Happy Ten Year Blogiversary – GopherGenealogy.blogspot.com- 24 April 2021

Happy Ten Year Blogiversary – GopherGenealogy.blogspot.com- 24 April 2021 What an amazing ten years it has been. I am not a frequent writer, but there always seem to be plenty of viewers. So far this year I have written ten posts. It appears that changes are coming in notifications for followers so you can friend me on facebook until I figure out the new blog delivery system. For now here are some stats showing the amazing progress and support of family, friends and viewers. 

  85 followers 

 404 posts 

 129 comments 

All Time Views 210327 

Today 58 Yesterday 19 

This Month 1021 

Last Month 6416 

 8 Pages 

Daniel Tidd Article

Portland, OR WWII Article

ICAPGen 2010 Tidd Rev. War

Adril Gates – War of 1812

Ole A. Brown Article

Law On Village by Tony King

Lectures

French-Canadian GFO 

Top Referrers – Last seven days 

www.google.com 19 

l.facebook.com

2 m.facebook.com

2 duckduckgo.com

1 Other 240 

 Top Referrers – All Time 

www.google.com 9,395 

gophergenealogy.blogspot.com 3,446 

www.bing.com 884 

networkedblogs.com 645 

www.inboundlinks.win 616 

geneabloggerstribe.com 451 

www.geneamusings.com 416 

m.facebook.com 375 

gophergenealogy.blogspot.fr 363 

Other 193,736 

 Audience - Pageviews by Browsers – Last seven days 

Chrome 146 

Safari 77 

Firefox 30 

MSIE 7 

Mobile 2

BingPreview 1 

GSA 1 

 Audience - Pageviews by Browsers – All Time 

Chrome 90,409 

Firefox 60,030 

MSIE 36,570 

Safari 15,548 

Opera 2,758 

Mobile Safari 730 

BingPreview 638 

Konqueror 489 

Mobile 419 

GSA 366 

OS;FBSV 291 

HeadlessChrome241 

Chromeframe 133 

CriOS 132 

SamsungBrowser121 

Maxthon 117 

Silk 108 

Dragon 69 

Iron 35 

Other 2,736 

 Pageviews by Operating Systems – Last seven days 

Windows 168 

Macintosh 71 

Linux 7 

iPhone 7 

Android 6

iPad 4 

compatible 1 

 Pageviews by Operating Systems – All Time 

Windows 111,642 

Macintosh 73,529 

Linux 13,008 

iPhone 3,366 

Android 3,147 

iPad 2,776 

Unix 1,381 

X11 526 

compatible 243 

BlackBerry 86 

Windows NT 6.1 80 

iPod 50 

Unknown 24 

Android 9 13 

Android 5.1.1 12 

Nokia 11 

Android 6.0.1 6 

MSIE 9.0 6 hp-tablet 6 

Other 709 

Last seven days 

United States 153 

Germany 69 

Canada 11 

Indonesia 6 

Netherlands 6 

Russia 6 

Sweden 3 

Belgium 2 

France 1 

Other 7 

 All Time 

United States 113,158 

Sweden 18,932 

Russia 17,413 

Germany 9,120 

France 6,433 

Netherlands 5,729 

Ukraine 5,165 

Canada 3,383 

Romania 1,743 

United Kingdom1.69K 

Indonesia 1.09K 

United Arab Emirates 1.01K 

Unknown Region 926 

Poland 775 

Philippines 753 

Turkey 698 

Spain 576 

Latvia 568 

Turkmenistan 435 

Other 29,251 

 Gopher Genealogy by Susan LeBlanc provides information about research, lectures, published articles and book reviews, and Serendipity Moments that are the results of searching for ancestors both personally and for clients. The objective of the blog is for others to receive insight and inspiration in doing their family history research. It is an evolving method of communication and input from reviewers is welcome.

Surviving Lock Down

A year ago today I signed up for Zoom and attended the first of many group meetings. As the time went on I attended many more such meetings with many different types of groups. With things advancing quickly with restrictions it was so nice to have a means of communicating and learning. The Genealogy community found a whole new method of interacting as almost all in person events were cancelled. Our local Genealogical Forum of Oregon went virtual, with general meetings, seminars and a week-long virtual Open House that included eighteen free presentations. The sixteen Special Interest groups provide a wide range of learning opportunities and I attended ten of them, some on a monthly basis and all for free and some with handouts. As the year progressed the GFO volunteers worked hard to provide virtual access to records and websites for the use of their members. The more recent attendance has grown into the hundreds. Familysearch, Ancestry and My Heritage sponsored the RootsTech Virtual Conference and it had attendance in the millions. Instead of racing down hallways, paying for airfare, motels and other expenses we met the challenges of planning our time around the classes, presentations, virtual vendors hall and so much more. By the time this occurred in February people had adapted to learning online. The truly adventurous attended presentations throughout the United States and around the World. My favorite was a presentation on the customs of food and drink of old England with the group from Lincolnshire, England. The most challenging part of the process was calendaring the events so that I did not double book a reservation or forget about watching those for which I had a reservation. So, what is your take on the massive growth of online virtual learning opportunities and the formats for attending them? Do you have a favorite presentation format? While Zoom was the new kid on the block, with some learning curves involved it is my favorite. It is especially great with children and older adults. The biggest blessing of the entire year was being able to communicate with family, friends and neighbors in a virtual format. What it did for our genealogy work was truly amazing.

