Those who write a family history blog are well-positioned to market their heritage to everyone who cares!
Recently, I read a marketing blog post on the power of blogging for businesses. Of course I immediately thought about what they were saying from the point of view of a family historian. We want to share–or market–our family histories so others will read and enjoy them! So I’ve adapted their concepts for why a genealogist should be writing a GREAT blog.
1. THE “COUSIN BAIT” EFFECT. Businesses that blog attract two-thirds more potential customers than those who don’t. Likewise, family historians who share their family history online can attract interest from lots of relatives, including those they’ve never met and those they never knew were interested in family history! Genealogy blogs are called “cousin bait” for a reason!
2. BLOGGING IS TIMELESS. Business blog posts can pull in new customers for businesses whether you wrote them yesterday or years ago. It’s worth updating older blog posts with more current information and keeping your current contact information on your blog, even if you’re not actively adding to it right now.
3. OUR RELATIVES ARE LOOKING ONLINE. By 2020, customers are expected to manage about 85% of business without even talking to a human. Wow! I think we’ll see some trending that direction in family history research, too. Increasingly, our relatives are likely looking for their family history online first—not as much by reaching out to distant relatives and relatives-of-relatives by mail or phone, though I still encourage that cold-calling approach that worked so well for Debra.
4. BLOGGING IS FREE. The only cost of blogging is TIME! This speaks for itself. No expensive mailings or printing copies of books and photos, hoping your relatives will pay you back.
5. SHARE WITH AUTHORITY. In the business world, blogs are considered a highly trusted source for accurate online information. The personal touch of a blog, together with your responsible research and the sources you cite, can help your relatives trust what you’re telling them. As you become known to your extended family as someone who prizes your heritage, you may also become the person that distant relatives or heirloom rescuers turn to when looking for a home for priceless family artifacts.
I share these thoughts–and oodles of inspiring blogging testimonials from Genealogy Gems listeners and readers–in the newest episode of the Genealogy Gems podcast. Click here to listen to episode #185–and learn how you could win a FREE year of Premium membership to the Genealogy Gems website.
More GEMS on How to Write a Family History Blog
Are you ready to launch your own blog, or recharge the one you’ve already got? Click here to see a BRAND NEW webpage I’ve created that’s packed with resources on how to write a family history blog that gets you found by others who care about your heritage.
In an exclusive interview with Lisa Louise Cooke, Bruce Feiler shares a family history tip from his book, The Secrets of Happy Families.
Family History Leads to Happy Families
At RootsTech 2016, Lisa Louise Cooke had a chance to sit down and chat with New York Times columnist Bruce Feiler. Their topic: how family history can actually help today’s children and families be happier.
The insight comes from Feiler’s new book, The Secrets of Happy Families. As part of his research, he interviewed successful people from all walks of life about how they ran their families. The tips he reports are sometimes surprising, but one rings particularly true for genealogists: teach kids their family history.
Watch the video interview below to see how including old family stories can build more resilient children and stronger family cultures today.
More Ways to Share Family History with Kids
Are you suddenly looking for fun, inspiring ways to share family history with kids? You may enjoy the following articles on the Genealogy Gems blog:
P.S. When Lisa posted the above video on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel, she noticed that the channel now has 5000 subscribers and over 300,000 views. Click here to see why so many are tuning in!
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!
Google searches for genealogy are a main focus of our Google Guru, Lisa Louise Cooke. Read this inspiring story of how one Genealogy Gems reader used Lisa’s Google search tips to find a trove of family stories worthy of an opera.
Opera house image courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons.
You never know when the amazing technology of the internet and Google will lead to a discovery that will open the doors on your family history. I recently received a letter from Genealogy Gems listener, Kristen. She shared the sad tale of her maternal grandmother’s history. Her grandmother had lost her mother before the age of two. Then, as an only child, her father abandoned her to be raised by a less-than-loving step mother. This young woman grew-up and had children of her own, but all she had in the way of a family history was the memory of her father’s name and a handful of unnamed photographs.
Merton E. Markert
Kristen went on to say, “She never really spoke of her sad childhood, save to say that the stepmother would tell her she had always been unwanted and that her mother was unloved and the marriage was forced.”
