I love blogging. When I first started, almost three years ago, I had two main purposes – to share ancestors’ stories and successful research techniques and resources AND to hope that new cousins found me. I definitely had control over sharing stories and resources, but could only hope that cousins found me.
I am pleased to report success on both fronts and I have been amazed at some of the relatives, distant and not so distant, who have come across my blog. There are cousins, cousins everywhere, much to my joy and excitement.
Who has found me? Cousins from paternal and maternal lines of both my and my husband’s family trees.
I have gotten back in touch with fellow genealogist cousins from the 1980s and 1990s. I have helped a young person in his 20s take his family tree from his grandfather back into the 1600s in Europe. A few new black sheep have been discovered, as well as some seriously dedicated family history researchers. Connections have been made with children of friends of our parents. New data and family photos have been unearthed and shared.
There hasn’t been any one single earth shaking find, but, together, all of these contacts have made me do the genealogy happy dance many times over.
Blogging is a great activity because posts can be created as often or as infrequently as the writer wishes, but once a post goes live, others can find you. Family stories and photos can be shared and new connections made.
If you have thought about starting a blog, I would heartily encourage you to pursue your dream. I think you’ll like it!
I love blogging, too, and have also met up with “new” cousins because of it. Genealogy is such a wonderful “hobby” and, although it is often pursued alone, it is a lot more fun when there are others to share it with.