About Us

GeneaBloggers is a volunteer organization, granted nonprofit status in July 2021.

The expressed purpose of GeneaBloggers is to:

To promote an awareness of, and interest in, sharing genealogical content online through blogging, vlogging, and other formats.
To provide support and educational opportunities for online genealogy content providers.
To recognize the achievements and milestones of genealogy content providers.
To promote fellowship and cooperation among our members.

If you’d like to help out, please contact us.

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A Little Bit of GeneaBloggers History

What began in 2007 as Jasia Smasha’s Carnival of Genealogy morphed into the GeneaBloggers group supporting online genealogy writers. In Jan 2008 Kathryn Doyle and LindaRae Palmer (footnoteMaven) wanted to produce a style guide for the term “GeneaBloggers” because at the time various genealogy bloggers were referring to the fledgling organization as genea-bloggers, GeneBloggers, genealogyBloggers, etc.

Back in the day, WikiPedia did not wish to add a GeneaBloggers topic not seeing it as an “entity” and footnoteMaven said “Let’s make us one.” Jasia Smasha, Kathryn Doyle, LindaRae Palmer (footnoteMaven), Miriam Robbins, Randy Seaver, and Terry Thornton aka The Graveyard Rabbit (deceased) were part of that core group. The Facebook group provides an outlet including distribution of the GeneaBloggers logo and the GeneaBloggers Facebook Group logo created by LindaRae Palmer (footnoteMaven) that she has graciously donated to the group. Though a 1995 weblog-er, DearMYRTLE didn’t enter the GeneaBloggers group until this point.

Thomas MacEntee joined the group in the summer of 2008, and by Jan 2009 reserved the domain. He wrote:

“Out of an abundance of caution I have decided to reserve the domain name geneabloggers.com (as well as genea-blogger.com, geneablogger.com and others – they all forward back to geneabloggers.com) in trust for the good of the Geneabloggers group. I am fronting the domain registration fees as well as the website hosting fees. I’ve also taken care of the gene@pedia website hosting (more about this exciting new feature soon).” Source: Thomas MacEntee’s “Inquiring Minds Want to Know” posted 22 Jan 2009 at GeneaBloggers.com. (https://www.geneabloggers.com/inquiring-minds-want-to-know : viewed 21 May 2017.)

In January 2009, Thomas began robust community building around conference attendance, blogger beads and a website of resource assistance. In June 2017, after years of community building service, Thomas has stepped down to focus on his other genealogy interests.

Today, we’re on a path towards obtaining official nonprofit status. We continue to provide helpful resource links, daily blogging prompts, blogiversary listings, and welcome posts.

Pat Richley Errikson and Laura Hedgecock contributed to this article. Please also read It’s not just about blogging…
©2017 – 2021 GeneaBloggers.com.

Meet the GeneaBloggers Board

Pat Richley-Erickson

President

Pat Richley–Erickson, known popularly as DearMYRTLE, Your (not so) retired friend in genealogy, is an author, blogger, and a pioneer in online genealogy forums, starting with Q-Link, Apple-Link, then AOL’s Golden Gate Genealogy Forum. By vocation, she taught computer software in the post-secondary & corporate settings. By avocation, turned pro, Myrt with her real Cousin Russ have tutored countless genealogists in her popular Mondays with Myrt webinars, study groups, etc. Together they prepared genealogical institutes and genealogy societies for virtual and hybrid classrooms by training program chairs, course coordinators, instructors, room monitors, and attendees.

You’ll find Myrt’s current activities here:

DearMYRTLE’s Village Square
https://dearmyrtle.substack.com/

YouTube
https://www.YouTube.com/@dearmyrtlearchive

Vice - President

Nancy Gilbride Casey

Secretary

Nancy Gilbride Casey, genealogical researcher and writer, has been researching her family roots since the early 2000s. She began her award-winning blog Leaves on the Tree in 2018 to share her discoveries. Nancy’s writing has also been featured in genealogical publications in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada. She is a member of the National Genealogical Society, state societies in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and Utah, and several societies in her research localities. Her genealogical education has included SLIG, TIGR, and state conferences in Texas and Ohio. Nancy edits the Denton County (Texas) Genealogical Society’s DCGS News; writes a monthly post for the Denton County Public Library’s genealogy and local history blog; and is a contributing editor and author for the Texas State Genealogical Society’s quarterly Stirpes. She serves as TxSGS’ District B rep, and was recently elected secretary of GeneaBloggers. She lives in Tioga, Texas, with her husband.

Janice Sellers

Treasurer

Janice M. Sellers is a professional genealogist specializing in Jewish, Black, dual citizenship, forensic, and newspaper research. She is the president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon. She is the publicity director, programming director, and a board member of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy, Genealogical Speakers Guild, and Genealogical Forum of Oregon (GFO). At GFO she is the coordinator of the African American Special Interest Group.

She has volunteered at LDS FamilySearch Centers since 2000 and gives presentations on many genealogical topics at local, regional, state, and national/international levels. She has researched her own family history for almost 50 years. Before becoming a professional genealogist, she worked in publishing for many years as an editor, indexer, translator, and compositor. She has previously edited five genealogy journals.

Social Media Chair