Among the handful of mystery photographs of her grandmother as a child, was a brief article from a newspaper. It was a lesson in manners titled Silence is Golden and it was written by Merton Markert, a student of the Modern Classics. A photo of a young woman was attached.
Using Clues for Google Searches for Genealogy
Here’s the rest of Kristen’s letter:
I took your advice and Googled Merton Markert Modern Classical Silence Golden. Up came the Lancaster High School Yearbook for 1905, featuring p. 41, the senior class portraits with their course study descriptions and a small personal quote for each. There was that exact photo of her, and the name Merton Markert, Modern Classical with the quote, “Life seems a jest of Fate’s contriving.”
Photo courtesy of Kristin Wat
The whole yearbook had been digitized by Mocavo, and it is the only yearbook for that high school in several years. My great-grandmother [Merton Markert], who had been buried and unspoken for a hundred years, had reached out to me. She wanted me to find her! Lisa, I cannot adequately describe the feelings I experienced at that moment of discovery. You understand how a moment like that feels, I’m sure. The chills, the tears…I felt like I was staring into her eyes, reaching through a century of silence, and finally able to acknowledge her sacrifice and legacy.
On the football team that year was my great-grandfather, and the whole book was ripe with clues that still hold nuanced significance.
From there, I was able to grow a tree on Ancestry.com and get the basics. But that does not tell you who the person is, the struggles, the character, the story. So taking your lead, and thinking like my brother the Sherriff Detective, I got creative. Using all kinds of searches and sniffing and turning over and under, I was able to uncover a veritable opera’s worth of stories within this one branch [of my family tree]. The cast of characters include: A Colonial founder, a secret bastard half-sister, a suicidal mother, a Klondike Gold Stampeder, alcoholics, a rejected Baptist Pastor, a homosexual affair-turned-murder victim, a bonafide Monuments Man (buried at Arlington), and a chorus of war veterans. And cancer. Lots of it. In fact, breast cancer was the reason for Merton’s death in 1910. That kind of information is vital to my sisters and female cousins.
So thank you, my clever inspiration.
Ain’t opera grand?
Lisa’s Response to Kristen with Additional Ideas
Thanks for sharing your fascinating story. I completely understand the emotions you felt the moment she was looking back at you on the screen. Those moments are precious and meant to be savored!Using search techniques from my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, Second Edition,I also discovered this same yearbook on the robust and free Internet Archive website. Perhaps there is more there to be found. And I have an additional idea I thought you might like to try. It’s Ebay.
Ebay currently has a commencement program from 1902, old post cards of the school, and other yearbooks from Lancaster High School. Who knows what could be put up for auction in the future. You could sign up for a free Ebay account, run a search, and then click to Follow the search. You will then be alerted to future auctions that match your criteria. Happy hunting and thanks for being a Genealogy Gem!
Genealogy Gems Premium Members can listen to Premium episode 16 which goes in depth into my Tips for Finding Family History Related Items on eBay.
More on Google Searches for Genealogy
Google is an effective and easy-to-use genealogy tool, you just need to know a few basics. Watch my YouTube video on speaking Google’s language and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our tech tips and more!
When my kids were little I would pack away some of their mountain of toys. Then every so often I would bring them back in to “play circulation” and pack up another batch. To the kids, it was like getting brand new toys!
Our recent move has been sort of like that. As I unpacked boxes of bubble-wrapped baubles it was like finding new family heirlooms all over again.
One example is quite small: a single vintage clip-on earring.
It belonged to my beloved Grandma Burkett. Even though it had lost its match long ago, I couldn’t bear to part with it. As I unwrapped the seemingly useless single earring I was immediately struck with how I could use it. I clipped it in my hair at the end of my french braid!
family heirlooms
Later that day I went shopping with my daughter, and several people stopped to compliment the jewel and inquire about it. When I explained it originally belonged to my Grandmother, faces lit up and family history conversations started to flow. All from one little thing…
Your challenge this week: Look at what you have with fresh eyes, and share your family history with the world in little ways!
This mini heritage scrapbook celebrates a family name–Jane–which has been passed down through several generations. Author Sunny Morton shares a beautiful keepsake that she has treasured, and that you can make too.My daughter’s middle name is Jane.And...
readers–in the newest episode of the Genealogy Gems podcast. Click here to listen to episode #185–and learn how you could win a FREE year of Premium membership to the Genealogy Gems website.
