Why You Might Want a Personal Genealogy Blog on WordPress
Click here for more of the article below
You probably can find dozens of reasons for creating a blog. In addition, you can probably find dozens of companies that will host a blog for you. Given the choices and the reasons available, trying to decide on the best blog hosting service for you can be an overwhelming decision. How do you find the best one for your use? I will suggest there is no easy answer, but I will suggest that WordPress should be one of the services you evaluate.
NOTE: I will quickly
admit that I am biased. The words you are reading right now are hosted
on a WordPress blog. I have used several different blogging services
over the years to host this newsletter. I switched to WordPress several
years ago and am very happy with the company’s services. I have no plans
to switch to anything else.
There are a number of reasons why a genealogist might want to crate a blog. Here are a few ideas I can think of:
Keep track of your own family history
research and advise your relatives of your progress. If your relatives
are monitoring your progress, it is possible they can contribute
information to your research efforts, especially as they read about
various items you discover. Reading about their ancestors’ lives often
serves as a “memory jogger” for various bits of information they may
have heard or known about years ago. Many of such bits may be new to
you. In some cases, a blog reader who lives near the locations where
your ancestors lived also may be able to perform some “in person”
research for you.
Share your own life experiences. A blog
can be similar to an online diary. Such a blog can be very interesting
to your friends and relatives. Optionally, you can add a password to
your blog so that it can only be read by the people to whom you grant
access.
Genealogical and historical societies
often use blogs to publish society newsletters online, to publicize
upcoming events, to publicize books the society publishes, and to
publicize all sorts of news and events of potential interest to society
members and non-members alike. Some societies even add a “for members
only” section that requires a password to access. A society blog often
is one of the most powerful publicity tools a society can use.
Ethnicity interest groups often use blogs
focused on specific ethnic groups and the genealogies of included
families. Examples include Polish-American groups, African-American
genealogy, Jewish genealogy, Hispanic genealogy, French-Canadian
genealogy, Irish genealogy, German genealogy and more.
Almost all genealogy conferences now use
blogs to publicize events, to distribute updates on speakers and
presentations to be offered, to supply information about hotels and
restaurants in the area, and myriad other reasons.
Archives and libraries often use blogs to
provide news about recent additions to their collections, seminars, and
other events being held by the archive or library, lists of holidays and
other times the library or archive may be closed, solicitations for
donations, and more.
Genealogy industry blogs are very popular.
Almost every company in the genealogy business publishes a blog
containing frequent updates about the latest additions and updates to
the company’s offerings, publicity about future additions and changes,
disseminating FAQs (Frequently-Asked Questions) that many customers ask,
and many other customer support activities. Nearly 40% of US companies
use blogs for marketing purposes. Two-thirds of marketers say their
company blog is “critical” or “important” to their business.
Genealogy industry news: perhaps you want
to compete with Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter. (Comment: Come on
in! There’s room for more.)
The
Social Security Death Index (often called the SSDI) is a valuable tool
for genealogists. It lists deceased people within the United States.
When first created, the SSDI only listed those people who were receiving
Social Security benefit payments at the time of death. 
