Why write a blog

I've spent several years researching my family tree, but largely working on my own, and only sharing my findings with immediate family. I spend a lot of time reading other people's genealogy blogs and feel like I've learned a lot from them. I've also received a lot of hints about my own family history from other people's published family trees. I decided it was about time I started to write my own blog, to share what I've learned about my family with anyone who's interested. I want to publish my family tree somewhere, but not just yet - there are too many loose links which need to be tidied up, and I don't want to put information online which isn't properly checked.


This post is set to publish on New Year's Day, so this must be my first New Year's Resolution for many years.  It'll be interesting to see if I can keep this one.  The last one I kept was back in the early 80s!


My genealogy goals are


1.  To tell my ancestors' stories.
2.  To trace my ancestral lines as far back as I can go.
3.  To trace forwards from my ancestors to see how far they spread out around the world.


When I started this journey seven years ago, I was trying to push back as quickly as I could, and going off at every tangent possible.  I think I've got more disciplined since then, but I could always use more organisation and more direction, to stop me blundering blindly backwards or forwards.


I'm going to start by posting brief biographies of my recent ancestors - these are generally people I know well so I won't spend too long on them.  Then I'll explore my more distant ancestors and assorted other relatives - in particular those mysterious people who just plain disappear into the ether or appear out of nowhere.