Celebrating Three Years
Wow! Time has flown and I can’t believe I have been blogging for three years.
When I started out in 2014, I hoped to tell some family stories, share my successes through 35+ years of family history researching, make contact with some new (close or distant) cousins and share techniques and resources that I’ve found helpful. I think I’ve done a good job meeting my goals. 🙂
I am not a person heavily into statistics, so I won’t go into a lot of detail with numbers. However, in three years, Empty Branches has has 86, 892 views, which I think is terrific, particularly since I only had a handful of posts online between January and September 2014.
I am also very proud of the fact that, in spite of fairly frequent travel, I have had new posts up daily since September 2014.
Here are my own top personal favorites over the past three years:
2014
I might be cheating a bit here, but my favorite post is actually my first family story, written in seven parts, about how I broke through my Danish brick wall. This is also my favorite of all time!
Part 1 – The Long Saga to Find Anna Elisabeth Johnson’s Family, 17 January 2014
Part 2- The 1980 Research Brick Wall, 21 January 2014
Part 3 – Fast Forward Danish Research to 2011, 21 January 2014
Part 4 – Some Success in Copenhagen, 23 January 2014
Part 5 – Searching Danish Military Records, 25 January 2014
Part 6 – Thinking Outside the Box to Assemble the Puzzle Pieces, 25 January 2014
Part 7 – Questions Answered, More Created, 24 January 2014
2015
My favorite post/s of 2015 is again a multi-part story, sharing the history of the Slovak parishioners from the village of Udol and the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Passaic, New Jersey:
Factory Beginnings & Quasquicentennial of the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, Passaic, NJ, 21 February 2015
Udol and the Life They Left Behind – Quasquicentennial of St. Michael’s Church, 22 February 2015
Making a Home in Passaic – Quasquicentennial of St. Michael’s Church, 23 February 2015
Constructing the New Church – Quasquicentennial of St. Michael’s Church, 24 February 2014
The Heart of St. Michael’s – Its People – The Quasquicentennial of the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, 25 February 2015
Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel – Bridging the 21st Century, 28 February 2015
2016
My 2016 favorites are an unexpected two-parter for a couple of reasons plus a couple of posts on original research and methods.
My Stuart family posts led Bertha’s granddaughter to contact me when she read my blog AND I believe Bertha, who passed away many years ago, was up there telling me to search eBay, leading to the following day’s post.
Bertha Ella Stuart, Valedictory Speech, Calais Academy Maine, Class of 1910, 16 April 2016
eBay Success: You Will Never Believe What I Found Today!, 17 April 2016
What Does “Reasonably Exhaustive Research” Really Look Like?, 2 July 2016
Delving into Original 18th Century Sources, Part 1, 5 July 2016,
Delving into Original 18th Century Sources, Part 2, 6 July 2016
Thank you to all who take the time to visit Empty Branches on the Family Tree, read my posts and take the time to leave comments. It is much appreciated and I am looking forward to Year #4. I hope you are, too.
Happy Blogiversary!
Congratulations on your 3rd blogging anniversary. That is wonderful! I am particularly impressed that you were able to keep up daily posting for so long. Starting on 1 July 2016, I had the goal of posting daily for a year. Then, the diagnosis of cataracts on 12 Dec 2016 threw me totally off course. While I regain my bearings and deal with potential blindness, I have decided that I need to adjust my goals. I think that it is wonderful that you are able to post daily! I wish you the best as you continue to work on your research and blogging goals.
Have a blessed day!
Thank you, Suzanne. I understand about the cataracts, as I did that last summer, but all turned out well. Hope your outcome is the same.
Happy Blogiversary! I’m amazed you’ve been able to do a post a day for so long. I’m often happy if I get a post a week, but have been doing better lately. By the way, my 3rd anniversary is in just about 7 weeks! 🙂
Thank you. I work really hard at creating a new post every day, but it’s a labor of love.
Happy anniversary and congratulations on three great years, Linda.
Thank you. I’ ready for year 4, I think!
Happy 3rd Blogiversary!
Thank you, Jana. It’s been a fun journey.
Happy blogiversary, Linda. Posting every day is impressive! Looking forward to year #4.
Happy 3rd Blogiversary, Linda!
May you have many, many more years of great blogging! 🙂
Thank you!
Congratulations and thanks for many good reads and ideas.
I am pleased that you’ve enjoyed my posts. Thanks for leaving a comment.