For the last several years, this blog has revolved around my work on revising the Callin Family History. That project will (finally, hopefully) be published soon, and I'm thinking about "What's Next?"
Because this blog is such a niche topic, I don't expect it to generate a lot of views, but in a given 90 day period, I do attract about 3,000 sets of eyes, and individual posts tend to have between 6 and 16 views in their first week, suggesting that some of you are regular subscribers.
I've been treating this whole genealogy project of mine as a part-time job, so I typically spend at least 20 hours a week on research, writing, and maintaining the blog and social media platforms. Since I wrapped up the Research Phase of the CFH project, I've spent more of that time putting my research on WikiTree - which you should absolutely visit. Here's a broad sampling of what I've been adding there:
- James "1st" Callin's profile
- Allen Marion Greenlee - my paternal grandfather's maternal grandfather
- Abraham Witter - my paternal grandmother's most distant ancestor (so far!)
- Rosa Edith (Murray) Huff - my paternal grandmother's grandmother
- Mary Ann "Vicie" (Reynolds) Clark - my maternal grandfather's mother
- Josephine Avena "Josie" (Plumsted) Tuttle - my maternal grandmother's paternal great-grandmother (and a vexing brick wall!)
- Jacob Edward Opp - another maternal great-grandparent
I like doing those pages, and I think they're probably more useful than the two weekly blog posts I've been putting up here, because I'm able to include sources, and other people can edit them directly if I made any mistakes or omissions.
But, what sort of things would you like to see me do, either here on the blog or on WikiTree? What sort of "content" would keep you coming back, even when I'm not talking about someone directly related to you? Would you like to see more essays that talk about the towns and townships these people lived in? Are you as interested as I am in their personal lives - their religions, their political activities, the music they liked, or what they read (if they could read)?
I'd also like to involve more of you in this. I don't expect you to do a lot of writing for me (though if you want to, I wouldn't be mad!) - but if you are willing to ask public questions or share photos related to family history (either these families or just in general), let me know.
There are also possibilities I've teased a few times - like maybe setting up a Twitch live stream where we can work on research together, or do an "Ask Me Anything" sort of session. I have a few ideas for short videos, but no experience making videos, so if you've thought about doing something like that, we should talk.
Over the next several weeks, I'll be wrapping up The Book, and preparing one or two other projects that I think you'll be excited about. If you think of something, you can comment here, email my "mightieracorns" Gmail address, or drop a note on Facebook or Twitter.
