100 posts of genealogical joy

This is my 101st post. To mark the occasion (it’s an achievement of sorts) I thought I’d take the time to look back on my blogging career so far. Here I look, rather selfishly, at what genealogy blogging has done for me.  

I started the blog back in February, after nearly a year of thinking about it. Having gone into it not knowing what to expect or what I hoped to get out of it, I’ve found it incredibly rewarding.

One thing that I was looking for was to engage with genealogists nearer my own age. Though it still seems that we young genealogists are a rare species, I have come across a few (Niall, Katelyn, Elisse, Elyse, Lianne, Jess and Tina) and I want to thank them all: you’ve made being a twenty-something genealogist a much less lonely pursuit! I’m sure there are still others I haven’t discovered yet, so if you’re out there get in touch – we can start a little club!

Blogging has helped me to engage more with the genealogy community as a whole. There are some great blogs out there that I really enjoy reading – too many to list here. I’ve begun using Twitter, which has been a revelation. I particularly like the real-time tweeting as breakthroughs are made and mysteries are solved. I’m also engaging with genealogists both pro and amateur around the world on LinkedIn and enjoying some of the thought-provoking discussions on genealogical etiquette, problem solving and methodology. Genealogy can be a rather solitary activity, so it’s nice to be able to share the joy and the frustration with like-minded people of all ages.

I’ve found that blogging really helps me with my research too. As I encounter a problem or an interesting story to discuss, and begin to formulate a blogpost about it, I find that it crystallises in my mind where there are gaps, where things need verifying or elaborating, and how I can take it further. I’ve talked before about how I have found writing a narrative about my genealogy useful, but it never occurred to me that blogging would magnify that further, because of course it’s not just for you but for the rest of the world. By opening up your research to closer scrutiny from the blogging community, you force yourself to be a more detailed, more meticulous and more critical of yourself. I have made errors on my blog, but I accept that and I try to correct them where possible. Also, the input from readers has been really useful as well, and I’m so grateful for that.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of my genealogy blogging is that I’ve found that my real-life friends have read it and shown an interest. Weirdly, though genealogy is a big part of my life, it’s not something I’ve talked about much to them, because I thought they wouldn’t be interested or that they would think it was really geeky – which it probably is, and I’ve never really been ‘cool’ so no one should be surprised!

Actually, what I’ve found is some of my friends have said they have found it really interesting. Then they often launch off into their own family stories – usually prefaced by ‘my mum/dad/grandpa/etc. did their family tree and...’ A few people have even asked me to look things up for them, or how they should go about finding certain people. I even succeeded in getting my boyfriend interested briefly. It has made me realise that a lot of people are actually interested in their family’s past, they’re just not that interested in researching it themselves at this point in their lives.

The most common questions I get asked also reflect this: ‘Where do you find the time?’ and ‘how do you know where to start?’

My responses: I find the time from the same place as you find time for zumba/golf/hockey/photography/the gym etc. and knowing where to start comes easy when it’s something you’re really interested in – you just teach yourself. After all, I wouldn’t have a clue where to start at the gym even! And that’s the key I think: I love genealogy, and blogging about it just adds a whole new dimension. Perhaps it’s a bit like having a single running machine at home and then going to a huge gym with all the bells and whistles?

Anyway, thank you all. It has been 100 posts of genealogical joy, and here’s to many more!

L x

A few useful websites...

Following on from On my friend Google, I thought I would share a few of my online genealogy gems. I hope you find some of them useful...

Ancestor-search is a great starting point for new genealogists, and a one-stop shop for links to the major established information centres across the UK and internationally.

Mad About Genealogy is packed with interesting news and links from all over UK, including a twitter feed. I’ve only just discovered this one and I’m looking forward to getting lots of use out of it.

Genuki should definitely be your first stop for genealogy info on any locality in the UK. Will point you in the right direction for any available sources, online and offline, as well as give you some basic parish info.

Wikipedia is hardly a revelation to anyone, but I would always recommend it for basic fact checks and local history and colour. Do remember though, it isn’t always reliable - I try to back it up with other sources where possible!

I would highly recommend searching the National Archives Catalogue – I have found photographs of my ancestors, divorce records that I would otherwise never have known about, and printed works produced by my ancestors all hidden away – and that’s only from one small branch of my tree! I’m also thoroughly enjoying their new blog, which documents interesting finds, their work and how they can help you. I will be consulting some of their research guides, which I only found out about through their blogging.

I’ve also recently had success on the British Newspaper Archive. Its search function seems to work really well, and you can buy reasonably-priced credits in varying amounts and over varying timescales to suit your needs.

