Why Write this Blog?

My thoughts about starting a blog started last summer. I took a course “Mastering the Art of Genealogical Documentation” at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh with the esteemed Thomas W. Jones who urged us all to write. “Why put all this information into a database that no one else will ever see?” He was right. That’s exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t deliberately hiding anything, but not sharing my findings defeats the purpose of doing genealogy research in the first place. For those of us who had reservations about our writing skills, he suggested we start small, perhaps write a blog. 

I still had my doubts…I never considered myself much of a writer so this effort has stalled a few times. Questions come to mind such as “Do I have anything meaningful to say?” and “Will anyone read it?”  I mean, I’ve seen people’s eyes glaze over as I start to talk about this stuff. So this blog is a long time in the making. But blogging is the perfect medium for those who are interested, and a lot less formal than writing for a genealogical journal.

“Why put all this information into a database that no one else will ever see?”

I’m not exactly sure the direction or shape this blog will take, but I am going to start by recording snippets of my journey, news, tips, and most importantly, the ancestry of my four grandparents; Carlton Norman Hendrickson Sr., Dorothy R. McKnight, Harold Ewart and, Hazel Catherine Knowles.

This will be my attempt to share my research and engage my extended family in our shared stories, mysteries, and memories of our family and ancestors. I also hope to connect with relatives I don’t know or didn’t know I had.  Hopefully, they can help me fill in the gaps or provide stories, photos, documents, or information I do not have.

Now and then I will be posting general genealogical information or tips so even if you are not related, I hope you will stick around. You might even gain insight into the lives of some of your ancestors who lived in the same place and time.

I hope what I write here will encourage other family historians to preserve and share their own family histories.

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