Vaccine Recovery 2021

 

Vaccine Recovery 2021

Before I had the two Covid vaccine shots I worked hard to finish up projects and organize my office. The first shot was okay with some discomfort mostly to my hands and feet related to my neuropathy. The second shot has thrown me a curve ball. After two phone visits with my doctor I gave up and had an office visit. It turns out that my sciatica has been activated and generating a lot of pain. My hands and feet continue to be aggravated. Nine days of discomfort with lots of sympathy from the doctor. She ordered pain patches, rest and patience. Now I look around my office with little energy to consider doing much. Even the 677 page book on the History of Woburn is a challenge. The next 830 page book on The History of Lexington is not due to arrive for another month.  I am working very slowly on probate documents from 1696 and it is a struggle. Anyone want to give a try at transcribing it?

Roots Tech 2021 Friday Day 2

For Day 2 I tried to listen to all of the Key Note speakers I missed the day before. There were 24 Key Note speakers and 8 Heritage Highlights which I saw only the second one. My favorite speaker was Sharon Leslie Morgan. Then I added to my Playlist for future viewing in the coming year. Of the 1,000+ sessions within eight different tracks there is quite a variety available. Some are a series of sessions. I choose 127 sessions, which means viewing two or three a week. They do vary in length. It is highly recommended that the overall list be examined prior to such an event. One thing about a virtual conference with so many new components is there is little time during the actual event for organizing. There were not really any structured breaks, so knowing the overall schedule one wants to follow is important. 

I spent a lot of time working in Relative Finder. What I loved about the Relative Finder was finding that I match with Pat Richley-Erickson , Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, David E. Rencher, Thomas MacEntee, Judy G. Russell, Karen Stanbary, CG, Thomas Jay Kemp, Tom Jones, Randy (CA),  Ce Ce Moore and over 46,000 others of the one million plus who attended this historic conference. Surely one of the miracles of this pandemic. This group all connect with me and the Tidd family. Another large group of matches are eleven for the Rounds and Strong families. Many of us hope this feature is available in the future!

Roots Tech 2021 Saturday Day 3

It was certainly a great conference. The last session with Elder and Sister Holland was the best. What a sweet couple and their special family. The entire conference was wonderful. From the Main Stage to the Song Contest excitement filled this experience. There were 1500 songs submitted and one could view the musicians and participate in voting. The Graphics, the staging for the interviews, great transitioning were all key to the flow of the conference. The total number of registrants was over one million and from 226 countries. Be sure to check out the Expo Hall, Discovery and Activity Pages. The Guide Me section is extremely helpful and if you have questions use the Help button.  

To the coordinators and everyone who worked so hard at creating this first class experience, Thank you so very much!

 

Roots Tech Wednesday 24 February 2021

Roots Tech Wednesday 24 February 2021 and Thursday 25 February 2021

Just spent two hours at Roots Tech and did not even get to the exhibit hall! The first keynote speaker was great, but there were Internet difficulties with reception problems. Then I moved on to the view some of the pages. On the first page it shows there are 501,203 participants and a map of the 226 places they are globally from. In the Connections portion there are 267,803 people with a total of 55,838,115 matches having been made. There is a map showing where matches are concentrated. The best surprise was when my youngest daughter showed up as my closest match. I have a total of 300 matches, one close relative, two 3rd cousins, twelve 4th cousins, some 5th cousins and the rest 6th and beyond. There is a map showing all of them being from the United States. Then I just kind of looked over the website and took a tour of the Family History Library to see how things have changed there. I will try later to view the keynote speaker. My final stop was the Song Contest where I listened to twelve artists in three categories perform their songs. They are very talented. I look forward to seeing who the winner is. I submitted three, one for each category. Now to get some rest so I will be ready for a full day tomorrow.

Post 400 - Organization a Lifetime Project

 Organization is a lifetime project requiring timely updates! The gophers have been very helpful. I have accomplished a lot in the past year.

In the lateral files are all of my personal family history notebooks. There are 15 totes in total. There are 5 boxes from my mother's estate. They are all sorted and labeled. The totes include 4 of my mother's, 2 of her mother's, 1 for the Tidd family, 1 for all of my other ancestors, 1 for the Watt's family, 1 for the Strong family books, 1 for clients, 1 for office decorations. There are 3 for miscellaneous things of mine. There are also six boxes of miscellaneous stuff from other ancestors. After working intently on the Tidd family book this past year I need to go through that tote and sort all of the materials for them, of which there are a few research notebooks as well as the main family notebook. Its a long and winding road. What Covid-19 has taught me is that being at home is a very good thing as long as I get out occasionally. Going down memory lane can be very therapeutic.

This is post 400. This year celebrating ten years of writing on gophergenealogy.blogspot.com

Susan Waters The gophers are the two stuffed animals sitting on my printer. They encourage me, motivate me, and like to travel when that is an option. Many genealogists have such able staff in their home offices.

Record Setting Celebrations

 It really was a record setting day for me. This week should be a record setting week. Counting down for views on my blog gophergenealogy.blogspot.com. It will be ten years in April and it is amazing to say we are at 199316 views as of this morning. Only need 684 to go!!!

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Shared with Your friends

This week is record setting for me in doing genealogy work. My six week community school class is finished. Got great news from Poland for a client. Provided back up PAF for friends visiting from Utah. Put a wrap on the next issue of the Bulletin for GFO as the current issue editor. Lunch out with our group that inlcudes a Catholic, a Quaker and a Mormon, acutally discussing religion and research being done for one of their families. A quick trip to another friend's home to exchange genealogy books and materials. The newly organized office is wonderful to work in as I pursue more projects. And this is only Tuesday!