The Rise and Fall of the Blog?

In the Australian Local & Family History Bloggers Group on Facebook earlier this week Australian geneablogger Anne Young shared an article from JSTOR Daily “The rise and fall of the blog”.

I don’t think geneablogging is dead. I think that more people are dipping their toes into geneablogging waters and finding that it does not suit their style. Those committed to geneablogging are still around although they may be be blogging as often as they once did. In the ensuing conversation Anne asked me “Jill didn’t you keep some statistics about whether blogs you followed were still active?"

In January last year I wrote about the blogs on the 2013 list and reported on those still active. 38 were still going strong

Prompted by Anne I took a look at the list of 50 blogs you need to read that I prepared for Inside History Magazine in 2014 (This list may vary slightly from that published by Inside History as I gave them a few runners-up for consideration). The audience for the list was genies and historians in Australia and New Zealand and the bias was towards blogs from ANZ.

Below is a list of those 46 blogs still active in 2017. Some bloggers on the list only posted once or twice while many were Quite productive. Commitment is important to me and I think that only posting once a year demonstrates that commitment may be on the wane. I wonder who will still be around at the end of 2018?

If I was preparing such a list in 2018 it would look different from the one below as I believe that several newer bloggers publish better products than some on this list.

I congratulate all the 2014 stayers on this list for keeping geneablogging alive.

Ancestor Chasing Kerryn Taylor

Anne's Family History Anne Young

Australian National Maritime Museum

Australian War Memorial now Memorial Articles

British Genes Chris Paton

By the Bremer: Memories of Ipswich

Camden Library Local Studies

Canada Bay Connections Canada Bay Library

Carnamah Historical Society & Museum's Blog

Casey Cardinia - Links to our Past

The cook and the curator

Dead Cert Meghan Hawkes

Diary of an Australian Genealogist Shauna Hicks

The Empire called and I answered Lenore Frost

Family History across the seas  Pauleen Cass

Family Tree Frog Alex Daw

Familysearch Blog

Fighting the Kaiser Cheryl G

Finding Family  Jess

Geniaus  Jill Ball

The Hocken blog  Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena

Irish Genealogy News Claire Santry

Kintalk Auckland Libraries

Kylie's Genes  Kylie Willison

Local Notes Leichhardt Library

Lonetester HQ Alona Tester

Lost Medals Australia  Glyn Llanwarne

Moonee Valley Family and Local History  Moonee Valley Libraries

Moruya and District Historical Society

My Past Whispers Lauren Bavin

The National Archives UK

Professional Historians Association NSW & ACT

Public Record Office of Victoria

Queensland's World War 1 Centenary SLQ

Resident Judge of Port Phillip

Shaking the tree  Su Leslie

Shellharbour's Local History Blog

Signposts: a blog about the encyclopaedia of New Zealand

South Australian Lithuanian History

Strong Foundations Sharon

Stumbling through the past Yvonne Perkins

Thames NZ Genealogy Resources  Althea

The Tree of me Sharon Brennan

Thomas J Nevin | Tasmaninan Photographer

Timespanner  Lisa Truttman

Worldwide Genealogy International collaboration

50 blogs you need to read - the Stayers

Way back in Mid 2013 I compiled this list for Inside History Magazine.

I saw someone recommend the list in a blog post recently and wondered how the blogs were progressing. As blogs come and go I thought it would be a good exercise to see which blogs are still going strong at the same URLs. As I would expect good blogs to publish a post every month or so I am omitting blogs that haven't posted in the last eight weeks (a couple just made it).

I would not necessarily include all of these blogs on a listing today but I congratulate those 33 stayers below that have lasted the distance.

