On Tuesday I mentioned my busy teaching schedule for the month of May. One of my classes is focusing on the how and why of blogging. In preparing for my class I have a handful of examples of blog posts that I plan to share. Blog posts that asked for help and got a response, or that told a story and received a comment with more details. Blog posts that caused connections. Connections that helped someone learn more about their family. My examples are pretty good. But I got to thinking – you, my delightful readers, may have a story or two that could better illustrate how blogging can help you with your family history. Do you? If you do, I would love to hear about it.
Hello! Last fall I was having trouble with a certain part of my family tree, so I wrote about it. I gave the details that I knew and some photos as well. After posting, I got comments from people who also had these ancestors in their tree! I got oodles of photos of distant cousins, and some family stories that were delightful to hear! It was so neat to connect with others looking for the same family! The only bad part is the same dead end I found, they also faced. One of these days, one of us cousins will have to break down that wall!
Hi Melanie! Thank you for sharing your story. I love that you were able to learn new things because you posted about your dead end. Hopefully that brick wall comes down soon. 🙂
Well my post John Brown – He Sounds Ordinary http://roottotip.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/john-brown-he-sounds-ordinary/ I had noticed it had been looked at a lot using search engines using the same keywords for several days in a row, so I decided to comment on my post asking if the person who was looking at it could get in touch. They replied and it turns out they are a distant cousin of my father’s who was descended from John’s son Thomas. Made my day!
I’ve also been really enjoying sharing my case studies about my mother’s father’s side of the family on Facebook as my cousins have been reading them and have been fascinated to see all this stuff they didn’t know. One of them had said he must have walked past the bungalow our great grandmother had built so many times and not known there was a family connection to it.
Thanks Alex! Your John Brown story is great. I love that you noticed someone was coming to that post and left a comment. I probably wouldn’t have noticed. I have also found Facebook to be a great way to share little things with my cousins. Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today’s Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/05/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-may-16-2014.html
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you Jana!