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~