Blog Undergroing Maintenance

A friend was having a hard time finding my blog as she had forgotten the URL. She tried to find it through search on Google. After I got home, I tried to find my blog. Not having much success, I added words in my blog that would be unique, such as Luke Stoutenburg, Canada and my name. At last it appeared on the list of possible hits.

I posted a blog entry on March 1 and spent some time seeing if I could figure out how to make my blog more visible. Within a few days, I had talked with some people who know how to get the most out of social media like blogs.

Since that meeting, I have been making changes that hopefully will improve my visibility. I was advised to add a "my favorite links" area. I spent the next evening adding links to website that I frequently visit when I am doing my family history research.

That being mostly accomplished, I next tackled the next item suggested. Over the last several days, I have added labels to each of the entries in my blog. Then I added some clickable links within some entries. I will be monitoring to see if my blog becomes more visible soon.

I took this opportunity to make the font size consistent across all the entries so far. Now with a little tidying up left to do on my LinkedIn profile, I will be back with a new post by Monday evening.

Historian PI

From the time I started this blog, I have been trying to find a title to describe my blog. If you do a Google search on family historian, at the top of the results are products related to building a family tree. While other results point to genealogists. Although I have an extensive, well documented and growing family tree, I do not see myself as a genealogist. As I built my family tree, I wanted to know more about these people; about what was happening around the area in which they lived that may have influenced a decision to move to another place or to another advocation. While looking at the local events going on at the time I often found something really interesting that may not have anything to do with my relatives. It is interesting nonetheless and, I am sure, is interesting to someone who had family in the area. Today, I met with several people who all are looking for jobs and asked for suggestions as to what I should title myself on a businesscard. Stuart suggested I put what I do as History PI. I think that he had something there. Friends and family have called me Sherlock. I then went to my gym. After I worked out, I had a passing talk with the owner, Kristen Gerhard, about my meeting earlier and that I was going to try to devise a new businesscard when I went home. The next thing I knew, Kristen was on the Internet looking for images that I might incorporate on my businesscard. She gave me some really great ideas that I am pursuing. So between Stuart and Kristen's input, I should have a really good businesscard.

Words of Wisdom from My Dad

My father was a second generation American while my mother's family had been in North America in the 1600s. His paternal grandparents were born in Denmark and his maternal grandfather was born in Norway and his maternal grandmother was born in Sweden. His parents must have instilled in him that he was an American. I remember as a child several interactions with the other kids in my Minnesota neighborhood in which we boldly proclaimed that we were Swedes, Danes, Germans, etc. At some point, my dad felt the need to tell me that I was not a Swede, Dane or Norwegian, but I was an American. What he said back then didn't really have an impact on me as several years later when I was a student at UCLA, Alex Haley's book, "Roots" was introduced, I was consumed with being identified as Sandinavian. I enrolled in Medieval Scandivanian Languages and Literature courses. Although I really enjoyed these classes, I realized that I did not feel a really strong connection. But I was intrigued by the stories and literature had an indirect relationship to me. I had no idea that a branch of my mother's family was in North America in the 1600s. Because my dad's family and my mom's family were Lutheran, I assumed that my mother's ancestors were German and Scandinavian. So it was easy for me to declare that I was Scandivanian. Several years later, I embarked on a quest to research my family history. I learned that my mother's maternal grandmother was Norwegian but her father's father was of Dutch, Scot, German, and English descent. Then I learned that my mother's great grandfather was born in Canada and his great grandfather was born in New York. With so many of my ancestors coming from many of the countries in northern Europe, how can I claim one identity. My dad was right. I am an American. However, I am an American who has an intense curiousity about my ancestors, where they lived and what life was like for them.