Saturday, January 13, 2018

Top 10 Blog Posts

In the five years I've had my genealogy blog, I've had over 50,000 visitors. While I'd love to be a super-popular writer, I'm pretty satisfied with how popular the blog has become. So, what posts are the most popular with my readers? Here they are.

1. German Church Record Basics - Part 1 - German Records - Coming in first place is my post about how to read German church records. It contains images of common words found in German church books and what they mean. I'm very happy that this has become the most popular post. This means that my blog is making a difference and really helping out people that need assistance.
 
2. What Constitutes Proof? - Coming in second is my post documenting what I have about my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther. I asked whether what I have constitutes proof that I've found her parents or not. The concensus seems to be that I can be pretty confident that I have the right family but I'm keeping my eyes out for more proof.

3. The Miller/Müller Family - Third place goes to my documentation of the family of my great-grandfather, Charles Miller, before I made the breakthrough finding his parents and his ancestors in Germany.

4. Menke and Related Families in Hanover, Germany - Fourth place goes to the post about my Menke family and the related families around Schwagstorf and Ankum in Hanover, Germany.

5. German Church Record Basics - Part 2 - Latin Records - In fifth place is the other post I'm very happy to have among the most popular with the readers. In this post, I provide images and explanation of the most common words found in German church records written in Latin. This will likely help you with Latin church records from other countries but since I don't have experience in church books from other countries, I can't say that for certain.

6. Emigrants Out of Germany in the Mid-1800s - In sixth place is one of my favorites. If it wasn't in the most popular posts, it would definitely have been in the list of my favorites. It's about a newspaper article written during my cousin's visit to Germany, describing the reasons for people to move out of Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. It really helps you understand the hardships of people who lived through those times and puts their migration to America in a new perspective.

7. Autobiography of Agnes Panther Miller - Seventh place goes to another that is one of my favorites. With the passing of my mother, finding story of her life written in her own hand gave a very sad time a glimmer of happiness. It helps me understand her early life in ways my interview with her never could since much of what she wrote about I didn't know to ask about.

8. The Ancestors of Julia Cecelia Doran - Eighth place surprises me a bit. It does provide the ancestors of my grandmother, Julia Doran Miller but since I didn't know a lot about her ancestors and still don't know much, I find it surprising that people find it interesting. I'm glad people are finding things in my blog they enjoy.

9. Incarcerated in Iowa - An Historical Prison Project - Ninth place is the story about the Incarcerated in Iowa historical prison project. I find this project extremely interesting and I really hope I can help in getting it moving again.

10. Doran Probate and Property Records in Carthage, Illinois - Finally, in tenth place is the post describing the passing of the Doran real estate in Carthage, Illinois and Fort Madison, Iowa and how it helps us understand the family a little more. It is in the most popular posts primarily because another genealogy blog linked to it finding the way I stepped through the property records interesting.

The next post will be my favorite blog posts.

--Matt

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