1. Archives Outside, State Records NSW, archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au
2. Australian War Memorial, www.awm.gov.au/blog
3. Dictionary of Sydney, trust.dictionaryofsydney.org/category/blog
4. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol
5. Kintalk, Auckland City Libraries, kintalkfamilyhistory.blogspot.com
6. Manly Families, Manly Library, manlyfamilies.blogspot.com
7. Moonee Valley Family and Local History, mooneevalleyfamilylocalhistory.blogspot.com.au
9. Public Record Office Victoria, prov.vic.gov.au/publications/blog
11. The National Archives, blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk
14. FamilySearch, familysearch.org/blog
15. findmypast.com, blog.findmypast.com
16. Geneanet Genealogy Blog, genealogyblog.geneanet.org
17. Gould Genealogy and History News, www.gouldgenealogy.com
18. Legacy Family Tree, news.legacyfamilytree.com
19. MyHeritage Blog, blog.myheritage.com
21. Local History Newslink, Maitland NSW, localhistorynews.blogspot.com
22. The Empire Called and I Answered, empirecall.blogspot.com
23. Genealogy World, Genealogical Society of Victoria, genealogyworld.blogspot.com.au
25. Anglo-Celtic Connections, anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com
28. Australian Genealogy Journeys, ausgenjourneys.blogspot.com
29. Backtracking, boobookbacktracks.blogspot.com.au
31. Dear Myrtle, blog.dearmyrtle.com
32. Family History Across the Seas, cassmob.wordpress.com
33. Family History Fun, scotsue-familyhistoryfun.blogspot.com
35. Genealogy’s Star, genealogysstar.blogspot.com
36. Geniaus, geniaus.blogspot.com 
39. Lonetester HQ, lonetester.com
43. Stumbling Through the Past, stumblingpast.wordpress.com
44. Western District Families, mywdfamilies.wordpress.com
45. British Genes, britishgenes.blogspot.com
46. Diary of an Australian Genealogist, diaryofanaustraliangenealogist.blogspot.com
47. Geneabloggers, geneabloggers.com
48. Irish Genealogy News, irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.com

Maybe it's time for Inside History Magazine to repeat this exercise.

50 Blogs you need to read

It's always exciting to see the fruits of one's labour in print.

For the last three years I have done a little job for Inside History Magazine in which I collate a list of 50+ blogs you need to read, the magazine editors look at the list and prune it down to the final 50 which they publish.  It takes me ages to check out several hundred blogs and check them against a list of criteria that I have collated with the help of my genimates.

This is the third year of the list so I guess that it is now an established geneaevent,  in case it is I have already started adding more blogs to include in the running for next year. As soon as I finished my task I found a few more new blogs. Geneablogging is alive and well in Australia.

After a chat with the magazine editor it was decided to have a little change in focus this year. We only included a few foreign blogs (there are plenty of best of lists for them already) and had an intentional bias towards genealogy and history blogs from Australia and New Zealand.

My digital copy of Inside History Magazine arrived yesterday and I was excited to see the latest list  in print. There you will find example of blogs that are challenging, charming, chatty, classy and clever. There is something for everyone.

I commend to you the Inside History Magazine 2014 list of 50 Blogs you Need to Read.

On the job

This month I have been devoting quite a deal of time to blog reading for an annual task that I undertake Inside History Magazine". Thankfully my RSS feed reader Inoreader makes it easy for me to organise my subscriptions and keep up with my blog reading.

As well as continuiing with regular blog readiing I am evaluating blogs against a list of criteria in a rubric I have set up for the purpose. I use Google Drive so that I can edit the spreadsheet on all my devices.

Last year I commented that “I am especially interested in blogs from genealogy and historical societies where there is a dearth of good blogs.” I received no direct feedback on this comment but did notice that a forum discussing this issue was set up on The Royal Historical Society of Victoria site. From that forum I have found a few more blogs to add to the list for consideration.

I am particularly interested in Australian blogs. During the past year I have discovered several new blogs from societies and individuals but most of these finds are serendipitous. To find new blogs I look at the Geneabloggers list for Australian blogs, Unlock the Past's list of Australian blogs, look at blog rolls on blogs I follow and follow links on various social media. Unfortunately I am not omnipotent so I may miss some worthy blogs.

I need your help to add to my lists of Australian Genealogy and History blogs. Please let me know of any blogs that I should have on the long list for consideration.

PS I prefer active blogs

World War 1 Projects

Over at Ku-ring-gai Historical Society we have an enthusiastic group that is working on a project to commemorate those from the area who served in World War 1.

It was with interest that I recently read this post from Inside History Magazine on Facebook:

I know of several other groups who are working on World War 1 projects including the Somerset and Dorset FHS in the UK (ANZACS in Weymouth). 

