Blog Your Way to Genealogical Success

I was anxious to go to this session so I could learn the identity of The Ancestry Insider. I have been following his blog for some time now. Now that I know -- I am not telling.

There is no way I could report all the interesting information that he shared in this presentation. He took us step-by-step through the process of creating a blog at blogspot.com. It is very easy and takes just minutes.

I learned some new words:
blogosphere -- the community of bloggers
Google-ize -- publicize your information so others can find it through Google.

His presentation focused on three uses of blogs (there are more, of course).
1. Blogs are an easy way to publish information on the Internet. While you are writing a book, share your information on your blog.
2. Publish genealogical inquiries. Previous to blogs, this was done through newspapers and newsletters and message boards.
3. Blogs make a great research log. You will always have a copy wherever you go. It can be private, doesn't have to be public. I created one myself after the class.

I liked his basic principles for blogging such as KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!), use free resources, and never divulge information about living people. I want to get a blog editor (for example Microsoft Live Writer ) and an image editor (for example Get Paint ) like he suggested. Except I am already using Picasa and that may do everything that I need to do.

Here is the blog that The Ancestry Insider created for this presentation that demonstrates what he taught http://claytonraymond.blogspot.com/

Here is his signature blog The Ancestry Insider. Recently there have been some very interesting posts about sources, evidence, and conclusions. Is it possible to design software that will examine the evidence and make genealogical conclusions???? Follow The Ancestry Insider and maybe we will find out.