HERE IT IS - My first post since December of last year

It’s been months since I’ve written a blog post.  As many of you may know, we moved from CA to Montana.  The move hasn’t been easy for 2 senior citizens, but we are now settled.

Thank you to all the readers who have been patient with me and are still planning on reading my posts.

Let’s see if I can get my rhythm back and start telling those family stories once again.  Are there more cousins out there? I hope so.

During the move I’ve located many photos and documents that had been in boxes for years.  Some of those I will be sharing with you.

Let’s get this show on the road. Stay tuned.

Here’s a few photos of me and my hubby, Ron and our dog Libby. The Bitterroot River runs all through our valley here and there are so many beautiful places to walk.  Not to mention the mountain hikes.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2024   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

TUESDAY'S TECHNOLOGY UPDATE - With Google Plus Going Away - How Will Bloggers and their Readers Be Affected?

Most of you probably already know that Google+ will be effectively shut down on April 2nd this year.

However, effective yesterday, there have already been changes.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• You can no longer access blogs via Google +
• You can no longer make comments via Google +

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• You can follow your favorite bloggers by using many other social media forums
• Below is a list of places to follow my blog

Twitter @michigangirl313
Facebook page for Michigan Family Trails
Pinterest board for Michigan Family Trails
email. 
Or just come and visit via an RSS feed.  Of course you can also type MichiganFamilyTrails.com in your URL and my blog will pop right up.

• If you want to leave a comment on my blog you will need to choose another method, such as Blogger Comment.

I will continue to write and I hope you will continue to read my posts.  This is just another bump in the technology road.  We all know technology doesn’t stand still and changes are a fact of life. 

Thanks for your support and stay tuned for many more interesting stories and tips.

Happy hunting, 
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

A NEW MILESTONE ON MY BLOG ~ Thank you to everyone who reads my posts!

This is a day I am proud to share with all of you.

 My blog posts hits have reached the 500,000 mark today!

Thank you to every reader.  Thank you to all the other bloggers and readers who have recommended my blog posts to others.

I’m so proud to be a member of the genealogy blogging community.  When I wrote my first blog post in 2010, I wondered who would ever read what I wrote.  I was hit and miss on posting, with only 22 posts in the first 3 years.

In September of 2013 I got serious and realized if I was going to “do this” then I should post regularly and see what happens.  In the 5 years since then, I have written 455 posts.

Along the way I have met and made wonderful friends in the blogging community.  I have been contacted by cousins who have found my blog as they searched for their family.  It’s been a FANTASTIC experience and a wonderful journey.

I don’t plan on stopping any time soon because new discoveries within my family are being made every day.  With all the DNA testing we have even more chance of making connections.

To anyone out there who has considered writing their own blog, I highly recommend it.  It’s a wonderful way to share family stories and also research tips.

 

A BIG shoutout to my fellow bloggers/friends.  Too numerous to mention, you know who you are.

Call me “smiling in Ramona.”

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018 Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP ~ Keeping Track of Your Blog Posts - Here's How I Do It - What's Your Method?

As we blog about our families, how do we keep track of what we’ve written about and what we haven’t?  Sure, we can use the search feature in Blogger (and whatever method Word Press uses), but is that the best way?

After about 7 years of blogging I began to realize that I ran the risk of duplicating a particular subject about an ancestor. I asked myself…..

• Have I already written about this couple in Wedding Wednesday?
• Have I already transcribed that particular will or probate record?
• How about that Civil War pension file I received?  Have I written about it yet?

Here is how I’m now keeping track.

Using my Legacy database I create an Event called “Blog Post – posted on Michigan Family Trails.”

To add a customized event in Legacy follow this group of screen shots.

(click on any image to enlarge it)
       

Now that you’ve created your new Event you can select it and add your blog post.  You can see that is what I’ve done here.  We have an Event/Fact (selected from our drop down menu), Description – the title from my blog post and Date – the date I published the post.



The next step is to add a link to your entry.  This link will take you directly to your blog post.  In the image above you can see a picture icon (third from the left next to the Event name).  Click on that icon.  NOTE:  It will be gray until you’ve added something to it, mine already has something attached so it is in color.

The next screen you see will be this one.  Follow the instructions in red.


The next screen you see will be this one.


Enter your website URL – I go to my blog post and select the exact post I want to link to and make sure that exact post is in the URL at the top of the web page.  Then I simply copy and past it. 

Next – I enter the title of the post in the Caption area and the date of the post.  I have never used the description field, but that would be up to you.  This is how it will look when your done.



And, here is how it looks after you’ve completed adding the URL.



