Welcome to 24/7 Family History Circle!

ButterflyWelcome to 24/7 Family History Circle!  I hope you enjoy your visit. When I first learned about the plans for the new newsletter and blog, I wasn’t sure what to think. But I attacked it much like I tackle my research problems. I went to the bookstore and bought several books on blogging. My credit cards are still smoking. By the time I made my way through the first book I was truly excited about the prospect.

This online forum opens up possibilities for things that just weren’t possible with just the newsletter. Not only can we feature the same types of articles, tips and quotes that our readers have become accustomed to, but we can also include pictures and images of records. For example, the image in the section titled, The Year Was 1847, allows us to give you a peek into the Historical Maps collection at Ancestry.com.  As I gain proficiency with the tools, you will see more records and images from Ancestry.com databases. I’ll even be sharing images of my own, like this one taken on one of my flower boxes last summer and the one featured in the Weekly Planner section. (BTW, I normally don’t keep these special heirlooms out in the open like that. They’re normally out of the sun and in a closed cabinet. They just came out for the photo op.)

In addition, most of the posts in the blog allow for comments, allowing you to participate and contribute your own experiences to help other researchers.  You can send me suggestions directly at [email protected].

Now a few notes about the blog and how to navigate it:

  • Although it isn’t obvious, by clicking on any of the titles on the main page, you can access the full text of that post.  This is where you can add your comments or print out the post.
  • Most images can be enlarged by clicking on them.
  • To get back to the home page from any page in the blog, click on the 24/7 Family History Circle street sign at the top of each page.
  • On the right sidebar, you’ll find a list of categories. As we begin adding exclusive content to the blog, you’ll begin to see more categories appear. We have plans to add a section for Kids and Families, Preservation, and due to the success of the recent tips about favorite movies and books, we’ll also have a Book and Movie Club, where we can exchange movies we’ve seen and books we’ve read that relate to our family history. We’ll be adding others as we go along.
  • There is also an archive by date, just below the categories.
  • In upcoming posts we’ll discuss some options for those of you who would like to receive notification whenever something is posted to the blog through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds. I know that sounds like it’s anything but “simple,” but it’s not that difficult. For those of you who are interested, we’ll walk you through the steps. If you’re ready to dive in now, Dick Eastman explains it very well in his blog at:
    http://www.eogn.com/rss-newsfeeds.html

To wrap up, this is a work in progress and it will continue to evolve in response to your suggestions and needs. I’m still in the learning stages and will be grateful for your help!

Have a great day!
Juliana
 

32 thoughts on “Welcome to 24/7 Family History Circle!

  1. Congratulatioins on starting a Blog. Though the back of my mind says, “Oh No! Another way to waste time.” I hope people realize that reading other people’s opinions can get addictive and leave no time for productive research. OTOH, it will also probably lead many people into making breakthroughs. There have been a few times I’d wished I could comment on articles in the Ancestry Daily.

  2. Just a quick note to say this will be a well used blog, it’s easy enough, even for us 60+ searchers!

  3. Looking good and sounding good – new format is appealing. However after just reading that “to return to the home page” we just needed to click on the “24/7 street sign”, I found myself looking for it when I enlarged the photo of your doll and other heirlooms.

    Perhaps you need to mention we have to use our “back” button after viewing an image?

  4. I think I am going to have withdrawals without a daily dose of genealogy. 🙁

    However, once the blogs really start rolling in, I will be able to get my fix, just in a different format. I added the RSS feed to my personalized Google Home page and if I did it correctly I will know immediately if there is a post to the blog.

    Great idea folks, keep up the good work.

  5. Nice work. This has all the makings of a new way for people who want to not only get tips and news from the genealogy community, but for ordinary people to add their comments and ideas in real-time fashion. Three cheers to you, Juliana, as well as all of the other people that brought us the Ancestry Daily News for bringing us this wonderful new tool. It looks like we will still be getting our daily dose of genealogy after all. Keep up the good work, everybody!

