SLCC Genealogy Course -- Blogging Project

Tonight I started on my Blogging Project. First I went to the Utah Genealogical Society web site. I logged in, because I am a member, and went to the archives of the virtual chapter meetings. I watched the February virtual chapter meeting (webinar) called Using Tools and Organization for Creating a Valuable Family History Blog presented by James L. Tanner, author of the Genealogy's Star blog. He gave this same presentation at RootsTech 2014 a few weeks before the UGA Virtual Chapter meeting on Thursday February 6, 2014. I attended the RootsTech presentation and was very impressed. I wanted to hear it again and I am glad that I did. It "used up" 1 1/2 hours of my 6 hours. :) There was an excellent syllabus for the RootsTech presentation which I downloaded and printed from the RootsTech 2014 web site. The presentation was number RT 1061.
Here are some things I considered as I watched the presentation tonight. 
Why do I want to have a blog? It is a rather major time commitment, so I need to know why. What are my goals? I want to share my research and information. I want to preserve my family history. I want to preserve my research methodology and sources and citations for those who will come after me. I want to create a valuable resource that I can use. All these things are important to me, so that is why I want to create a better blog.
I considered adding more ways to share my blog and several add-ins and gadgets that I can implement on my blog. I definitely want to have a Google search function. And I definitely want to have the index function. I want to look for a newer more attractive template.
Before I heard James Tanner's presentation I was considering switching to WordPress and a paid site. I thought it would be more professional. But now I can see that he is doing a wonderful job with Blogger and so are several other top 40 Genealogy blogs. Blogger is quite a bit easier for me to use, because I am familiar with it. I have also used WordPress, but I have much more to learn about it. And Blogger is free!
James Tanner also made the point that if you write your blog posts in Microsoft Word there is a lot more formatting. Writing in the blog itself is simpler and even easier to make into a book. In fact, James Tanner recommends a blog as a good first step to writing a book. 

SLCC Genealogy 1000 Course: Preserving the Past and Present Project Approval

For my Midterm Project for the Preserving the Past and Present Module I was required to submit a proposal for a six-hour(at least) project that will be something I really want to do for my family. 
Here is what I wrote for the proposal. Ihave identified three things that I could do for this six-hour project that I am going to do any way. The unit Preserving the Past and Present has been very stimulating!

1. Interview my 92-year-old mother. However, she has been in the hospital the last week , so I need to take interviewing her more slowly than I could do for an assignment for this class. But I have already approached her and started an outline of what we need to do to help her write her personal history.
2. Organize my photographs. I purchased a guide book for Picasa from Geeks on Tour and am going to learn how to use the program. The author Chris Guld has lots of online videos about using Picasa that I want to study.
3. This is the one that I want to do first for this class. I want to work on my family history blog. I created the blog http://jhdfamilyhistory.blogspot.com in 2008. Ironically I started it (and then backed off of it) when I was called to be ward family history consultant. I thought it would be a good place to share family history information and instruction with ward members. But when I advertised it, I was instructed by the bishopric that we were to have no blogs or websites other than official church websites. (In the meantime members of the church have been encouraged to establish an online presence in multiple ways. That is the ironic part.)

When I attended RootsTech 2014 I went to the session about blogs by James Tanner and was motivated to start writing more. I have been following his blog Genealogy Star and am amazed by how prolific a writer he is. I plan on watching the UGA video of his presentation on the same subject for more ideas on blogging. (I am a UGA member, so I have access to the archives.) He stressed that if you insist on perfection, you will not be writing very much. So I need to lower my standards and write more frequently. I am also impressed with ReNee Zamora’s blog and how she writes about her genealogy class assignments. I am thinking that if I do the same, my research processes will be well-documented for those researchers in my family who come after me.

 I also like the idea of a blog just because I can save the instructional things I learn from classes, from books, from webinars and from Internet sources in a place where I can find them. So, this is my proposal. Spend at least six hours writing posts for http://jhdfamilyhistory.blogspot.com. Use my notes from RootsTech 2014 and share what I learned, include links to online resources for many of these classes. I think I can write at least 12 posts on the subject of RootsTech. Then I want to start writing about class assignments, like Renee. I am probably not going to write about past assignments. I will just start where I am.

My Instructor approved my project proposal. One of her comments was "It will become kind of a "notebook" of sorts for you to keep track of genealogy resources. Make sure you add the box that makes it searchable." What a good suggestion! I am thinking of lots of improvements that I can make to this blog. I am excited to get started on this project.

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.

Recommended Blogs

Just in case I do not get timely posts about NGS Conference on my blog --- I still have a lot of catching up to do around my home and farm, because I was gone last week and because it is Spring--- I am going to recommend these blogs.

Find My Ancestor

The Ancestry Insider

I have more confidence in these other bloggers to post timely reports of the Conference than I do in myself. While I am recommending genealogy blogs I would also like to recommend two more. Actually GeneaBloggers will connect you with a multitude of Genealogy Blogs.

Genealogy Insider -- Family Tree Magazine

GeneaBloggers