen in the next ten years but I am a realist and I love what I do.  I hope to take the job I must not mention through, at least, to the next big upheaval, which may be in the mid-2020s. I’d like to think that I could carry on until the end of the new decade but who knows. I anticipate that my days of heaving suits of armour about may be limited and that getting up at 5am and doing full days in schools might not be appealing by 2029 but we soldier on for now and I hope that I will still be able to give individual presentations for another ten years. This will be chauffeur dependent, I am not the only one who will be ten years older! I predict that I will do more presenting and teaching online. I have two new online courses in the pipeline already.

Jo Rutherford Photography

Travel: In 2010 I had been abroad six times and one of those occasions was a day trip to Calais when I was eleven. I had already begun my international travel with my first trip to New Zealand in 2009 but in the last ten years I have visited Canada, Australia, Peru, US, Russia, eleven European countries and returned to New Zealand. I have also travelled through many beautiful parts of Britain, including the Channel Isles and three trips to Scotland.

My predictions for the 2020s are that I will go abroad less, long-haul really has lost its appeal but that I will continue to explore closer to home. A holiday in Ireland is already booked. I still want to finish my project to spend a few nights in every British county. I am secretly (oh, not so secretly now) tempted by Norway, Iceland and Madagascar though.

Writing: In 2010 I had just finished my PhD, which was a writing marathon and I was a regular contributor to family history magazines. The 2010s was the decade of book publication, with several non-fiction books hitting the shelves as well as my novel. I did not have a website or a blog ten years ago, which is a shame, or I might have been able to compare my predictions with reality.

Apart from the planned publication of a second novel and two booklets in 2020, it is difficult to foresee what turn this may take during the next ten years. If the idea for a third novel presents itself, there may be one. Storage space dictates that I may turn to digital book production, at least for any non-fiction that I may write; again there are no plans. Alternatively, I may concentrate on writing up family history stories and finish my biography.

Health: It is never all good news. In the past decade, inevitably, my body has started to misbehave in a few ways. Sadly, it is probably all downhill from now on but I shall do my best to still be reasonably fully-functioning by 2029.

Leisure: What’s that? Family history has a separate category, that’s an obsession, different entirely. I do want to take more time to ‘smell the roses’ in the 2020s. I’d like to get back to my spinning for example. I still have ambitions to pass a grade 1 piano exam. Maybe I can beat my granddaughter to it but I doubt it. I am really tempted to teach myself Cornish but my track record with languages is appalling and I am too far from any face-to-face classes. I would like to finish the remainder of the south-west coastal footpath, which has made no progress in the last six years; I think I could still just about manage it.

Family History: In 2010, I had not taken a DNA test, I had not put my family history online and I had composed narratives about only a few of my ancestral branches. Ten years on, I have made a major break-through on my direct paternal line, a few other lines have also progressed, notably those in Cornwall, which had been untouched for over thirty years. I am close to a ‘gateway’ ancestor, that will link me to nobility (not something I am particularly bothered about but interesting nonetheless). I have an online tree, DNA results from three companies and more of my research is in a state that others can access. I still have three major brick walls. I have made some progress on these but there they remain.

In the next ten years I plan to reassess and ‘write up’ more branches of the tree. It would be lovely to demolish at least one of the brick walls. I would also like to immerse myself in the Cornish portion of the family once again. I want to continue to inspire my descendants with a sense of the past.

If this sounds like everything in the past ten years has been wonderful, that is because I am a glass half-full sort of a person. I am very fortunate that the 2010s have been particularly good to me but I don’t want to give the impression that everything is perfect, that would be impossible. There have been challenges and difficulties, not everything is ideal, that is reality. I know that I have been lucky and I am very much aware that many have gone through awful things during a decade during which matters have, for the most part, gone well for me. If looking back is painful, then please look forward. I wish you all a 2020 in which you can be at ease with yourself and at peace with others. See you in the new decade!