My 9th Blogiversary

Nine years ago today, I started my blog.

It was, I hoped, a place where I could share my ancestor's stories. It also was a place where I ended up sharing my own. 

Over the years, I've acquired--and lost--readers according to the flows and ebbs of my writing. It has mirrored my creativity and passion for genealogy, as well as the overwhelming busy-ness that sometimes is my life.

In the past nine years, this blog has won prestigious as well as simply fun awards. But there were times when I wondered if I could even keep it going. Through it all, I never lost my love of genealogy or of writing, even when it seemed like I had no time or energy to do either.

It was never about the awards, anyway. It was always about sharing what I had learned about my family or about genealogy in general with an appreciative and supportive audience, many of whom have become dear friends, and some of whom I've had the pleasure of meeting in real life.

Technology has changed so much even since 2006, but I plan to continue blogging as long as there's a platform and an audience to do so. After all, there are many more ancestor stories to tell, tips to share, and boxes of material for Scanfest!

Thank you for coming along on this journey with me. 

My 8th Blogiversary

Image found at Punchbowl.com.

Today is my eighth blogiversary. Time flies when you're having fun! I think about the friends I've made through blogging, both fellow geneabloggers and my readers. I've had great opportunities because of blogging, too: traveling, free products to review, and some nice awards. Finally, I've made connections with others researching the same lines or locations.

I've long been wanting to get back into blogging more frequently again. Each year, it's easy to make a New Year's resolution that I will do so, but blogging takes time: time to think, time to research, time to write, time to revise and edit, time to find links and images, and time to publish. We all have the same number of hours in each day, but I work longer hours than I did when I first started blogging, and I exercise more (at the height of my blogging days, I was extremely overweight, due mainly to my sedentary lifestyle). I try to do better research, too, and that often limits me in what I'm going to write. As I've become a better and more thorough researcher, I realize how time-consuming the fact-checking and source citing becomes, and yet, how necessary.

My goal this year is to publish a Tuesday's Tip post and a Surname Saturday post each week. The first is because that seems to be most popular with my readers, and the second is to reach out to connect with fellow researchers. I'll continue to host Scanfest once a month, and I aim to write one ancestor's story (AnceStory) per month.

Will I succeed? I will do my best, but I won't beat myself up when I don't quite make it. I'm using my Genealogy Blog Post Planner, and not only does it help me plan WHAT to write, it helps me to plan WHEN to write.

I thank each and everyone of you who has taken the time to read my thoughts, dreams, disappointments, and research goals and logs over the past eight years. You are a wonderful audience, and I appreciate you immensely.

Happy Hunting!