My Genie friend Caroline McCulloch (“Coach Carole”) has kindly allowed me to share with you her latest ecourse for people that are new to blogging. The online six part course covers every aspect of blogging, from choosing a host site, designing your website and posting your first blogs.
“Years ago, I began writing up my family history research and posting about various ancestors in my family history blog. Initially it was not intended for a wide audience. Just those in my family who were interested in the details I had uncovered from forays into Ancestry and Find my past. Two of my favourite online Family Tree tools.
Slowly but surely, I gained confidence in what I was researching and became brave enough to write stories and share with other readers. I hope you will too. This introductory course in family history blogging will help you get started.
My writing style was initially in the classic encyclopedic style with carefully documented evidence of my ancestors’ existence. Not an interesting style to entice viewers, unless the ancestor was famous or of historical significance. I needed to research deeper to prepare an outline for an engaging story for my blogs.
“Dry facts are the ‘steppingstones’, not the destination.”
According to Carol Baxter, Genealogist, and history Detective.
I learned how to turn those dry facts into a story by using my research notes to guide me in creating an engaging story about my ancestor who becomes the protagonist in the story.
Preferring to write short stories, I learned to focus on one or two ancestors at a time; too many characters might spoil the plot. I used snippets of family intrigues, from the imagined journals of my own family exploits or the legends and secrets about places, memorabilia and experiences handed down by my own family.
Some are short ancestral cards, containing pertinent facts about one ancestor and other stories become essays, a thousand words on a slice of life of an ancestor of mine, or sometimes commissioned by others. These are generally available as printed documents.
But my favorite method of writing my family history to share with others, is in blog posts.
Engaging stories of an ancestor’s life or a series of vignettes, expanding on the imagined and or researched slices of their lives. In my blog posts I am focused on preserving my own family history, using sustainable and enjoyable methods of composing the blog post. WordPress provides writing tools, tasks, and templates.
About the course ‘Blogging in the Past Lane’
Now I am keen to help others write their own compelling blog posts of their ancestors – one at a time.
This is a self-paced, easy to navigate and fun to do course in writing family history blog posts.
- Module One welcomes you to the course and provides instruction on how to navigate online.
- Module Two is all about preparing your blog site.
- Module Three is all about Preparing to Write your Blog Posts. Later as I wanted to grow my readership and develop a website, I chose WordPress.com and now share my tips on blogging and writing family history at CoachCaroleOnline.com.
- Module Four is all about Publishing and Sharing your Blog.
- Module Five provides some Next Steps and gives you access to another free course Family History Magic.
- Module Six encourages you to take your learning to another level.
If you would like to grow a following on your family history blog, try the following free lessons to get you started.
Subscribe here for your free course ‘Blogging in the Past Lane’ and enjoy your journey of discovery”.
Want to listen to the podcast where Carole and myself discuss all things Genealogy related, then you can, just follow the link below;
All My Blogs For Family Tree Magazine in one handy place
Copyright © 2021 Paul Chiddicks | All rights reserved
The Chiddicks Family Tree 
Thank you Paul! I love the sharing! I am delighted to say that already there has been a flurry of enrolments in one or more courses at coachcaroleonline.thinkific.com, so much so, that I am in the process of designing a new one called ‘DabbleWriter for Genealogists’.
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That’s great news! It really proves that collaboration is such a worthwhile thing to do
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I remember learning about blogs when I first did Amy Cohens 52 week stories. I wanted to post them but knew nothing about setting up a blog…. I learned quickly and have never stopped.
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Hi Jeanne its a steep learning curve, but once you are on your way there is no stopping!
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