Building a Genealogy Blog

By Lorelle VanFossen
Categories: Genealogy Techniques

I’ve started a series of articles on building a genealogy and family history blog on one of my other blogs, . In this series, I discuss how a genealogy blog differs from a normal blog and how to incorporate those differences into a blog. I also discuss the planning and structural process of building a blog and website from the ground up. The focus is mostly on using as the blogging program and platform, but the techniques apply to any blogging service.

If you have a genealogy or family history blog or want to start one, and you have questions, please ask. There are a lot of topics to cover on this subject, from figuring out how much this costs to choosing website tools to publish your family history information and resources. There are a lot of things you can include related to your family history research on your blog, but what do you include, what should you include, and how to include it are often overwhelming questions. Ones that I’m still dealing with. No topic is off base. I’ve even written about how to include dead relatives as authors on your posts. Not your typical blogging issue, is it?

This is an ongoing series with articles from this blog and from , my blog dedicated to helping people blog and use WordPress. Let me help you develop and design your family history and genealogy blog, helping to preserve your family history research and your family’s story for everyone to enjoy.

Genealogy Blog: Building a Blog Series

Article Information

Building a Genealogy Blog is Issue Number 149 published August 19, 2006, by Lorelle VanFossen. This is just one of many articles found in the Genealogy Techniques categories. Lorelle VanFossen writes for a variety of blogs, websites, ezines, and print publications. She also teaches and does a lot of public speaking internationally on photography, writing, blogging, web page design and development, and more. She and her husband and cat(s) travel full-time across North American and the rest of the world by RV, planes, trains, automobiles, and foot, writing and photographing their travels and nature, when they can find it. Lorelle VanFossen has written 231 articles for our our family history blog.

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6 Responses to “Building a Genealogy Blog”

  1. DanL Says:
    November 26th, 2006 at 9:09 pm

    Thanks for this extremely useful blog about blogs. I’ve been doing genealogy for more than 25 years and have published a number of web sites (see 1930 Census), but had no idea how to create a blog. I decided to jump in head first earlier tonight and have created my first pass at Genealogy Worldwide, so take a peek and let me know what you think. I’ll have to go back and customize now that I know how to better structure things.

  2. Bill Williams Says:
    December 11th, 2006 at 8:22 pm

    I’m searching for a couple reliable and good blogs to help me learn genealogy. I did visit your site about census records, but can’t find your blog. Where can I go to learn the basics of RSS?
    Bill W.

  3. Lorelle VanFossen Says:
    December 11th, 2006 at 8:35 pm

    I do not have a blog about census records, though I have recommended some. The previous person who left a comment mentioned he had one. That is a different subject.

    For information on feeds, which may help your genealogy research, see Don’t You Know What a Feed Is Yet? Get To Know Your Feeds!.

    For information on building a blog, see the links listed above (before the comments) and my other blog, Lorelle on WordPress, all about blogging and using WordPress.

  4. andy Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 3:25 am

    Brilliant - thanks there are lots of useful stuff on your site that will help others in their research - Andy

  5. Margaret Says:
    June 28th, 2008 at 7:20 am

    Is there any way to place an ancestor chart into the blog page. What I am doing now is scanning as a jpeg the handwritten charts and they do not look that good.

    Thanks.

  6. Lorelle VanFossen Says:
    June 28th, 2008 at 7:32 am

    @Margaret:

    Currently, most ancestor and genealogy programs will export an HTML page with the chart. With a little HTML and CSS knowledge, you can clean that up and add it to your site. How you add depends upon the site you have. I’ll be writing more on how to do this manually soon. Stay tuned.

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Your comments are welcome. Please note, I am not a professional genealogist or family history researcher. I cannot help you research your family. I'm too busy researching my own. For help researching your own family history, we've provided plenty of Genealogy Resources and Genealogy Techniques to help you find your own way.

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