Put Another Candle on the Blog Birthday Cake

Has it been three years already? I was blogging on various subjects when The Family Curator was launched July 4, 2007, but I never imagined that my student family history project would start a long-term affair with genealogy blogging.

Anniversaries are a good time to reflect on highlights of the year past, and this year I want to thank some of the special bloggers I have been honored to meet in Real Life after a first acquaintance began online.

On The Family Curator’s First Blogiversary in 2008, I was excited to announce the publication of my guest column, “Reading Women’s Lives,” for footnoteMaven’s Shades of the Departed. This was be the beginning of a wonderful new friendship with the Belle of the Blogs. footnoteMaven has been a model of professionalism, generosity, courtesy, and kindness. Truly, she is a lovely light in the genealogy blogosphere.

By my Second Blogiversary in 2009, I had met several bloggers in Real Time, and counted myself fortunate indeed to be the beneficiary of their experience and advice. At first, I was surprised to find that Randy Seaver was a living, breathing person; his ability to write well, research thoroughly, enjoy his grandchildren, and dote on his lovely wife seemed like more than any one person could accomplish. Randy defies all limits, however. He really is a Genealogy Blogger Extraordinaire.

I also met Thomas MacEntee, a GeneaBlogger genius ready to lend a helping hand with my tech questions and blogging conundrums. What fun to discover that we both shared a love of the New York countryside, and even more fun to work together on the blogger welcome bags for Jamboree.

Then, there was Amy Coffin of WeTree and Craig Manson of Geneablogie whose passion and persistence motivated me to keep digging when I was ready to throw in the towel. Kathryn Doyle and Elizabeth O’Neal who opened my eyes to Twitter and Facebook; they made it look sooooo easy. Sheri Fenley, Cheryl Palmer, and Susan Kitchens who made it all sooooo fun.  And so many more bloggers…  

Each person I met online long before we met face-to-face, and those meetings did not disappoint.

In 2010, I have been able to shake hands, share a meal, and swap tales with even more genealogy bloggers and readers. I loved getting to know Miriam Midkiff, the brains behind the monthly Scanfest, as well as organized pros like Steve Danko, Canadian blogger and fellow-welcome-bagger Joan Miller, travelling blogger Becky Wiseman, enthusiastic young bloggers A.C. Ivory and Elyse Doerflinger, and many more...  These are only some of the wonderful genealogy bloggers I have been able to meet in person.

It’s a fine journey, and the best part is that there is still so much more to come. Thank you, friends, for three great years. Happy Blogiversary !

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

The 2nd Anniversary of The Family Curator came . . . fireworks exploded in the night sky . . . and went. The date is purposefully shared with two other auspicious anniversaries -- national independence and Henry David Thoreau's personal independence -- yet, this year the Family Curator was celebrating a family holiday in George Washington country rather than posting on the blogosphere.

Anniversaries, like birthdays, are a good time to reflect on the twelve-months past, and it has been a momentous year in the life of The Family Curator. Some of the posts and events I enjoyed most included

A Mystery in Two Acts and The Plot Thickens, the "back story" to a popular melodrama performed by a troupe of local actors, including my grandmother Arline Kinsel. I was able to locate a copy of the original script and posted a three-part synopsis of the story, as well as photographs of the "Cast of Characters" from Arline's treasure trove.

The Family Curator Writes at Shades of the Departed was my debut with footnoteMaven's exceptional blog, Shades. "Reading Women's Lives" focused on a project I used with my high school English students where they transcribed and analyzed some of my grandmother's correspondance from 1910-1920.

My Kind of Athletics -- The Genea-Blogger Games kicked off a great time of blog-centric events dreamed up by the official Games Committee (Thomas, Terry, Miriam, Kathryn, footnoteMaven, and Denise). Great fun for those dog-days of summer, and participants were also able to hone their varied blogging skills and win medals!

Treasure Hunt! was a bloggers' challenge that resulted in a great find right in my own Magic Cupboard, detailed in Treasure Revealed -- a folder of black-and-white negatives to images I had never seen in print. What a find! It was so much fun to see what other bloggers found on their own expeditions Treasure Hunt Challenge Round-Up: Just Look What We Found in Our Cupboards & Closets & Boxes!

Ten Tips for Making Family Connections highlighted some of the ways blogging can help family historians and genealogists connect with other family members. The article grew out of a guest column at Shades of the Departed entitled Making Connections which chronicled some of the family members I've met through my writing at Shades. Now that's a winding road!

and in January 2009, The Family Curator initiated a new weekly column, Tech Tuesday, a regular feature highlighting technology related reviews, ideas, tips, and information. It's been a challenge to post every single week, not so much on due to lack of subject matter, but just to "do it." My goal now is to post more family history to balance the content and share some of the great treasures in my Magic Cupboard.

It seems fitting that my anniversary date follows one of the highlights of the year, the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, because this year I was able to meet so many bloggers face-to-face at SCGS Jamboree 2009. I hope that this annual event will bring even more bloggers together next year -- both virtually and physically.

Of course, it wouldn't be nearly as rewarding or interesting to write in a void, and I am extremely grateful to readers of The Family Curator for comments and suggestions, and to fellow bloggers who so generously share blogging wisdom, encouragement, and enthusiasm. Thank you, you know who you are!

Happy 100th Posting from The Family Curator

It's rather like The Big Birthday. I've anticipated the One Hundredth Posting for some months, but mostly in the wee hours of the night when I am not at my computer to speculate when exactly that date will occur. So, I was taken quite by surprise today when I realized that this very post will be that special one. Spontaneous serendipity. A lovely surprise. And a grand adventure.

Henry David Thoreau, always one for finding meaning in meaning, "moved" to Walden Pond on July 4th. It was his own Independence Day. As 2008 comes to a close, it's a good time to look back and The 100th Posting is a good place to reflect on The Family Curator.

What began as an online research journal has become a forum for new ideas and a place to connect with like-minded family historians. Certainly I have learned more from these blogging connections than I ever did muddling around on my own; and not only about family history and genealogy.

I have been prodded toward organizing my files and piles; I have stretched the creative limits of file naming; I have tried a Carnival performance or two; I have "talked" with bloggers on all sorts of subjects; I have cajoled reluctant new readers to blog-world; and I have rediscovered my own writing.

Our stories go round and round building communities of "cousins" both by blood and by byte. I know that most of us will never meet face-to-face, but I do feel that if we were to find each other at some event we could easily continue a conversation begun days earlier in cyberspace. Thank you for your readership and your comments. I look forward to the next hundred postings. . . at The Family Curator and at your blog as well.