Family History: Genealogy Made Easy
with Lisa Louise Cooke
Republished August 13, 2014
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Download the Show Notes for this Episode
Welcome to this step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. I first ran this series in 2008-09. So many people have asked about it, I’m bringing it back in weekly segments.
Episode 41: How to Start a Genealogy Blog, Part 4: Get Inspired!
This week I’m working on a brand new and exciting project that I will tell you more about at the end of the show. But because I’ve got my head down this week and I’m working diligently to meet my deadlines, I’m going to take a little bit of a different approach to this episode.
We’ve been talking quite a bit about family history blogging in the last few episodes, and I have a few goodies for you this week that should help you make significant progress in creating your own blog if that’s something you’d like to do, and some goodies from other genealogy bloggers that will inspire and entertain you.
Blog post: Finding Charlie Stone, by Lee Drew
I really enjoy reading genealogy blogs that share insight into how the bloggers research has enriched their lives and I particularly enjoy reading the family stories they uncover along their journey.
In Episode 69 of the Genealogy Gems Podcast I featured a blogger reading one of their favorite blog posts (and my favorite for that matter) for the first time on the show. Lee Drew read his post My Mother Was A Quilter – the charming story of his early years growing up in a family of quilting women, and how his life hasn’t changed that much because he is surrounded by them today with his own wife, daughters and daughter-in-laws.
So sit back and enjoy another blog post called Finding Charlie Stone, by Lee Drew, who blogs at FamHist 2 and Lineage Keeper.
Did you start your blog?
I have another talented genealogy blogger for you in this episode, but before we hear from her, I want to say that I hope you took a few minutes to follow the steps outlined in Episode 40 of this podcast and got your own blog started. Remember, you don’t have to make it public – so you can dabble all you want and only share if and when you’re ready.
To help you along I have produced two videos for you that walk you through those same steps, but in the videos I show you live on the computer screen how it’s done. So head to my Genealogy Gems TV Channel at YouTube to watch How to Blog Your Family History, Part 1 & How to Blog Your Family History, Part 2. Rest assured, there are more videos to come because we have only scratched the surface in creating your blog and actually blogging.
Blog Post: How Blogging Has Benefited My Research by Amy Coffin
Here’s a goodie from Amy Coffin who has a masters in Library science and is an avid genealogist who specializes in the use of Web 2.0 technologies to maximize research results. Her experience in the library world has led to a firm belief in the benefits of social networking and blogging to enhance the genealogy experience. Through her web site, www.AmyCoffin.com, Amy offers ideas on how others can maintain blogs and open up their own family history to whole new levels. When she’s not helping clients with their research, Amy shares her own personal genealogy adventures at her We Tree blog. In this blog post, Amy shares a story about how blogging has benefited her research.
My Next Big Project: Family Tree University
We will be finishing up our family history blogging lesson next week with adding a few more gadgets and details, doing a bit of pre-planning for our blog posts, publishing our first article, and then talking about how your readers will subscribe to your blog.
But as promised at the beginning of this episode I’m excited to tell you about a new project that I’m involved with that I think you will really love.
The folks at Family Tree Magazine are putting together a really exciting and innovative online educational website, Family Tree University. They’ve asked me to develop some of the first of many online classes they’ll be offering.
Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on my class called Google for Genealogy. We’ve talked about various Google tools on both my podcasts and in this class we’re going to wade all the way and go in depth!