Hello? Hello? Is anyone still there? YES THERE IS!

The title for this post is one that few can appreciate. I'll leave it to the comments to see if he wants to claim the quote as his own.

Anyway, it's been too long since I last wrote in here. You see, I've moved to a different venue (and I've been a bit lazy on this front). I was checking into the LDS family history site a few months ago, and was pleasantly surprized to find the revamped site.
What the new site allows you to do is to upload photos and stories about ancestors and actually LINK them to your ancestor in the family tree! I'm guessing ancestry.com had this functionality for a long time now...but I'm not at a stage in life to pay for that kind of service, and there are lots of people that will never get into the service. The church's site is FREE, and as far as I can tell....equipped with a pretty slick set of tools.

I've uploaded all the photos that I have to the site and am working to upload stories as well. Now anybody that happens to stumble on these records will get to see these same photos and stories. I'm also putting my hand to add sources to my ancestor's vital records. (OK, I've only done one so far).

Let me share my feelings about the new site. The original purpose of making this blog was to share photos and stories of my ancestors with my family. But my real vision was to then link the person to ALL their stories and photos with an elaborate tagging system....and then, I was going to, somehow, recreate the family tree with lots of hyperlinks. And then I got discouraged. I just didn't have the tools or the time to do what I felt needed to get done. Then along comes the new site...fully equipped to do EXACTLY what I envisioned in the first place! To me, I was the recipient of someone's act of charity. I didn't have the skills to do it, but someone else DID. They did for me what I couldn't do for myself...and with no expectation of reward from numberless benefactors. I cried a little...but you should know the Wilson boys are criers.

So....what happens to this blog? I'll still keep a record of my slow-semi-methodical family history efforts here. This is a better place for sharing thoughts and everyday experiences. When I get new stories or photos, I'll post them here, but I'll also upload them to familyhistory.org. And there you can better search through information...see all the photos, stories, dates, and family relationships of each person on your tree. And if you feel inclined to add some information yourself, you can! And you'll be sharing with the rest of us!

So, please, take a look at the new site, and consider getting involved. It's rewarding!

-Bryan