Ancestry.com just released a neat infographic about marriage records and especially those celebrity weddings that took place in Las Vegas, Nevada (see the marriage certificate for Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 above).

A new genealogy and family history news channel, Family History Daily, debuts today and I’m proud to say that I’ve contributed an article to what looks to be a valuable asset for our community.

What Is Family History Daily?

Last month, the editor of Family History Daily, made a pitch to the genealogy community in which she outlined the purpose and premise of this new site and solicited contributions in the form of articles. You may have seen the information posted at GeneaPress or at Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.

As you can see at the About Family History Daily link, the goal is to build a channel where members of the genealogical and family history community can share tips, ideas, inspiration and stores about their passion.

Do We Need Another Genealogy Channel?

And the answer is yes. And the reason is that there is always room for ways in which we can reach out and not only welcome those new to searching their roots, but also to those searching to improve their knowledge about family history.

When the original pitch was made in early January, I was bombarded with emails from concerned members of GeneaBloggers and others in the genealogy community. They wanted to know who was running the site, what the purpose was, was it going to create an online community similar to GeneaBloggers . . .

So I did what any person would do when someone new arrives in the community: I reached out and welcomed them. I made it a point to contact Melanie Mayo who is an experienced editor managing similar channels for other markets (parenting mainly). I offered her support and encouragement and did the neighborly thing and made her feel welcome.

I also did my homework (we genealogists are researchers after all) and found out that this venture was not simply some “fly by night” operation or set up by an opportunist seeking to compete with other existing sites in genealogy. While there is always some base level of competition in that similar sites offer similar choices, in no way did I get the impression that Family History Daily was anything except what it purports to be: a place to share information about genealogy.

Why I Contributed An Article . . . An Why You Should Too

So now that I’ve let you know that Family History Daily is legit, at least in my book, here’s more about my article Family History Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone and why I provided it to Family History Daily as a feature article.

First, I love to write and I love writing on broad topics in family history that serve to make readers think and to inspire them to better genealogy.

Second, I knew that my contribution would help lend some legitimacy to the site and also calm the waters, so to speak in terms of there being a new kid on the block.

And finally, because doing so just fits with my belief in abundance and how it serves to expand not just the genealogy community, but also my own opportunities. I believe and I have proof that for each contribution offered freely and in the spirit of giving and abundance, I receive much more back in the form of other opportunities.

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So there you have it. Now go read the content at Family History Daily and consider contributing your own article. You’ll find your own gifts of abundance when you do. And also please take a minute to welcome Melanie and congratulate her on the new site.

Remember, there’s plenty of room at the table when it comes to talking online about genealogy and family history. There are many channels out there and you need to find the one or ones that work for you. And when you do, support them with the same passion you have for finding your own ancestors.

©2013, copyright Thomas MacEntee

As many readers of GeneaBloggers know, we’ve had problems displaying the Google Reader widgets with lists of the Daily Blogging Prompts each day.  The issue started about six weeks ago and this is basically what was happening: the widget code was being stripped out of the blog post once it was published.

My Productivity Trick: Pre-posting on WordPress

Each Saturday afternoon, I spend a few hours writing the 10 or so blog posts that appear at GeneaBloggers each week. I use the WordPress “schedule” feature to do this and it really helps me be more productive.  There’s nothing worse than having to think about posting to your blog at 11:00 pm each evening so they appear the next day.

So if you thought I posted each day, I’ll confess that it is all smoke and mirrors! Scheduling blog posts can also be done on Blogger and if you pair the practice with an editorial calendar, then you can really get a jump on a week or more of blog posts.

WordPress 3.5.1 Upgrade Fixed the Widget Issue

Over the weekend I finally found some time to research this disappearing act related to the widget code.  At first, I thought it was related to the new template in use.  Finally, I saw several other WordPress users post this similar issue and the solution was the new upgrade to WordPress which was released late last week.

So I’ve run the update and viola! The widget code now works! So I will be including the widgets in the future.

How You Can Make Sure Your Post Is Included

I’m not sure that readers know exactly how their post which matches a Daily Blogging Prompt appears in the rollup widgets.  It isn’t magic . . . it actually represents quite a bit of work on my part.

Each day I review over 500 blog posts in my Google Reader (and that is just genealogy blogs . . . I have a separate Google Reader account for tech and personal blog reading). Once I find a blog post that matches a Daily Blogging Prompt, I use the Tag feature and “tag” it with the name of the prompt.  This takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours each day.

One way you can help speed up the process is to make sure that the name of the Daily Blogging Prompt is in the title of your blog post, preferably at the beginning.  So now you know how it all works!

Pinterest Comes to GeneaBloggers

During the recent Great Daily Blogging Prompt Rollup Widget Outage as I call it, I’ve started experimenting with Pinterest. The main profile for GeneaBloggers is at http://pinterest.com/geneabloggers/ and there are 28 boards with more to be added soon.

I’ve joined the Pinterest bandwagon despite the counsel of good friends who warn that I will soon need a “pintervention” for this reason: in terms of sites that bring traffic to a website, Pinterest is now ranked #3 (behind Facebook and Google). And the Pinterest demographic matches many of the markets that I follow. In fact I’ve noticed almost a 50% increase in the requests to add new blogs to GeneaBloggers (we had 17 new ones last week!)

Not all Daily Blogging Prompts have a Pinterest board since some prompts don’t lend themselves to the visual. In order for your post to appear on our Pinterest boards, it must have an image and match that specific daily blogging prompt.

More Daily Blogging Prompts Soon!

Finally, I am sitting on several months worth of suggestions related to new Daily Blogging Prompts for GeneaBloggers.  I have them and need to get them set up.  I appreciate your patience and I’ll be announcing the new prompts shortly.

As always, thanks for your continued support in helping to build a community of genealogy and family history bloggers!

©2013. copyright Thomas MacEntee