  6. I recently began my own personal blog writing, and I have found it to be an interesting activity. I also read several blogs daily, and I’m looking forward to reading 24/7 regularly. The daily newsletter has been great, and I expect the blog will be even better. Thanks much for doing it!

  7. I too like the new format. So much easier to read, and looks much more eye appealing and interesting. I’m not much into blogs, but this may be interesting.

  8. Nice looking blog – but please make the text adjustable. The first thing I do when reading a blog is hit CTRL+ so I can read in comfort.

  9. I like the new Blog. But, will the old Ancestry Daily News articles still be available as an archive that can be searched or browsed?

  10. Some parts of the blog are interesting, like the comments on the “Potato Famine” but I miss my daily dose. I guess I’ll be going through ‘withdrawels’ for a bit. 🙁

  11. I think this blog stuff is going down hill. I don’t have the time nor do I want to have to visit a website to see the Ancestry Daily News or it’s equal. I much prefer it to be in my mail box. Sorry you had to choose to ruin a good thing.

  12. I’m not very familiar with Blogs- not even Joe. Guess I’ll have to get used to them. I know that being in the UK a lot of info isn’t always relevant to me but I have contacted family in Canada so, who knows?? I confess I do prefer having the Ancestry news in my in-box, as Ron said. But, hey ho. Just have to remember to check it out that’s all!

  13. 1.) I like ranked searches-they have led me to many relatives where the name was misspelled or misreported.
    2.) What I miss is the old way things used to be–we typed in a name and we were given a listing of categories and how many hits there were in each category–it was much easier if your time was limited.

  14. I too miss the daily dose of Ancestry news. It was like my morning ‘newspaper’. I don’t have time for blogging.

  15. I miss the dailies, the blog is weak, Ancestry.com packages are not relevant to my research and now the FHC have almost doubled their film fees a person on a budget is knocked out of the game.

  16. Sorry, but I really miss the old Ancestry format because I am new at genealogy and every article was interesting to me and I felt I was learning so much on a daily basis. Now it seems the new information is very limited, although I do enjoy reading the comments made by other readers, but it’s certainly not as beneficial to me as reading the many articles and quick tips I so enjoyed.

  17. I liked the Daily News format better, because I have not become a fan of blogs. Maybe all the members of Ancestry.com are different, but the general level of civility in public comment has dropped so far on most of the blogs I have looked at that I am not interested in reading them. However, I will give this a chance for a little while before I don’t look at it any more.

  18. I’m also so disappointed in the new format. Who has time to check all the blogs?

  19. I love the new blog! I have it set to appear on my home page, which is essentially the same as having a newsletter in my mailbox.

  20. I wonder if you can address how I can research records in South Africa? I have an ancestor who went down there, and when I tried to search the records of South Africa, I was absolutely lost.

  21. Ditto #20: I too miss the daily dose of Ancestry news. It was like my morning ‘newspaper’. I don’t have time for blogging.

  22. The Daily News was far better – better organized, more detailed articles, etc. If you miss the blog for a day or two it’s hard to figure out where you left off. Just saw that people were submitting pictures for help, and I’ve gone thru the entire blog to the beginning trying to find out how to do that but can’t find the article.

  23. Hi Julianna,
    Could you give me the definition of what a Blog is? I’m not very familiar with what they are.
    To the people who are grumbling about not having their “daily dose,” GET OVER IT!!!! I miss it too but I have an open mind and I like this format. There seems to be something new each day if you bother to look, you would see that!!! Put this website on your “favorites list” and then all you have to do is click on it and you are here!
    Great job on the new website!!!
    From. Beth

  24. If #29 is representative of readers of this blog I’m am very disappointd. What I miss most is about daily news is; when reading an article I could click on advance search and research right away befor I forget. I will give this a try but it feels too time consuming.

  25. I am a adopted Dooner. I,am having a hard time getting information as you could guess. Can you help me??

  26. love your words of wisdom, but could you let me know how on ancestory.com i could search just canadian provinces without haveing to wade through all other parts of thre us. thanks

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