9 Years!

Photo by Stephanie Kroos on Flickr 

Happy 9th Blogiversary  to What’s Past is Prologue! That sounds like a long time in blogging years (is that like dog-years?). But as I thought about writing a post to mark the occasion, it occurred to me that nine is rarely celebrated. Does anyone care when you have a birthday or anniversary at 9, or 29, or 49? And have you ever seen a “Top Nine” list? No, me neither.

But, then again, there are nine muses in Greek mythology (I suppose Clio, muse of history, can be considered the muse of genealogy). Then there are the “Nine Worthies” from the Middle Ages. Being on “cloud nine” is a good thing, as is being “dressed to the nines”.  Like a cat, this blog seems to have “nine lives” and I hope to go “the whole nine yards” with my research!

In nine years, I’ve had just over 349,000 visitors here. My most popular post continues to be Finding Polish Records Online (written in January 2011) with over 32,000 views. Overall, the most popular topics are about Polish or Philadelphia records and resources. These hits far outweigh the stats on posts strictly about my own ancestors, but even some of those, particularly the several “Surname Saturday” posts, are popular. There are a few personal favorites that I wish got more attention, so I might have to highlight those in the days ahead.

Even though the last few years have been sporadic with posts here, I’m still happy to have this outlet as a place to offer information, celebrate my ancestors, and connect with not only cousins, but fellow researchers and bloggers. I cherish the many friendships I’ve made with other bloggers over the years! Although I haven’t come anywhere near the production of my first two years (almost 250 posts out of 468 total), there’s still more to say.

As as I begin my tenth year of blogging about my adventures in genealogy, I’m going to propose the 9 topics I want to write about this year:

1. genetic genealogy – I’ve made some great cousin connections using DNA
2. odd connections – although we’re not related to each other, I’ve made some strange “connections” to my friends through my research of our families
3. the language of the records – I learned in a rather humorous way that it sure helps to know some basics of the language of the records you are researching
4. the best Polish records that you never hear about – I have had a lot of success recently using a little-known group of records
5. the immigrant story – for a few years now, I’ve had a great first-hand account of what immigration was like in 1913
6. Napoleon’s friend – someone with a similar name to my own had a connection to Napoleon – and accounts of it can’t seem to spell his name correctly either!
7. using Google Books – I’ve found some unique genealogical information this way
8. more ancestor sketches – even though I said above that the personal genealogical biographies aren’t as popular, it’s been a wonderful way for me to organize my own research
9. following in their footsteps – finally, if a planned trip to Poland this year comes off as scheduled, I will have plenty to say about it

Thanks for joining me on the journey! Happy New Year!

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