Happy Blogoversary to Me!

The 2nd Anniversary of The Family Curator came . . . fireworks exploded in the night sky . . . and went. The date is purposefully shared with two other auspicious anniversaries — national independence and Henry David Thoreau’s personal independence — yet, this year the Family Curator was celebrating a family holiday in George Washington country rather than posting on the blogosphere.

Anniversaries, like birthdays, are a good time to reflect on the twelve-months past, and it has been a momentous year in the life of The Family Curator. Some of the posts and events I enjoyed most included

A Mystery in Two Acts and The Plot Thickens, the “back story” to a popular melodrama performed by a troupe of local actors, including my grandmother Arline Kinsel. I was able to locate a copy of the original script and posted a three-part synopsis of the story, as well as photographs of the “Cast of Characters” from Arline’s treasure trove.

The Family Curator Writes at Shades of the Departed was my debut with footnoteMaven’s exceptional blog, Shades. “Reading Women’s Lives” focused on a project I used with my high school English students where they transcribed and analyzed some of my grandmother’s correspondance from 1910-1920.

My Kind of Athletics — The Genea-Blogger Games kicked off a great time of blog-centric events dreamed up by the official Games Committee (Thomas, Terry, Miriam, Kathryn, footnoteMaven, and Denise). Great fun for those dog-days of summer, and participants were also able to hone their varied blogging skills and win medals!

Treasure Hunt! was a bloggers’ challenge that resulted in a great find right in my own Magic Cupboard, detailed in Treasure Revealed — a folder of black-and-white negatives to images I had never seen in print. What a find! It was so much fun to see what other bloggers found on their own expeditions Treasure Hunt Challenge Round-Up: Just Look What We Found in Our Cupboards & Closets & Boxes!

Ten Tips for Making Family Connections highlighted some of the ways blogging can help family historians and genealogists connect with other family members. The article grew out of a guest column at Shades of the Departed entitled Making Connections which chronicled some of the family members I’ve met through my writing at Shades. Now that’s a winding road!

and in January 2009, The Family Curator initiated a new weekly column, Tech Tuesday, a regular feature highlighting technology related reviews, ideas, tips, and information. It’s been a challenge to post every single week, not so much on due to lack of subject matter, but just to “do it.” My goal now is to post more family history to balance the content and share some of the great treasures in my Magic Cupboard.

It seems fitting that my anniversary date follows one of the highlights of the year, the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, because this year I was able to meet so many bloggers face-to-face at SCGS Jamboree 2009. I hope that this annual event will bring even more bloggers together next year — both virtually and physically.

Of course, it wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding or interesting to write in a void, and I am extremely grateful to readers of The Family Curator for comments and suggestions, and to fellow bloggers who so generously share blogging wisdom, encouragement, and enthusiasm. Thank you, you know who you are!