The site that will be developed by Inside History Magazine is a wonderful initiative that will draw together information on the many projects that are being developed to honour our ANZACs.

You can register your project at http://www.worldwaronelink.com.au/.

I'm not Harry S Truman

"All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it." said Harry S Truman. (http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/choices/1/index.html)

I'm not Harry S. Truman.

When Ben from Inside History Magazine asked me to nominate this year's list of 50 blogs you need to read in 2013 I was honoured. It's always nice to get a repeat invitation because it means you must have done something right the first time.

In 2012 I tried to be objective with my choices; for this year's list I suggested to Ben that I must be more objective so I really did my homework. I read many articles on what makes a good blog, canvassed the opinions of fellow bloggers via Twitter and then set up a spreadsheet ((or assessment rubric in eduspeak)) listing the criteria against which I would assess the blogs. As this list was primarily for an audience of Australian and New Zealand  readers I favoured blogs from those areas or those foreign blogs with relevance to downunder peoples. I immediately eliminated many worthy blogs but this didn't concern me greatly because there are a number of blogging gongs in the northern hemisphere that they can earn.

My first source of blogs for consideration was from my many RSS subscriptions. I then did some Google searching for genealogy blogs from Australia and followed this by having a look at the lists of blogs that some of  my favourite bloggers follow. My list grew and I found that I had several hundred blogs to consider. Years of evaluating assessment tasks when I was an educator prepared me for the business at hand.

I visited all of these blogs until I had a list of 80+ blogs to consider seriously. It took me a few days to look at these blogs, measure them against my criteria and consider my gut instinct (the subjective element of the process) and come up with a list for Inside History Magazine. I sent them my Excel worksheet with 50 suggestions, additional strong maybes and the definitely don't bothers. Inside History Magazine had the final word, they scratched some of my choices, added a couple that were unknown to me and replaced a couple of others. When they sent me the final draft I only objected to one of their replacements and they changed that.

I am happy to stand behind my choices because I went through a thorough process to find and evaluate blogs but I'm not Harry Truman.

I keep searching for and thinking about potential blogs for the list. After we settled on the final list I said to Ben that I had just found some new blogs that looked promising but it was too late to consider them.

New blogs worth a look are:
Carr Family Search (New blogger Ed Carr is a member of my local historical society) http://ecarr357.blogspot.com.au/
Genealogically speaking from young blogger, Caitie G. http://genealogically-speaking.tumblr.com/
GenXalogy http://genxalogy.blogspot.com.au/
Hawkesbury Heritage & Happenings from Michele Nicholls (whose husband Jonathan Auld has a blog on the list) http://hawkesburyheritage.blogspot.com.au/
KK Genealogy Blog http://kkgenealogy.com/blog-2/
TNG Blog (love that software) http://tngsitebuilding.com/blog/

Just in case Inside History Magazine is going to repeat this exercise in 2014 (and invite me to be involved) I want to be prepared. If you come across any new blogs that should be considered for the list please let me know. I am especially interested in blogs from genealogy and historical societies where there is a dearth of good blogs. My RSS list expands daily but there is plenty of room for growth, please send me your links.

I'm interested in hearing what you think makes a great blog.

Follow Friday - Not Genie Blogs This Time

Source http://blog.marketo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/blog.jpg

I am still getting comments about the Top 50 genealogy blogs article that was published recently in Inside History Magazine.

While the blogs on that list and others in a similar vein comprise a major part of my daily reading regime I do not confine myself to reading genealogy blogs. How boring and limiting that would be!

I regularly read a whole host of blogs that in my RSS folders: Books, Technology, Education, Travel and Interesting. Much of the information I glean from these blogs can be applied to genealogy, some resources described are suitable for genealogy and some of the ideas contained in them  give me inspiration for my blog posts. Reading broadly certainly enhances my genealogical knowledge.

