5 Reasons why a family historian needs a blog or website

There are numerous websites which offer members the facility to upload a gedcom file and create an online family tree, so some might ask whether there is any point to creating and maintaining a stand alone blog or website. I say yes, and this is why:

1) Visibility: It’s more likely to be found. I’ve noticed some of the places I have stored copies of my tree do not turn up on the results page of search engines. Your own site or blog probably will, which means long lost cousins are more likely to find you – and maybe share some valuable info!

2) Customisation: It’s an obvious point, but an important one for some people. You can make your own site fit your taste and preferences more easily, and also decide what kind of material or content you wish to display.

3) Community: You can build up a community consisting of family members, friends and others who are interested in your research. And if many hands make light work, many historians make lighter research. Well, that’s the theory anyway LOL

4) Sharing: You can share all the advice, tips and resources you have gathered on your journey. I often find the most useful information on a personal blog rather than a mainstream site.

5) Background: This fits into a couple of other categories, but it’s important, so I’ll mention it separately. Having your own site or blog means you can add information which would not fit into a standard online tree. Subjects such as; folklore, history and culture provide fascinating background information which will help you create a more vivid and colourful picture of the kind of lives your ancestors lived.

So, over to you. Do you have a blog or website? What kind of information do you publish? Do you have any tips for anyone who is about to start their own?

Build it and they will come

That idea seldom works with most sites or blogs, but in genealogy it does seem to be true. I have just received a message from a cousin in New Zealand who found this blog! How great is that I suppose it is slightly easier for my long lost relatives to track me down, I do have quite an unusual surname, but even so, I’m sure it can work for the more popular names too. After all, there may be lots of Browns, for example, but how many of them lived in the same locale as your family, and did the same jobs etc.

So, my tip for the day, build a site, or set up a blog. Both are a great way of storing and organising your data, and you never know who might drop by!