One way I've been sharing in 2025 is by adding and connecting hundreds of ancestor profiles on the free collaborative tree at WikiTree. I appreciate the ability to categorize ancestors (by birthplace or by burial place or many other categories) and to add a sticker to highlight a specific aspect of an ancestor's life.
At top, part of the WikiTree profile I created for Alice Adelaide Slatter, a little girl from my husband's family tree. She unfortunately died young, as you can see from the special sticker. This is one of the very few stickers I can "code" from memory, because I make a special effort to honor the memory of little ones who were sadly lost too soon.
Of course I'm continuing to add/flesh out ancestor profiles on Find a Grave, Ancestry, and MyHeritage. No deadlines, no specific goals, just adding and connecting as I follow where the genealogical trail leads me. Plus I'm redoing newspaper research using fresh databases to look for additional social and news items about key ancestors.
Having professional shadowboxes made for Dad's and Mom's memorabilia, a very special way to share, has been a highlight of 2025. I'll post more about these in a few days.
For military veterans, I've got a baker's dozen list of ancestors waiting to commemorate on Fold3 memorial pages, after I receive their US Veterans Administration files. I hope when I finally receive the files that they will be informative. Fingers crossed to complete this by the end of 2025.
I'm still drafting bite-sized ancestor bios to post as memories on Family Search. Note that when I include a photo these days, I put on it a caption and attribution ("courtesy of Wood family" for instance) to make the identification and source permanent. Image here shows a small sample of stories and photos I've put on FamilySearch as memories. Each story starts with a brief headline, usually ancestor name and dates.
In addition, I'm testing colors (above) for a surname word cloud for the bite-sized family history booklet I'm writing about a branch of Wood in-laws. Later this booklet will be turned into a photo book, following these ancestors' lives from the start of the 1900s to the late 1960s.
On this genealogy blog, the top five most read posts from Jan-June 2025 were:
- Genealogy bloggers who are also on BlueSky
- New indexes to New York City digitized vital records
- Change, monitor, or hands off the Family Search family tree?
- What will happen to once-treasured silverware and china?
- Learn for free from big genealogy sites' blogs/videos
