Why Do You Blog?

This morning I read a post on Marian's Roots and Rambles about dealing with people you don't know following you (Twitter) or adding you to their circles (Google+).  What is proper etiquette?  Should you automatically follow back?  Check them out first, and then decide?  What would be your reasons for not following someone back?  Marian was concerned that this someone (who is a quasi-celebrity) who followed her (circled her?) had done so simply to get more followers of their own as people follow back.  If Marian follows her back, does this imply some level of endorsement of that person?  Marian then discussed her relationship to the genealogy "world" and a certain protective feeling about it, and that protection might mean not wanting to appear to endorse someone, or through allowing them to add her to their circles, to give the appearance of endorsing someone.  It might help to know that in Google+, shared circled people (followers/followed) are normally visible.

My stance is that on Google+ and Twitter, if I don't recognize the name, I always check out who follows me, check their profiles and some activity.  If it looks entirely self-promoting, or is offensive to me, I block and report the individual.  If it's someone who I just have little or nothing in common with, I usually allow the follow, but do not follow back.  I don't need ten thousand followers.  I might have 150 friends on Facebook.  I place a higher value on a smaller number of good friends than I do on endless streams of acquaintances or even less worthwhile connections.  If we have something in common, like Genealogy, or science fiction or photography or... then I follow back and correspond.  It's voluntary social media, not an obligation.  It's a lot like if I meet you out in town.  If you shove advertising in my face, I'm not likely to hang out with you.  Likely, if you're inviting me to a quilting circle, I'm not going to be very interested in hanging out.  But if you want to go shoot some pictures of stuff, we just might be spending some time together.


I have many more interests than genealogy.  It seems to me like most genealogy bloggers tend to have that as a major focus of their lives, and that's simply not where I'm at with it.  I do genealogy as a hobby and for my own family history, and the blog I write is just an offshoot of that.  I don't feel any special "membership" of the Genealogy Blogging Community(tm) other than to be flattered when others take note of something I've written.  I read the blogs because they either have something to teach that I wish to learn, or have information about people and places of interest to me, or in some cases because I like the writer's style and humor. 

As I write this, I'm wondering if that will garner me some ill will, or at least cause some of you to stop reading my blog posts.  And then I wonder if that matters much to me, given what I just said about not feeling any membership in the community.  I think it would bother me more in that any blogger writes to be read by others, and I enjoy it when others get some useful information or entertainment out of something I write, so I would prefer not to lose readers.  Some of the comments I've received have been very positive in stating that things I've written have been informative to others.  At the end of the day, that's why I blog!


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Wordless Wednesday - Where Are They Now?

The Kimball, MN High School Class of 1950:

Click for MUCH larger image.

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Fun With Search Keywords

It seems I've had a slight rash of people searching for things and being directed to my blog in the past few days, so I'm going to take another look at the search terms that brought them here.

"dillman cemetery" crawford, indiana This is a small cemetery in Crawford County, Indiana, near the little don't blink or you miss it village of Curby.  This is where many of my Dillman ancestors are buried, and I've made several trips there to photograph stones.   Whoever you are, did you find what you are looking for on my blog?  If you contact me, I might have more information for you...

"dillman" crawford, indiana  Again, many of my Dillman ancestors lived in Crawford County, Indiana.  Some Dillmans still live there.  I have not yet contacted any of them, or any of my collateral lines tied into the Dillmans there.  I'm not very outgoing when it comes to contacting people I don't know.  I'm very open to you contacting me, however!

st. cloud mn 1987

I'm not sure what they were searching for, as I left St. Cloud early in 1987 to enlist in the US Navy.  I didn't return to St. Cloud until very late in 1992. 1986 chevrolet celebrity

I'm guessing this was somewhat related to the 52 Weeks of Genealogy article about cars.  I had a Spectrum, not a Celebrity, so this doesn't line up that well. brick wall in a tree

I feel your pain.  I have a number of these! One was recently cleared up by a chance contact on Ancestry.com, dealing with my maternal lines.  We had most of the pieces, but no idea how they fit together.  Someone provided the picture.  Now I just need to document it better. brick wall trees

See above. carolyn dillman indiana /facebook

I don't know who Carolyn is.  We might even be related, although there are other Dillman lines from Indiana not tied to mine. funeral cards

Were you just checking out the ones I've posted, or did you have some specific ones in mind?   gendetective Were you looking for reviews?  I did write about it a bit when they released it.  They've since sent me an update that is supposed to work with MyHeritage GEDCOM exports, but I have not yet had a chance to try it out.  I expect I'll post again when I do.

indianadillmans.blogspot.com

The URL of the blog.  This tells me someone was searching for the blog itself, which pleases me as I know someone is reading it!  I don't think many bloggers like writing in a vacuum, so hearing from readers is usually a good thing.  I'm no exception.  Feel free to comment!


