Reflections on the First Year

Today is my first blogiversary! I can't believe a whole year has gone by and I've managed to keep this going. I will admit there was a lot of self-doubt in the beginning that this was going to last. I am INCREDIBLY technologically challenged so overcoming many of the "techy" aspects of this has been a great learning experience.

So here are some things I have learned during this first year, in no particular order:

• Blogging is time consuming....but worth every minute.
• The Geneablogging community is very warm, welcoming, and incredibly helpful. We all jump for joy with great discoveries and shed a tear over a tragedy.
• I still probably shift tenses and dangle prepositions, much to the dismay of my high school English teachers. Alas, twenty years later I still don't always recognize when I make those errors.
• Writing the stories, or even just the facts, of our ancestors has created conversations with my sister over our heritage. She has always been interested but doesn't want to partake in the research. However, some of the things I have written have prompted her to talk about it with me.
• You never know who you might be related to or where you might recognize a common surname.
• That writing about my ancestors would lead to connections with distant cousins, and that those new-found relationships can lead to photos and documents and history that I would have never otherwise obtained through traditional research.

Many thanks go out to those of you who follow my blog and leave an occasional comment. That in and of itself is motivation enough to keep going. I hope you will join me for Year Two. I can hardly wait.