That made me think about something . . . are the majority of genealogists who I associate with bloggers? Do I even know any non-blogging genealogists?
In "real" life, of course I do. There are those people I meet at genealogy conferences and classes who seem a bit perplexed when I mention that I blog about family history. Sometimes I wonder if they know what a blog really is.
So, on this Independence Day weekend, I thought it would be fun to hear from readers, whether a blogger or not, for Open Discussion Weekend. Who makes up your online social/genealogy circle? Do you mainly hang out with other bloggers, do you hang out with "normal" genealogists or is it a nice balance? Do we get so wrapped up in our blogging that we forget there are genealogists who don't blog?
If you're a blogger, what do your non-blogging genealogy friends and associates think of that? That goes for real life as well - what do your friends and spouses think about your blogging?
Have fun with this one and leave your comments below!
Well, I blog and I hang out at FaceBook, Second Life, and GenealogyWise. I belong to the local genealogical society, and also the genealogical society in the nearest big city (if I lived on the other side of town it would be the second nearest). I go to genealogical society meetings and webinars and I read blogs to learn. I think my blend of contacts is well mixed. Some of my fellow bloggers and most of my real life fellow genealogists don't know that I blog. I think the mix works out fairly well.
ReplyDeleteGood discussion topic, again, Susan. You've gotten me thinking, in recent weeks, about where I stand 'in this part of the world.' For me, genealogy is only perhaps between 1/3 and 1/4 of what I do. As you know, I write novels, I write non-fiction books. I write two weekly examiner.com articles (at least) a week. Most of this writing is family/family history/genealogy based, I will add.
ReplyDeleteOther than family and a few here in our 55+ residence development (individual cabins) I have few other contacts 'offline' - after 15 years as an active community and university professor, I like it that way. So, my 1300+ 'friends' on Facebook are pretty important to my book promotion, and the 250-300 of them that are 'genealogy' friends are the 'most important' of that group. Strange world, huh? Thanks for asking. What do the rest of you think? ;-)
P.S. I was overwhelmed with the birthday greeting I got, yesterday. Many, including you, went way out of their way (since my wall was blocked, at first) to contact me and send birthday greetings. That was surely more than 'just an online' relationship! ;-)
At genealogy conventions, most of the people I hang out with are fellow genealogy bloggers, though I talk to a lot of people, including vendors and the people I sit next to at presentations (whether genealogy bloggers or not). I don't do Twitter, but perhaps a fourth to a third of my friends on Facebook are fellow genealogy bloggers. Through e-mail, however, I pretty regularly correspond with "research cousins" - from the first and second cousins I grew up with to fourth and fifth cousins. Of course, I keep encouraging them to start blogging.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Greta, Bill and Sue. Quite often, I think I spend too much time in the online world and don't do enough to cultivate contacts and resources in my own community. With limited time available to devote to genealogy, it just seems easier for me to live in the online genealogy world - and within that, with the geneabloggers.
ReplyDelete