Well, I started the parallel embark so far, and a year has blown by extremely fast.I tried to make a video (and failed horribly at speaking clearly), so I'll illustrate with the help of screenshots. Sorry if the images are too large though.
Usually, when I start, I ALWAYS stick with this sort of scheme (omit the sword and war dogs, I didn't want to lose that early)
Also not shown, I brought 2 hens and a rooster to start breeding early.
As for the dwarfish skills:
This is also my generic setup. I had my mechanic be a stonecrafter, but the next migrant wave had a better one, so now its a full mechanic.
For my Building Location as of the end of Year 251:
I generally like to stick near trees early for wood, so I started a small fortress housing just outside of the haunted zone.
As for whats underneath:
Each one is 1 z-level lower than the one on top.
Going from the top to the bottom, we have the General Quarters for farming and temporary storage with army barracks as well as a hospital.
The one underneath is Peasant Quarters for everyone but the nobles.
The one beneath the Bed Area will be the Crafting Quarters, for all the crafting needs (until I hit lava of course).
And then last level is the Noble's Rooms. The large room in the top left will be the noble's burial chamber.
And for my Year 1 ending stocks:
I'm very surprised that I don't have too many migrants so far (usually I get roughly the same number of embark settlers). But for now, I'm still hopeful to get more later (if there will be any more).