A Selection of my Favourites for Follow Friday (in no particular order) follows:

Behind Ballet  http://www.behindballet.com/  I love our Australian Ballet and enjoy reading about news and history

Bite the Book  http://bitethebook.com/ From Pages and Pages a beaut Sydney Bookshop

Dictionary.com Word of the Day http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/  Always trying to grow my vocabulary

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog  http://www.labnol.org/ Amit from India has great tips

Evernote Blogcast  http://blog.evernote.com/ Helpiing me learn to use this tool effectivley

Free Technology for Teachers  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  Highlights fabulous resources

Learning in the Social Workplace  http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/  Social is now

Librarians are go  http://librariansarego.blogspot.com.au A former colleague - Stacey is a leading light in the Teacher Librarian Community

Misrule  http://misrule.com.au/wordpress/  I love Children's Literature

Social Media Examiner  http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com  Practical suggestions

Thru My Lens http://john-mcculloch.blogspot.com.au  Occasional Aussie photos and anecdotes

What are your favourite non-genealogy blogs?

Spine Tingling Stuff

Sometimes one is bowled over by a presentation or talk. That was my experience earlier today. Thanks to Cassie Mercer from Inside History Magazine who invited me to this talk which was part of The Free History Group Series at Randwick Library. 

Paul O'Keefe and Geniaus at Randwick Library

Last week I wrote of my disappointment with the recent Keynotes at the 2012 Genealogy Congress in Adelaide; today I heard a talk that left the presentations in Adelaide for dead. At this event at Randwick Branch Library in the Sydney's Eastern Suburbs I sat beside two geneabloggers, Sharn White  and Shauna Hicks who were similarly affected by the talk "The Girl Who Loved Ned Kelly".


Paul O'Keefe is the great-great-grandson of Ettie Hart, the girl that he posits was notorious bushranger Ned Kelly's lover. Having heard Paul's talk I tend to agree. Family stories handed down through the generations in Paul's family had told of Ettie's liaison with Ned Kelly but these were only stories. Paul has spent the last ten years carefully researching this story and has amassed an enormous amount of evidence to support his theory.


Paul delivered his amazing and controversial story with passion, warmth and humour. His talk was illustrated with a rich collection of images that seamlessly integrated with his words to add a visual dimension to the story. The only criticism I have is that Paul read his story but this was only its second public airing. Once he becomes more comfortable he will be able to connect even more with his audience. Today he held the audience in the palm of his hand; some of his revelations caused shivers down my spine. 


In my recent post about keynotes I stated that "I expect a keynote to do more than one of these things: Inspire, Challenge, Educate, Engage, Entertain and Inform." Paul's talk delivered on each of these. Genealogy and Local History Societies and Local Libraries in Sydney should be forming a line to book Paul for their meetings. After the talk I felt like going out, hiring a venue and promoting Paul. His talk centered on one of Australia's most infamous characters, it challenged history and it demonstrated that thorough research can pay dividends. 


Paul's contact details can be found on his website Neducate.


The best things in life are sometimes free.

National Year of Reading

2012 has been designated as the National Year of Reading in Australia. Loads of information can be found on the NYR website at http://www.love2read.org.au/

How will this affect Australian genealogists?  Will we let it sail by or will we embrace NYR 2012 and become unofficial ambassadors for reading. As a former librarian I want to recognise and support this endeavour.

I notice that "Inside History" Magazine has an article about the event in Issue 8 but, as I haven't yet read the article, I'm not aware of its content. Their teaser says "We celebrate 2012 as the National Year of Reading by asking: what’s your favourite history book?"

A fave kids' author of mine, Hazel Edwards who is also an avid genealogist and genealogy author is also a National Ambassador.

So what can we genealogists do to recognise the National Year of Reading?   
Here are some of my thoughts:

• Review your favourite genealogy books on your blog
• Mention NYR in blogs and other social media
• Form an online genealogy book group
• Donate a genealogy book to your local library or family history society
• Have a genealogy book 'show and tell' session at your local genealogy society meeting
• Maintain a genealogy reading log - either online at Librarything or in a journal
• Invite a local librarian to be a guest speaker at your genealogy society
• Write an article about how reading helped you knock down a genealogy brick wall
• Create a geneameme about reading and genealogy
• Have some read aloud sessions of children's books from yesteryear at your local genealogy society
• Write that genealogy book that's been evolving inside you
• Offer to mount a display of genealogy books at your local library
• Compile and publish online or elsewhere a list of your genealogy top ten books
• Invite aNYR  National Ambassador to your genealogy society meeting

What can you suggest?

