The Spiraling Chains: Kowalski - Bellan Family Trees
  • Home
  • Licciardi
    • Licciardi Family Photos
    • DeRigo
  • Bellan
    • Beljan Family in Croatia
    • Benicki >
      • Zagar
  • Bodziony
    • Bodziony - Poland
    • Golonka >
      • Bawołek
    • Krupa >
      • Kołodziej
  • Kowalski
  • The Spiraling Chains

Be The Source For Another Family

7/12/2016

2 Comments

 
Be The Source For Another Family // The Spiraling Chains1933 East Tech High School Yearbook
Genealogy bloggers know the value of putting their family history on the Internet. It makes it easier to share information with far-flung family and it serves as "cousin bait," so that, hopefully, we are able to find more people who share our ancestors. But one recent experience has made me realize the positive impact that putting my family history online can do for other family historians who are completely unrelated to me or my husband.

Think about your life. How many people, unrelated to you, have you befriended, interacted with, or just simply crossed paths with? Hundreds? Thousands? And for how many of those interactions were there physical records made? Think about group photos, union and military newsletters, newspaper articles, yearbooks, graduation and wedding programs, school alumni reports, and church bulletins and rosters. We, as family historians, all have some of these sources within our possessions - sources that would prove valuable to many other family researchers out there, and I'm here to argue that it's our mission to more or less "advertise" these more personal sources of information within our family websites and blogs.

At the end of May, I received an email from a gentleman who had found my blog post, "Jesse Owens & My Grandpa." He had recently discovered a high school track team photo picturing his grandfather and Jesse Owens, but the photo didn't label any names, so he wasn't 100% sure it was his grandfather. So, he was now on the hunt for his grandfather's 1933 high school yearbook. He had looked everywhere online and in local libraries, but could not locate a copy. 

I had a copy.

The only way he knew I had a copy was because of my blog post.

The yearbook resides at my parents' house, so when I visited them for Father's Day a few weeks later, I snapped a few photos of his grandfather's photo in the yearbook, and then I also took photos of the commencement program, also listing both of our grandfathers' names. I emailed them off to him, and he was ecstatic and very grateful. 

This experience has made me view my family history 'holdings' differently. I realize now that I have sources that no library or online database does, and that these sources may mean as much to another family as they do to ours. It has made me want to transcribe and share more of these personal types of sources on my website and blog, in the hopes that other family researchers, whose ancestors crossed paths with mine, will find them.

©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Add to Flipboard Magazine.
2 Comments

Tuesday's Tip: Bloggers, Get A Business Card

4/28/2014

0 Comments

 
Business cards aren't just for business people anymore.  Yes, conventional working professionals still carry around business cards with their titles, companies, and contact information printed on them, but nowadays it has become common for other members of society to make and hand out 'business' cards.  At the beginning of the school year my son's teacher handed out her 'card' in the form of a magnet - we keep it on our fridge and it has proved to be very handy.  Teenagers looking for babysitting or lawn maintenance jobs have business cards just in case they happen to cross paths with a potential client/employer.  Stay-at-home moms carry around 'mom cards' that they can hand to other moms who they meet at playgroups or at the park.  And, if you are a genealogy blogger (or any type of blogger, for that matter), you should have some business cards, too.

Last year, I had some of my own cards made.  My brother was getting married, and I knew I would be seeing some of my Dad's cousins who I really never see at any other time.  I wanted an easy way to give them my genealogy website URL and email address, without them having to fiddle with their phone or find a pencil and paper to write it on.  Sure enough, I handed out a few at his wedding, so that mission was accomplished.  
Picture
My networking card, as made through Vistaprint.com.
Fast forward to just a couple of months ago.  I was attending a seminar at the Indiana Historical Society.  During one of our breaks, I introduced myself to one of the programming and education employees, gave her one of my cards, and simply let her know that if she or other members of the programming staff were interested in putting together a seminar on genealogy blogging, I could probably help out with that. She thanked me, the seminar started back up, and I went back home not really expecting much of it. A few days later, she emailed me and asked me to come in and speak with her about putting together some children's genealogy programs for them, based on my new blog, Growing Little Leaves. 

Even if you only blog as a hobby (as I do), you never know when or where you may want to share your blog and/or contact information with someone.  You could be doing research at a library and bump into someone researching the same areas and/or families as you, or you could be at a seminar or conference and meet someone who could even be a potential relative.  Most bloggers focus on using digital social networks, such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter to expand their readership, but it is important to keep utilizing this more traditional method of networking.

