ThinkGenealogy

We are in class right now talking about blogs and podcasts.

The first line of this blog article was written during our weekly Family History class held during the Sunday School hour at church.  These last two Sundays I was asked to substitute teach the class.  Last week we had each class member bring some documents about their ancestors and we talked about them.  It was fun to see the different types of documents that others had and to learn a little about their ancestors.  That first week, we also talked about the difference between original and derivative sources and primary and secondary information.

This week using an older Dell Inspiron B120 notebook, Sony LCD projector, and a class member’s Blackberry 8330 with internet connectivity, we were able to browse the internet in class and talk about blogs and podcasts.  To illustrate how easy it is to create a blog entry, I started this post during class.  We didn’t have time to write more than the first line.  Our discussion of blogs and podcasts started with a post I wrote back in January highlighting some of the best genealogy blogs and podcasts.  We followed some of the links to give the 9 class members in attendence an idea of what blogging and podcasts are all about.  We first started with the blogs and in addition to those from my previous post, we looked at Stephen Danko’s blog and how he uses it as a research log.  We also talked about how easy it would be to use a site such as WordPress or Blogger to create your own personal or public blog.

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On July 19, 2007, I made my first blog post at ThinkGenealogy.com.  This Saturday will be the 1 year anniversary.  This has been a great experience so far and I am pleased that so many have stopped by to both read and contribute. 

Since this blog would be nothing without its readers, I’ve decided to share my site statistics that show just how many people are thinking about genealogy. 

My web host uses AWStats to track site statistics and below you can see the first year report:

Although somewhat useful, I definately prefer the experience I get with Google Analytics.  I didn’t get Analytics set up on the site until May 17, 2008, but here is my dashboard since then:

Note that the week of June 17 I was on vacation and the blog went down which results in the low number of visits for those six days.

The following countries have over 100 visits:

• United States - 1,833
• Canada - 127
• United Kingdom - 119
• Netherlands - 111
• Australia - 104

In the United States, there are visitors from each of the 50 states as well as the Washington D.C.:

So far, this site is most popular in California and Texas.

The top 10 posts for the last two months are:

1. Genealogy Research Map
2. ThinkGenealogy Mission Statement - Draft #1
3. Family Tree Maker 2008 is ready for future, built with Microsoft technology
4. ProGen Study Group #1
5. Genealogy Magazines at Barnes & Noble Online Newsstand?
6. What if Genealogy had a TED Conference?
7. ProGen Study Group #3
8. 10 Things Genealogy Software Should Do
9. ProGen Study Group #2
10. Genealogy Research Process Map - Desktop Wallpaper

I am looking forward to another year of thinking about genealogy and innovation with others in the genealogy software community.

Thank you!

Some of the best resources for learning about genealogy are blogs and podcasts.  Here are my picks for the Top 10 Genealogy Blogs and Podcasts of 2007:

1. Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter - Dick Eastman
2. The Genealogy Guys Podcast - George G. Morgan & Drew Smith
3. Genealogy Gems Podcast - Lisa Louise Cooke
4. DearMYRTLE’s Family History Hour - Pat Richley 
5. Family Roots Radio Genealogy Hour - Kory L. Meyerink
6. The Genealogue - Chris Dunham
7. Genealogy Blog - Joe Edmon, Leland Meitzler, et. al.
8. Along Those Lines - George G. Morgan
9. Genea-Musings - Randy Seaver
10.  The Genealogy Tech Podcast - Bill Puller

 There are so many blogs that I am sure I don’t even know all the great ones.  There are probably also some podcasts that I don’t know about as well.  It has been difficult to pick just 10.  My picks tend to have more than a sprinkling of technology along with the genealogy.

Please add a comment with any blog or podcast that I might have missed.  Maybe it will become one of my favorites for 2008.