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York County’s Susquehanna Trail Genealogy Club to show use of blogs in research

Mayflower descendant Joan Miller is dressed as a Mayflower pilgrim during a 2006 conference. Susquehanna Trail Genealogy Club and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsored the event. The genealogy club is holding an upcoming event on blogging and genealogy. Background posts: The Four Bloggers write and York County library site brings together links for local research and Genealogical society speaker to provide tips for ‘Finding Lydia’s Bottom’

In a recent Second Saturday speech, researcher June Lloyd underscored the significance of York County as a hearth for Germans in and passing through Pennsylvania.
Genealogists flock here because early German immigrants trekked through here or stayed “a while” after their cross-Atlantic trip to America.
Many people are coming here via the Web, too… .


The York County Heritage Trust’s newly designed site is designed to accommodate those folks.
Now comes another technique for researching ancestors – use of a blog.
Nina Miles, Shrewsbury, will be the guest lecturer at a May 28 meeting of the Susquehanna Trail Genealogy Club.
A club release says Miles will teach the genealogists how to create a blog for a deceased ancestor.
“The popular practice of writing blogs on the computer is well-suited for those who are researching their ancestors and who desire to record the information for posterity,” the release states.
More from the release:

“Miles will teach the club members how to use a mini-blog that lends itself well to the sharing of genealogical information. It can be set up to focus on a particular individual, a particular family line in a certain area, or even to focus on a surname and its origins and history. She likes this format for several reasons:
“1. It comes up very well in Google, so the chances of getting hits on one’s family line research are good.
“2. It is very organized. All the information shows up; none of it is archived in ‘past’ posts like a regular blog.
“3. It can be updated or changed whenever a writer wants; in fact, frequent updates are a good thing.
“4. It can easily accommodate the posting of photos, documents, text sections for presenting history and census information, and other interesting genealogical facts and information about the writer’s particular ancestors or research.
“Miles will show examples of that kind of mini-blog at the meeting, provide a handout with instructions on how to build one, and then actually build one online as a demonstration during the class to teach the process from beginning to end. The type of blog she will demonstrate will be a bit different from the average blogs people write on WordPress or Blogger.”

The Susquehanna Trail Genealogy Club meets at 7 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2100 Hollywood Drive, York. For details about the club or the May meeting, call Jack Sonneborn at 717-757-2331.
To view more than 50 Web sites linked to York County history, click here.