March 5, 2016- Blogiversary

I have learned while surfing around in the Blogsphere that bloggers often make mention of their blogiversary - which is the day their blog started.

Thus, I would like to announce that today is my 1st blogiversary. My first published post was on March 5, 2015 and is titled Getting Started.  Recently, Blogger added a new feature called Featured Blog. It can be found on the right hand side of the screen. Readers can go there to re-read this first post if interested. Those who receive email posts may not be able to see this feature. I hope you will take some time to check out the blog itself (www.margietolsdorf.blogspot.com)  and view this feature along with the others I will be mentioning. This first feature blog is the very first writing I posted one year ago. I will be changing this feature blog from time to time, but I will alert you when that happens. 

After a year, I have created a jumble of posts about my dad's family, my mom's family, my husband's family, my travels, my treasures, my photos, my mom's calendar, etc., etc. The jumble just keeps twisting and turning. Of course, one can go to the blog archive on the right hand side of the screen and find any one of the past year's 170 posts. Too much work for most casual readers. Some future family genealogist might dig through it all, but most readers are not going to do that.

I have tried to find a way to help readers find a particular reading that has to do with their surname or other interest. I thought I had found it when I created the Index Page. Have you ever tried it? The Index Page is a tab at the top of the blog. The tabs are Home, Photo Album, About Me, and Index Page. The Photo Album has been neglected, but the Index Page is full of information. It is a stationary page that just sits there unlike regular posts which pile up one on top of another somewhat like placing one piece of paper on top of another.

The second feature on the right of the screen is called Search Cousins.

Again, I believe these can only be seen from the actual blog. The right hand column is cut off when reading a post in email.

Call me a slow learner, but as I am goofing around, I realize what a great feature this is. Suppose you are a cousin on my husband's mother's side of the family. A post about the Bordens, my father's maternal side, is not of much interest to you. But by using the Search Blog window, one can insert Reeder and the posts with that name will come up.  This along with the index should get you to your surname of choice whether it be Augustus, Wright, Tolsdorf, Grisso, DeHart, Phillips, etc. Information on these surnames is not equal at this time. Genealogy is a slow process.

The next features show:

Geneabloggers- This takes the reader to an online community created by Thomas MacEntee. My Cousins blog is listed in this community under Genealogy Blog Roll.

Translate - I am happy that I included this feature since I have had responses from places like Spain, Poland, Ukraine, etc.

Follow by Email - I believe this is a feature used by several of my regular readers. It makes my ramblings easily accessible and readers don't have to remember to go to the site.

Between the featured posts, search blog window, and blog archives, you should be able to consolidate the posts that feature your particular branch of your particular tree.

Blog Archive This is where my almost 170 blog entries are stacked one on top of the other like a pile of papers. The last dated entry is always the one on top.

(Click on colored words to go directly to the example)

I continue to learn new features on the Blogger Platform and to try different ways to present our families' stories to whomever might be interested. Often I share part of my mother's diary calendars on Mondays With Mary. Wednesday is a good day for a short post featuring a photo like this one from last week. And even though this is a genealogy blog, it is my blog to post items of interest to share  and also leave a little of myself on these pages for my grandchildren to know me better.

Thank you to all my readers on this -  my first blogiversary.  I hope you will stick around for another year.  Thanks for reading.