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Wordless Wednesday - Celia C. Day Durand

One for the footnoteMaven, if she's looking...

Celia C. Day Durand

Wordless Wednesday – a great way to share your old family photos! Create a post with the main focus being a photograph or image. Some posters also include attribute information as to the source of the image (date, location, owner, etc.). Wordless Wednesday is one of the longest running “memes” in the blogosphere and is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Dinner Time

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your memories on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

• Week 32: Dinner Time. On a typical childhood evening, who was around the dinner table? Was the meal served by one person, or was it a free-for-all? What is dinner time like in your family today?

Childhood dinner changed over the years, depending on the employment of my parents among other things.  We often ate as a family when everyone was home, but there were stretches when one parent worked nights.  As we lived far from any relatives, there was never an extended family dinner situation unless someone came to visit, or we went visiting.   Food was cooked and set on the table usually by one person, but then we each served ourselves for the most part.

Currently with my family, we share cooking responsibilities in that each of us cooks dinner one night per week, including all three kids, which leaves a couple of nights unaccounted for each week.  Each person has their scheduled day to cook, and they need to plan their meal ahead of time to ensure the proper ingredients get purchased on the weekly grocery shopping trips.  Once cooked, the food is set out, and each can grab a plate and serve themselves.  We don't often sit around the table as a family, as schedules have become chaotic with one son working, another doing odd jobs and Boy Scouts, and so forth.  We tried to purposely "enforce" family dinner for a while, but it just didn't take, long term.  Too many variations in schedules.

At least with everyone sharing in the cooking, I know my kids will be able to feed themselves when they get out into the real world.

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Nicknames

Week 33: Nicknames. What was your childhood nickname, and what was the meaning behind it? You can also discuss the nicknames of other family members, both past and present.

This one is almost a no-brainer.  My surname is Dillman.  If you didn't guess that my nickname was Dillpickle, there's something wrong.

Of course, all manner of variants of Dillpickle were used at some point.  I don't remember it being used after about Jr. High age, though.  It was certainly not in use by the end of high school.

Later I was called by a number of variants playing on the initials D. D., such as Diamond Dan or Double-D.  Very few people use a nickname with me anymore.  I'm not one of those people who goes by "Buddy" or "Chip".  I do have an uncle, Clyde, who goes by the nickname "Chub", and has all his life.


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Fun With Keywords

Ever wonder how people get to your blog?  I do.  And the stats only show so much.  But here's a list of recent Search keywords used to find this blog:

catherine undersander  Catherine was one of my wife's ancestors.  Wonder which of her cousins might be looking for her?  I'll never know, they didn't contact me.

indianadillmans.blogspot.com

Well, that's a no-brainer, it's the URL of the blog.   "frank milo day"  This is interesting, because Frank Day and Milo Day were both ancestors on my paternal grandmother's line.  But I have no Frank Milo Day.  Someone making a shortcut search?  They never contacted me for more information.  Which is a shame, because I could use more information about both Frank and Milo.

chevrolet spectrum two door  This came from one of the  52 Weeks series, about cars you've owned.  Not necessarily even a genealogy-related search.

vw van in germany circa 1943 I'm not sure where this came from, except I've probably mentioned I once owned and drove a 1979 VW microbus.  But it wasn't in 1943!

bells in my head cover Really?

car for sale in usa gms hieberd I have no idea what a gms hieberd is, but apparently someone wants to buy one.

dillman's beach indiana This looks like a place I'd like to visit next time I go to Indiana. There are relatively many Dillmans in Indiana, but many are not connected to my line.

durand sheffield ohio Celia Durand married into my Day line, and that line does indeed have connections to Sheffield, Ohio.  Hey cousin?  Why didn't you contact me?  I've got questions... and maybe some information for you!

importing ftmb files into family tree maker

Wait, what?  Sorry, I've not done much with FTM since way back, at least 5 years, and I was no expert with it then, either.


Note: If your searches take you to a blog that looks like it might have some information, by all means, contact the author!  Not every bit of data they have makes it into the blog!


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman