7 reasons to start your family history blog

Many people choose to start a blog about their experiences researching family history. With so much data now available online, it makes sense that so many people turn to the internet to share their journeys into the past. If you’re thinking of starting your own family history blog but aren’t quite sure if it’s right for you, read on for our top reasons…

1. Share your story

You want to share your family history story or the exciting discoveries and useful information you’ve found during your research, but you’re intimidated by the idea of putting that into a book or putting it all together.

Blogging allows you to post short snippets of your family history without worrying about the structure or format. You can write as much or as little as you want and blog whenever you’ve got the time.

If you believe you’ve got a story worth telling, don’t let practicalities like not having the time or worrying that your writing ability isn’t good enough put you off. Many genealogy bloggers are not professional writers but, just like how your research skills improve from first starting your family tree, you will learn a lot as you start to write blog content.

2. Connect with people looking for you

Content published on the internet is indexed by search engines so the words you write are searchable by Google, opening up another way for people to find your story.

This means that people can find your blog by searching for relevant phrases and you might even be able to connect with someone researching the same family line as you.

We have a post on Google search tricks for genealogy that might also be helpful if you’re looking for ways to get most out of using search engine for genealogy research.

3. A new audience

When you start a blog, it opens up a new audience and a new way to connect with other family history researchers. Blogging platforms like Wordpress allow you to easily connect with the community and there are also websites like Bloglovin, which is a platform for discovering new blogs and organising them all in one place, and StumbleUpon, where you can submit your content and find new content personalised for you. 

 If you’re already a part of an online family history community such as social media groups, you might find that different blogging platforms have different audiences. 

4. Complete your research

Depending on how you choose to write your blog, you might be able to solve mysteries or spot gaps and errors in your research if you’re posting a journal report of your findings. Sometimes things will jump out at you when you’re writing the post that you had previously missed or sometimes your new audience may be able to help.

5. Engage with the younger generation

If you’ve got young children or grandchildren, chances are they’ll be more interested in your family history story if it’s shared online. The same goes for any audience who are more likely to read something through an app on their phone while they’re out and about.

Having content online also makes it much easier to share with relatives all over the world.

6. Learn new things

Many genealogy bloggers post about different things, and the great thing about starting a blog is that you can write about any topic. You might start your blog with the intention of recording your story and your findings but end up learning about (and possibly writing about) things like useful genealogy websites, DNA tests and breaking through brickwalls.

7. The finer details

As with any family history story whatever way you choose to share it, it offers so much more depth to your family tree than records or certificates can and it could be a real genealogy gem for a distant ancestor to find. Once you start a blog, it’s online forever for future family history researchers to discover and share.