Call for Genealogy Blogging Themes

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daily blogging themes

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to populate a new variety of blogging themes and I need the genealogy blogging community’s help!

Starting Sunday, September 12, 2010, GeneaBloggers will start a new feature called GeneaBloggers Almanac which will list daily blogging themes and other genealogy blogging events.  The current daily blogging themes will be included as well as some themes that are currently in use by several other bloggers.

Here’s how you can help:

  • If you have started a genealogy blogging theme please let me know.  Send me the name, a description of the concept and a link to your blog.
  • Also let me know if you would like to start a new theme.  Again, send me the name, a description of the concept and a link to your blog.

Thanks and I really appreciate everyone’s comments and feedback in this week’s Open Thread Thursday about the daily blogging themes. We have built a great community of genealogy bloggers and I think that expanding the ways in which others can participate will only help improve the genealogy blogging experience.

©2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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29 thoughts on “Call for Genealogy Blogging Themes”

  1. Here are a few:

    * What was the first bit of tangible family history you found? Was it a photograph? A document? An heirloom?

    * Is anyone else in your family interested in genealogy?

    * Have you traveled to do genealogical research? If not, where would you like to go to do so?

    * What is your favorite/most shocking/most exciting discovery thus far?

    * Why are you interested in genealogy?

    I’ll post more later if I think of any. :)

  2. What about Heirlooms? Lost Photos found at garage sales or flea markets? What about how it was done back then? I.e. hitching a mule team or plowing a field with the team.

    I hate seeing lost photos for sale….

    If I were to find some and be able to buy them all, I would post on a website for all to view and hopefully find the owner. That would give me great pleasure to know that I was able to return a piece of history to the owner.

    As for the how it was done…. not many people know a day’s knows how to hitch a horse and wagon, it’s hard work and lots to it. Not many know how grandma canned, no one cares. We have dying art’s that no one will remember in 50 years if we don’t preserve them.

  3. Since working on genealogy and especially since blogging about it I’ve thought a lot about ‘how it was done back then’…just the simplest chores for us were a major thing for our ancestors…you need to use the bathroom? it’s a trip outside in the heat, rain, snow, blizzards, etc. Simple chores like doing dishes: you have to go out and collect some wood to start the fire, then you had to go get some water and put it on the fire, do you have some of that soap on hand that you made last week? If not…make some. Wash the dishes, back outside to dump the water, dry the dishes by hand (gasp!). Today it just goes in the dishwasher and, voila, just put them away. What about vacuuming without electricity? The old brooms had to do it for you.

  5. Hey Thomas –
    “Military Monday” is one that I’ve done for a while. All things Military – anything goes, medals, documents, people in uniform, stories etc.
    I did something called “Cemetery Saturday” for a while also, this was partly because I sometimes couldn’t get it together for Tuesday :) But, it doesn’t just have to be tombstones, it could just be about a cemetery in general or anything ‘cemetery’.
    “Extended Family Friday” is really about cousin bait, getting information on some extended family members to your blog can certainly help reel in some more readers from the search engines.
    Same idea with “Spotlight Sunday” – I began doing this when black sheep Sunday came to be, and haven’t done one for a while. I used this to force myself into researching someone that I may have overlooked, or someone that I had a stray photo of, who may not be in my direct line. Doing a bit of research, getting some facts together and spotlighting a great great Auntie that you don’t know a lot about can bring in more cousins also, and forces me to do a little research. I chose people who had a birthdate around the date of post.

  6. What about migration stories- why they left, who they traveled with, where they settled. Mentioning collateral families or traveling friends or how the kids scattered, and why i(if known) might be helpful to someone. Maps of migrations, struggles they faced, etc.

    Or what about talented Tuesday- blogging about actors, musicians, acrobats, traveling circus, fortune tellers, matchmakers, odd, funny or crazy talents our ancestors had

  8. I really enjoy participating in Transylvania Dutch’s Transcription Mondays. However, you can’t steal his thunder! Something along those lines or perhaps, he’d like a broader audience.

  9. I will be having Wedding Wednesday, starting next week, have not posted one before, Have 2 in the works, one with wedding cake topper and one covers what it cost to get married in 1947. Could include wedding news articles, photos of the happy couples, marriage lic announcements from papers.

  10. Just doing some brainstorming here … (I didn’t say they were Great ideas, just ideas to get others thinking ….)

    Silly Sunday – amusing stories or photographs from the family archives

    Missing Persons Monday – profile of someone who seems to be a brick wall; share what you found out until the trail dried up.

    Tipster Tuesday – Helpful hints on software, online databases, where to look for a certain type of information

    Sports Center Saturday (or Sunday) – photos and stories about the athletes in our families

    Reading Room Thursday – reviews of genealogy or history books, articles or Google books

    I also like the Military Monday that someone else mentioned, as well as Wedding Wednesday, which I used once.

    How about cultural/location themes? For example, Irish, German or Danish themed posts (insert your own country of origin on this one).

    That’s enough brainstorming for now.

  11. I didn’t reply to the last post, but I have to say that I really like the daily themes because I can create my post and them see a bunch of others that follow the smae theme. Here are some of my ideas for daily themes:

    • Tribute Tuesday – a biography of an ancestor, event or location from your research
    • Thank You Thursday – give props to those who’ve helped you with your research
    • Surprise Saturday/Sunday – highlight surprising discoveries
    • Summery Sunday – sum up your week’s research

    Also, some names for unamed ideas already mentioned.
    • When I was a Kid / Way Back When Wednesay – Mary Warren’s comment
    • The First … Friday – Sarah Burgess

  18. I’m using a theme called “Lost In Time”…. I run it almost every Friday and it focuses on unidentified family photo’s. I’ve got tons of them, most I know the town, county etc so I’ll post three or four depending on the size.

    I post the photo’s with as much information as I can. Once I post, I go on the Rootsweb lists for that area and let everyone know what I know, including time frame, townships or cities and surnames of my ancestors in that area, and give them my URL.

    Its actually gotten several of my photo’s identified. So far no list owners have complained and I’ve gotten quite a bit of positive feedback.

  19. I have seen this all day long when I popped in to check my email. Unfortunately I have been able to sit down and put together my thoughts like I wanted, but I really do like the ideas others have suggested. Tech Tuesdays, Summary Sundays, thank-you Thursdays all sound great, as do pretty much everyone’s ideas.

    I will reiterate my Dead-end Day Theme. It’ just sort of a round robin look at other people’s brick walls sort of thing, and it could be recurring to help long-term on a really difficult ancestor or it could be a way to commiserate or.. well, anything! lol

  23. How about something from a well known book. I say that in mind cause those foreign books are expensive and I would love a peak into those that I have to order from europe. And check all the lists of used books. Or see who has what to share. etc. Not sure what the idea is, but maybe only I would like to see something done with sharing or swaping.

  28. I am using ‘Sources Sunday’, in which I feature a *non-Internet* source that I have used for genealogy, such as a specific source or series in a record office; a book; or a library, museum etc as a source in the broader sense. The post may appear in any of my four locality-based genealogy blogs.

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