One final step I take is to mark the blog post event as PRIVATE.  I’m not sure I want these blog post events to show up in a family book or report.  I can always change that option should I choose to.  But, I want to initially mark them private.  You also have the option to exclude the event from problem checking.



Now when I am viewing information on one of my ancestors I can clearly see if I have ever written a blog post about them specifically, their family or something else related to them.

Here is a sample from my grandfather’s list of events. 



This system is working well for me.  I still have a lot of catching up to do, in going back to my earlier posts and making sure they are recorded as events for each ancestor they apply to.

Another step I take is using the Hashtag feature in Legacy 9.  I’ve created a hashtag titled Blog post with the description that I have published a blog post featuring or mentioning a particular ancestor.
 
Do you keep track of your blog posts in some other way?  I tried using a spreadsheet, but found this method works better for me.  I’d love to hear from my fellow bloggers about this.

I have a tab on my blog devoted to Legacy Tips.  Click here to find it Legacy 8 & 9 Tips

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HAPPY 6th BLOGIVERSARY TO ME ~ 2010-2016

Hard to believe it's been six years since I began.  I wrote a few posts those first 3 yrs, but only got "really" serious in the fall of 2013.  Since then I've had so much fun.

• Blogging has made me a better researcher
• I've gotten to know some wonderful people in the blogging world
• I've had cousins contact me, who otherwise may never have found me
• I've discovered a love for writing that I didn't know I had

What could be better than all of that?

THANK YOU READERS

THANK YOU FELLOW BLOGGERS FOR SHARING MY POSTS

Here's to another year of discoveries and connections.

HERE'S A LOOK BACK AT SOME OF MY FIRST FEW POSTS 

My Very First Post - http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2010/01/blogging-about-family-research-day-1.html 

How to Find A Maiden Name & Locating a Marriage Record 

Breaking Down A Brick Wall 

Cheers,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

INTERESTING TIPS & POSTS FROM OTHER BLOGGERS THIS WEEK

There is a wealth of information available on all the great blogs out there.  I’m always amazed at the new things I learn from reading them.

Here are some of the posts that I found helpful or interesting this past week.  This is not meant to be a list of every great post out there.  I can’t read them all….sadly.  But, here are a few.

TUESDAY'S TIP - Shh! A Little Secret About Michigan Death Records by Miriam J. Robbins at AnceStories

CHECKING MY WATCH LIST ON FAMILYSEARCH FAMILY TREE by Randy Seaver on GeneaMusings

GENEALOGY HANGOUTS, Webinars & Online Chats by Pat Richley-Erickson on DearMyrtle

THE MASTER GENEALOGIST SOFTWARE DISCONTINUED by James Tanner on Genealogy's Star

FOLLOW FRIDAY FAB FINDS FOR AUGUST 1, 2014 by Jana Last on Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

10 FREE GENEALOGY DOWNLOADS by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist

I hope you will find these posts interesting and helpful.  There’s a wealth of knowledge out there and many who willingly share.  

Thanks to all the bloggers who keep us coming back for more.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

More cousins and a laptop crash

Yup, it's been a few days since I've written. For one thing I ended up with a stupid virus on my laptop. Had to have the entire hard drive wiped and re-formatted. Good thing that all my family files are on my desktop computer and backed up on external hard drives and flash drives. This is one thing I cannot stress to you enough. Backup, backup and backup some more. This is absolutely critical for all reserachers and has saved me more than once. I'm happy to say that after about five days I have most everything back on my laptop. Most importantly my family database.
On to happier things. I drove about 3 hours up the coast to visit my 2nd cousin. She's related to me on the Lindsay side. Seems like all of us Lindsay descendants are coming out of the woodwork lately. It was a real nice visit. We talked a lot and looked at family pictures and exchanged information. We even called her sister in Detroit and talked to her for a while. Since my 2nd cousin's sister is about 14 years older than her, she has more memories of Grandparents and family lore. Certainly there are mysteries and curiosities to uncover in this Lindsay clan. Children born "out of wedlock" back at the beginning of the last century and marriages up in Canada with some questionable information on the certificates. Children given up for adoption. Who were the fathers of these children? We are certainly trying to unravel all these interesting stories.
Of course you know that if we'd been smart enough to talk to our Grandmothers and Grandfathers back when they were still with us, we would have some of these answers. So this would be another thing I cannot stress enough. If you have family members on any side of your family that may be getting on in years, please take the time to interview them now. Don't wait. Either record you conversation or take really good notes. Boy, what I wouldn't give for 10 minutes with any of my grandparents or even my Dad.
That's all for today,
Michigan Girl