Thursday, September 30, 2010

Notes and Announcement

Burn out. I'll admit it, I've been suffering from blogger burnout. It's not that I haven't been doing anything genealogy related over the past few months, it's just that I haven't felt like writing about it. But I'm back in the saddle at the computer and ready to ride write again!
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I've made a discovery recently that has me rethinking all of my genealogy research since day one. I'm not going to go into that discovery right now but I'll probably write it up at some point. Anyway, as a result I've spent some time at my local Family History Center reviewing films again over the past summer. I expect to be doing more of that in the weeks to come.
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I went to a family reunion last month. It was a very small reunion (< 30 people) but a reunion none the less. It was the second get-together this branch of my family has had, the first I was able to attend. It came on the heels of the death of one of my cousins who died suddenly at the age of 58. It was an emotional time.
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I'm closing down my web design business. I hope to be finished with it by the end of the calendar year. It's a lot of work and it's required my focus and attention for a couple months now. I'll be glad when that's over.
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And, (drum roll please) I've saved the best news for last. I'm finally doing something I've been wanting to do for several years now. I'm collaborating on a website/blog with my friend Ceil Jensen. Together, we are creating a web site for the parish of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Detroit. Ceil and I both have family roots in this parish which was closed in 1989. The church/school, rectory, and nun's residence have been torn down and all that's left of this much beloved Polish parish is memories and memorabilia. So we're going to roll up our sleeves and combine our memories and memorabilia and put it out on the internet for others to learn about, remember, and enjoy. We'll put up what we've got, hopefully other interested parties will find our site and contribute what information they've got about the parish too. We'll use Blogger, Google Docs, and Picasa Web Albums to create our site (totally FREE ;-). When we've got everything uploaded our "blogging" will be done and it will become a more or less permanent web site for years to come.

I've started the site with Part 1 of the history of the parish which was translated from Polish to English by our good friend and fellow blogging buddy, Steve Danko. Many thanks Steve! I wouldn't know how to begin this site without this basic information. His efforts too have become a part of our collaboration. I love the idea of  working together to create a resource that will be greater than what any of us could have done individually. It's is a great way to create an online archive of information and images about this church and the Polish community that loved and supported it. I hope it will inspire other genealogists and bloggers to think about doing the same thing for a church, school, or organization from their family's past. If you don't know where to start just watch us and see how we do it. Let the archive begin!


Oh yes, and I've created a Face Book page for the parish too!



Assumption BVM Church, Detroit, Michigan

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