I love GBnames. Search for your surname in 1881 to find out where it is most concentrated in the country. I’ve generally found that a surname location in 1881 is accurate for at least the couple of generations previously, so if someone with a random surname pops up it can give you a good idea of where to look for their ancestors. It’s also just really interesting. For example, the Hampshire surname in my tree is almost entirely clustered n West Yorkshire, so it seems probable that they are all descended from a single family and have been Yorkshire-based for many generations.

Parish records are so important in genealogy, especially pre-1837, which is why I applaud the Online Parish Clerks. These awesome people voluntarily transcribe and make available online parish records from various places across the country. Unfortunately the coverage is fairly low at the moment, but if an area you need is covered it can be invaluable.

However, if your area doesn’t have an OPC yet, FamilySearch can be incredibly useful. They’ve got a shiny new website and search function, which I have to admit I’ve found a bit tricky so far. If you haven’t used Familysearch before, give it a try. But I would warn you to take the results with a pinch of salt, and always try to confirm by referring to parish records etc.

Genealogy forums can also be useful. I have most often used Rootschat, which organises its boards by topic, and Curiousfox, which is organised by location – this can be great for tapping into local knowledge.

L x

I’ve also recently joined Genealogy Wise, a ‘social network’ for genealogists, though I haven’t had much opportunity to explore yet.

On WDYTYA Live 2012: Must-see workshops – Saturday

On reflection, I think Saturday would have been my choice of day to attend. I would have hit all the stands in the first couple of hours, and then spent most of my afternoon in workshops. There are some fascinating things going on, and in a couple of places I was really torn in my workshop choices. Fortunately, as I’m not actually going I can work on them all! Here’s my not-at-all realistic Saturday workshop plan:

Organising your research with technology (12 p.m.) – Although I prefer to keep my own records on paper and electronic files (Word, Excel, etc.), I’d be interested to see if there’s anything I’m missing out on, in particular new software I might not be aware of.

The plan: A bit of internet research should get me up-to-speed, but it’s not something I’m likely to dedicate much time to at the moment, which is exactly why a summary in workshop form would have been so helpful!

Keynote workshop: Breaking the Barriers with Social Networking – Strategies and Tips (1 p.m.) – For one thing, this is the keynote, so I’d expect it to be pretty special. Also, despite being relatively young and a Facebook user (and now blogger), I’m not really using Facebook for genealogical purposes, nor am I currently on Twitter, which I suspect would be central to some of this workshop. This would be my absolute must-see of the weekend I think!

The plan: I suppose I  need to get tweeting, get Probably Arboreal onto Facebook and see what happens. I usually find it easier to learn this sort of thing by doing, as I have recently with blogging, so I suppose I just need to set aside some time and dive in! Anyone got any tips?

Irish research online (3 p.m.) – As I do have a couple of Irish ancestors and haven’t managed to get any further back on either of their lines after they arrived in the UK, this would probably be the most useful workshop I could attend all weekend. I did attend an Irish genealogy  workshop last year, but didn’t come away with anything that particularly helped, but this seems much more focused on doing research online and from a distance, so hopefully it would be able to provide me with some useful leads.

The plan: Basically, I need to do some thorough research to come up with ideas about where to start. Plus there must be loads of Irish genealogists out there, and there’s no language barrier, so I probably need to get chatting!

Exploring  Google+ as a Tool for Family Research (4 p.m.) – don’t know a lot about Google+, so this would be very interesting. As I already use Facebook for social purposes and LinkedIn for work purposes, perhaps Google+ could become my genealogical equivalent. I want to know more...

The plan: Check out Google+. There’s plenty of buzz in the blogging world at the moment if the articles LinkedIn are suggesting to me are anything to go by, so I just need to do a bit of digging and then make an assessment of how useful it might be and how to use it.

Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian (4 p.m.) – I have no idea why this and the Google+ workshop were scheduled at the same time, as they seem to me like they might be of relevance to a similar demographic. Forced to choose, I probably would have gone for this one on balance, just because I know how useful Google can be (I’d say I’m an ‘intermediate’ user), and I want to know how to make it even more efficient at telling me what I want. I really hope this wouldn’t have disappointed...

The plan: I already have some useful tips on using Google search. What I need to do is keep collecting them, and start putting them into practice until they become second nature. And of course, they’re exactly the kind of thing I should be blogging about, once they’re tried and tested.

Moving from amateur to professional genealogist: Are you ready? (5 p.m.) – My attendance here would be more out of curiosity than anything else. I suspect that the answer is currently no, I’m not ready. But I hope to be one day, and I’d like to be prepared to recognise when, and know what I need to do to achieve it! Fortunately I should have about fifty years ahead of me to get there!

The plan: I think this is something I can look into and work towards quite slowly, but I should definitely be drawing up a list of things that I need to know more about and getting to work on them.

See you tomorrow for my final day of fantasy WDYTYA Live!