Monday, January 18, 2010

Recording Our Research Work in a Blog

A couple of months ago I gave a presentation to the Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County (GSPBC) about one-name studies. Of course, I used my own Vick one-name study as an example. After the presentation I was talking with one of the attendees about ideas for future GSPBC presentations (I am the 1st Vice President and my primary responsibility is arranging programs for the general meetings). As we talked it occurred to me that a program on blogs might be something of interest to our GSPBC members. As we talked I also realized that many people have collected and are collecting a great deal of family history information that they would like to publish, but for many reasons they may never getting around to publishing.

The thought I came away with (which I am sure isn’t new) is that perhaps blogging might be a great way for people to record their research findings in small, manageable entries. Their research would be preserved on the internet, and anyone could access and comment on it. Their blogs might even lead to valuable contacts.

One of my other genealogical interests is The Vick Family Newsletter. I am the editor. To put more meat into this blog I am going to start including more information in my blog about the articles I am writing for the newsletter. Perhaps the blog will also encourage people with additional information to contact me about the articles I am writing. It would be good to catch any mistakes or to find additional information before an article is published. Maybe people who would like to contribute material to the newsletter, but don’t want to write an article, would want to be contributors.

I look forward to seeing how this all turns out.

1 comment:

BeNotForgot said...

Although I did not necessarily think of it as such when I started my first blog, the way I look at my blogs now is as a method for "spoon-feeding" tidbits of info to my assorted kith 'n kin.

I tend to blog according to a timeline of the events in the lives of my kith 'n kin -- e.g., I might do a post on the anniversary date of the death of an ancestor, containing the obituary along with a photo of their grave.

Good luck with your project -- sounds like a good one! V.