I ordered my cards through Vistaprint, but there are a handful of other websites on which you can design your own cards, usually at very economical prices.  Office supply stores, like Staples and Office Depot, can also help you design and print cards.  You are completely in charge of what you want on your card - I put my name, email address, phone number, and home address, along with my website URLs and the major surnames I research.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
0 Comments

The Bloggers' Geneameme

8/30/2013

4 Comments

 
A couple of days ago, a genealogy blogger from Australia, Jill Ball, who runs the site, Geniaus, posted a series of questions directed at other family history bloggers, with the intent of just learning about other blogs, resources, and methods.  I've read through several other bloggers' responses to these questions and have found them to be very interesting and informative.  So, I decided to submit my answers, as well.  Enjoy!

1.) What are the titles and URLs of your genealogy blog(s)?
My blog is entitled The Spiraling Chains.  I publish it simultaneously on my two family history sites: http://kowalski-bellan.weebly.com/the-spiraling-chains.html 
http://schroeder-tumbush.weebly.com/the-spiraling-chains.html

2.) Do you have a wonderful "Cousin Bait" blog story?
I do not have any particularly interesting cousin bait stories, but creating my websites and the blog has put me in touch with many of my and my husband's close and distant cousins.  It is wonderful to get an email from a distant cousin who tells me how he/she found the website (with all the family documents) and has learned so much about her roots just from some of the research I've done.

3.) Why did you start blogging?  Is there someone who inspired you to start blogging?
I did not originally intend to create a genealogy blog.  The main purpose for creating my websites was to have a platform on which I could upload all of the family history records, photos, and documents in an organized manner, and so that all of my and my husband's family members could have easy access to their family's histories.  I was always aware that Weebly offered a blogging platform, and I decided to start one after thinking about it on a long car ride home to visit my parents (about five hours away.)  I made an outline of potential blog post topics to start me off and it just blossomed from there. I really did not start reading other people's blogs until I started mine.

4.) How did you decide on your blog's title?
I decided to entitle my blog The Spiraling Chains after reading a quotation by magazine editor and author, Shirley Abbott:

"We all grow up with the weight of history on us.  Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies."

We are a product both of our ancestors' teachings, choices, and memories, AND their physical DNA. (With me being a scientist, I really like the poetic description of DNA as 'spiraling chains.')

5.) Do you ever blog from mobile devices?  What are they?  
I've yet to post a blog post from my iPhone or iPad.  I do occasionally write and post from my laptop, but the vast majority of work I do on my blog and website is from my desktop computer.

6.) How do you let others know when you have published a new post?
I post the direct link to the new blog post on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

7.) How long have you been blogging?
I started my blog in July 2012, so only a little over a year.  Feels like it has been longer, though.

8.) What widgets or elements do you consider essential on a genealogy blog?
Definitely an RSS feed, and at least an email address so that readers can get in touch with the author.  A comment section for each post is great for getting discussions going.  My blog sidebar has sections where past posts are arranged chronologically by month AND by categories that I have created.  If I want to see what I have written about a particular surname or type of record, I click that category and there they all are.  (This is really helps ME find past posts as much as other readers.)

9.) What is the purpose of your blog?  Who is your intended audience?
My main purpose is to just tell the stories of my and my husband's families through old photos and documents.  Hence, my primary audience is our immediate and extended family members, including distant cousins.  Sometimes, if I find a particular resource or database that has been helpful in my research, I will compose a post that is directed more towards the family history researcher.  

10.) Which of your posts are you particularly proud of?
My favorite post that I have written is actually not about any one particular family member or tree branch.  I wrote this editorial, entitled I AM a Daughter of the American Revolution, as my essay against lineage societies, which I feel can cause divisions in the genealogical community. 

11.) How do you keep up with your blog reading?
I don't, and saying that saddens me to a degree, because I have discovered so many wonderful and informative genealogy blogs that I would love to read every day.  I make sure their RSS feeds are in my Feedly and try to sneak peaks every now and then, usually during those rare moments when the kids are playing nicely (ha!) or when I'm waiting for my daughter to finish her gymnastics class.

12.) What platform do you use for publishing your blog?
Weebly

13.) What new features would you like to see in your blogging software?
Weebly allows me to publish my blog posts on Facebook and Twitter directly from their site, but I would like to see the same integration for Google+.  I would also like more font choices for writing posts, but that's purely a cosmetic wish.

