Blog Your Family History

It's that FUN time of the year again - BYU Education Week! I love being on the BYU campus again, seeing the beautiful flowers and smelling that aroma that floats through the air that reminds me of all the good times when I was a student here. Last year I discovered the joy of joining the Hosting Staff at Education Week, which means that I get to spend a portion of my day serving others instead of just filling myself up all day. And the best part? I get in all week FREE - so it's a win-win! 

So right now I'm sitting in a class called "Blog Your Family History" and the teacher gave some great ideas about what types of things could be blogged about when sharing your family history. Then she started sharing the specifics of how to create a blog, post to a blog, etc, which I have just a little teeny bit of experience with, so I decided that I would type up a post while I'm half-listening to the presentation. :) I've gleaned some great ideas, though, which is always the case with Education Week presentations. Any class I go to always has some value, and others... can I just say that I have found incredible gems in my years of attending!

Here are some of the great ideas for what you can do with a Family History Blog:

• Record & share general family history research
• Create a place to post family newsletters so everyone can keep in contact
• Post new information regarding research on a certain culture or location
• Post mini family history lessons and tips
• Organize missionary letters
• Travel adventures
• Scripture study notebook
• Journals
• Family recipes
• Track pregnancy with pictures (kids, grandkids)
• Ancestral stories
• Memories of relatives and ancestors
• Quotes about family history
• Funny family stories
• Ancestor “birthday blog” - write a story “on their birthday”
• And for more ideas....
• Find genealogical blogs to read and follow to see what others are posting!

One point they made in the class is that if you are posting things about living people, you need to make sure you have their permission to share the information. An alternative is to create a "private" blog and only share it with people in your family.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be starting a "family history blog" any time soon, because I don't have time for any more new projects!! (And quite honestly, because I would probably do it for awhile and then quit...) BUT - I will add a new "label" called "Family History" so that when the whim hits me I can simply post some great family history stuff right here on Jumbled Sunshine! :)

Class has ended.... so off I go to the next one! I'm going to be brave and just post this without editing or anything, so hopefully it's not too wrought with imperfections! ;) Until next time....

~JS~

6 Easy Steps to Using Feedly and Chrome for One-Click RSS Feed Subscriptions

Just a miscellaneous tidbit today. . . 

Have you tried to sign up for an RSS feed and been frustrated when you get a bunch of "gobbledy-gook" after clicking on the little orange RSS feed icon? ME TOO! 

Or. . . Have you always wondered what the heck an RSS feed is? Been there, done that. 

Here's a little tutorial to help you out. 

Stock Image by Leo Blanchette
Credit HERE. 

An RSS Feed is simply a text version of new posts on a website (usually a blog). By subscribing to RSS feeds, you can read updates of all your favorite blogs and websites in one place, instead of having to surf the web to visit all your favorite sites. It's a great idea, but since they discontinued Google Reader, it's been tough to find a good replacement RSS Feed Reader. Until NOW. 

I did a little bit of searching and figured out a solution that's working well for me. I used Feedly and Chrome RSS Subscription Extension together. Here's how you can set it up in 6 easy steps!

How to Add RSS Feeds to Feedly Using a One-Click Chrome Extension

1. Set up an account at feedly.com. I recommend that you use the "sign in with Google Account option" so everything will seamlessly integrate with the Chrome extension.

2. Install the Chrome RSS subscription extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rss-subscription-extensio/nlbjncdgjeocebhnmkbbbdekmmmcbfjd). This extension puts the familiar orange RSS icon in your URL bar whenever a site you're visiting has a feed.

2. Go to a site that has an RSS feed (i.e. - feedtheworld.org). You will see the little orange icon pop up on the far right side of your address bar. Right click on it and then choose "options."

3. In options, you will see "RSS Subscription Options" at the top. Click on “add…” button and fill it out like so (you'll only have to do this the first time you subscribe to a feed):

• Description: Feedly
• URL: http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/%s

(note: if you copy & paste, you'll need to add a space to the end before the OK button will pop up)

4. Delete the other RSS feed options to make Feedly your default. 

5. It’s done! Now when visiting a website which provide RSS, you will see the RSS icon in the multibox, Click on it to quickly add the feed to your Feedly account. 

6. To read your subscriptions, login at feedly.com and read away!

Hope this helps some of you who have been wanting to find a replacement for your Google Reader!

ENJOY!