My Ancestor Blogging Jar

This idea came as a result of two activities that I've participated in to help get me jump started back to more regular blog posting.

I always end up learning more about a specific ancestor when I "play" Randy Seaver's SGNF: Ancestor Name Roulette.  This activity causes me to review the ancestor that was selected, look for a picture and review any interesting facts that I may or may not know about this individual.  The last one of these I participated in was the one he posted on August 25th.  I didn't actually do it on that day but over time I learned a lot more about Daniel Bushart, my 3rd great grandfather.  As a result of this challenge, I also translated two documents from Dutch to English (with the help of  Babylon ) to assist in learning some more facts about him. This activity forced me to focus on Daniel and the documents that I was given but  never seem to have the time to look at much less begin to translate them. 

The other activity I participated in recently was the What's Your Ancestral Name Number? - another one of Randy Seaver's SGNF events.  For this event you had to determine what % of your tree you have complete back to your 7th great grandparents.  Out of a possible 1022 - I only had 12% of my tree complete.  This discouraged me -- I also realized from doing this that I know very little about many of my "greats."

So from this, My Ancestor Blogging Jar concept was born. - I like picking a random ancestor and I need to know more about my many great grandparents so I put 127 names on slips of paper and placed them into my jar.  I then brainstormed and came up with a variety of blogging topics that I could match up with my selected ancestor.  I put these on separate slips of different colored paper.  These also go into my jar.  I pick a topic and name --and voila, you have a blogging topic! 

 

Blogging Topics Include:

• Just the facts - Identify three facts about this ancestor
• Pick a vital and write about what you know
• Pick a census record that they are in and review it
• Where did they live?  Write about the history of the town or area.
• What is their immigration story or lack of one?
• Link their life to historical events
• Write about their occupation
• Write a family record
• Dinner date with this relative - Food and conversation, what would you plan?
• At age 40? - write an overview of their life at the fabulous age of 40.
• Family Fun -  write about what they did or might have done as a family for fun
• Write about their education level.
• Write about what it would be like to switch places with this ancestor for a day.

Here is my jar - the white slips are my ancestors and the purple slips are my topics.  The first name picked was Nellie Bushart and my first topic was pick a census record they are in and review it!  Let the blogging begin.