14.) Which of your posts has been the most popular with readers?
My maternal grandfather went to high school with track legend, Jesse Owens, and his yearbook has Jesse's signature in it.  I wrote a post entitled, Jesse Owens and...My Grandpa.  Although the post really doesn't talk a whole lot about my grandfather's life, I can understand why people think it's cool. And it is.  

15.) Are you a sole blogger or do you contribute to a shared blog?
Just me.

16.) How do you compose your blog posts?
I usually just write my posts directly on Weebly's blog post editor.  Occasionally, I will write down some notes prior to beginning a post, so I don't forget my train of thought.  I do try to include pictures, maps, and images of documents in my posts whenever I can to keep it interesting for the readers.

17.) Do you have any blogs that are not genealogy related?
No.

18.) Have you listed your blog at Geneabloggers?
Yes!

19.) Which resources have helped you with your blogging?
The Geneabloggers daily blogging prompts have given me many ideas with regards to what to write about.  Because I try to make my blog posts very visual, I go to Wikimedia Commons a lot to find images under creative commons licenses that I can share, and I also use screenshots from Google Maps and Google Streetview, especially when blogging about a particular place.

20.) What advice would you give to a new Geneablogger?
There is no right or wrong way to run a genealogy blog.  Let your blog be organic, meaning let it just see where it takes you on your family history journey.  You may not know anything about your family beyond your grandparents, but just put what you DO know out there.  There could be someone out there combing the Internet who has the missing puzzle pieces to your family's story. And you never know who YOU could possibly help with the information you know.  

Final thought:  I think a lot of people are scared off by blogging because it involves writing, and we all think we are poor writers.  Like many people, I did not like writing assignments in school.  I always attributed my hatred of writing to the fact that I enjoyed science and math more and I was just more of a left-brained individual.  It turns out that I DO like writing when the subjects are those that I am interested in, AND that I'm pretty good at expressing thoughts and telling stories through words. And most people ARE when it is THEIR memories and THEIR family members who they are writing about.

©2013, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
4 Comments

My First Blogiversary

7/11/2013

9 Comments

 
PictureSource: ArtisticZen; Wikimedia Commons
Today is the one year anniversary of my blog!  (Feels like it's been longer, though!)  I decided to create a family history blog during our 5+ hour drive to my family's house last year for the 4th of July holiday.  I had recently started a website through Weebly, for the purpose of posting family photos and documents so that all of my family members could have access to them.  I saw that Weebly allowed for blog creation as well, so I decided to give it a try.

I am so glad that I did.  Writing about photos and documents makes them come alive and helps to extract the stories hidden within them - stories about our relatives.  Writing about my own memories of relatives who I have had the opportunity to know has been an emotional and fulfilling endeavor.  And I have learned that I actually LIKE writing (Shhh, don't tell my 16 yr old math-and-science-oriented self who cringed every time I had to write a paper for school).  

Some people write family history blogs with the intentions of someday writing and publishing a book about their family; that's not in my plans right now.  I enjoy sharing the stories of our ancestors and learning about the times and places in which they lived and worked.  I enjoy writing about the genealogy research process, my research triumphs and dead ends. And I enjoy interacting with the other family history bloggers I have met through my blog and other social media.  My blog has put me back into touch with cousins who I've lost touch with over the years and it has helped me 'meet' other cousins who I didn't even know were out there.  


Thank you to those of you who have read my blog posts.

©2013, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

9 Comments

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Archives

    April 2017
    March 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012


    Categories

    All
    Anniversaries
    Antoni
    Aubry
    Bellan
    Bernard
    Bernhold
    Birthdays
    Birth Records
    Blogging
    Bodziony
    Braun
    Brunswick
    Bulcher
    Catholic
    Cemeteries
    Census Schedules
    Civil War
    Conferences And Talks
    Cousins
    Death Certificates
    Decorating
    Dna
    Drees
    Editorials
    First Communion
    France
    Funeral Cards
    Galicia
    Germany
    Golonka
    Grilliot
    Heirlooms
    Holidays
    Homes
    Hut
    Immigration
    Italy
    Janning
    Kahlig
    Knob
    Kowalski
    Krupa
    Licciardi
    Magottaux/Magoto
    Mapping
    Marriage
    Military
    Obituaries
    Occupations
    Organization
    Parazzini
    Poland
    Research
    Rolfes
    Schools
    Schroeder
    Ship Manifests
    Sports
    Surnames
    Tips
    Travel
    Tumbusch
    Voisinet
    Watercutter
    Weather
    Weddings
    Wellerding
    Wilkens
    Wills
    Wimmers
    World War II
    World War II
    Yearbooks


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.