Libraries :: Where to find Inside History Magazine

I wish my local libraries at Hornsby and The Hills stocked this fab magazine. Sadly they don't appear to.

Here is a list of libraries where it can be found

Inside History blog :: Explore your past, enrich your future: Libraries :: Where to find Inside History Magazine:

'via Blog this'

Geniaus in Print

Inside History Issue 7

Travelling down the freeway to the South Coast a number of weeks ago I was having a chat online via my android tablet with Cassie Mercer from Inside History magazine. I mentioned to her that I wouldn't mind writing for the magazine. Within the week  I got a message from Cassie asking me if I could write an article within a few days. Of course I could; I immediately set to tapping out some notes on my keyboard. As much as I love my android I don't have a plug-in keyboard for typing up long articles on it so always turn to my laptop for long writing assignments. I edited my 1800 words down to just under the required 1200 and emailed it off.

During my career as a teacher, librarian and IT guy I wrote many articles for journals and newsletters and when I was president of my professional association I seemed to be always writing. This new assignment was my first foray into the world of genealogy writing so I was understandably nervous.

I so enjoyed working with Cassie who kept me in the loop at all stages of the publishing process, provided lots of positive reinforcement and lavished me with praise once my task was completed. Since I bumped into Cassie last week at State Records Open Day and she told me that the magazine had been delivered to her I have been anxiously waiting its arrival in my mailbox. On Tuesday and Wednesday others tweeted that they had received their copies and I received messages from Twitter Pals that they had read my article.

Snippet from My Article

The Inside History magazine was waiting for me when I got home this afternoon. I was thrilled to see my article in print and was delighted to be published in the same edition as Hazel Edwards who was one of my heroes with her "Hippopotamus books" when I was a children's librarian. I have heard Hazel speak on a number of occasions and particularly enjoyed her Antarctic stories. If you ever meet her ask about her parcel collection experience.

I love my Android tablet and will be talking about it at the Rootstech 2012 Conference in Salt Lake City. Fellow genies Shelley from Canberra and Tanya from the North Coast have generously helped me with material for that presentation.

If you are an Android user or would like to know more about my Android Adventure I'd love to hear from you. Meanwhile, might I suggest that you visit your local library or newsagent and grab a copy of the Inside History magazine that is brimful of great reading. Here's a sneak peek.

First Titleholders of Land in the Nineteen Counties of NSW

Geoff Cannon

Geoff Cannon reports that his wife says he always has either a map or beer in his hand.


At this morning's meeting of The Hawkesbury Family History Group Geoff Cannon from Maitland NSW spoke of his love affair with NSW maps and of the work that is a result of this liaison. 


Geoff kept the huge audience enthralled as he shared his knowledge of County and Parish maps in NSW. With his casual and down to earth approach he made a difficult topic enjoyable and easy to comprehend.


Geoff's work started many years ago with a plan map of Maitland in the Hunter region in NSW. He then procured all of the parish and town/village maps for that County. Geoff compiled on cards an index that listed the original titleholders of every land grant in the County.


Once he finished Geoff moved on to the neighbouring counties and Sydney, purchasing and indexing all of those maps. He plans to index 19 counties and anticipates publishing the last instalment of his work within five years. After attending a technology Conference of the Royal Australian Historical Society in Wollongong Geoff applied and was successful in gaining a grant to help him publish his work. 


His first work published 1997 was the result of 20 years research. He has since published further indexes on CD and in print. A listing of Geoff's publications and where they can be found in Australian libraries is on the Trove website.


After speaking about his work Geoff turned his attention to the Parish of St Matthew that includes Windsor, home of The Hawkesbury Family History Group and shared information about the first landholders in that area with the group. He indicated that before 1800 there had been 39 recorded grants in the Parish of St Matthew.


Geoff finished his talk with a poem by John Dunmore Laing about place names in NSW. I wish I would have asked for a copy of this, I will seek it out and share it via this blog when found.


I have only been to two meetings of this group so far and have thoroughly enjoyed the presentations by Geoff today and Karen Rogers last month. I am sorry that I will not be able to hear next month's presentation by Cassie Mercer from Inside History Magazine.