The Ancestor Hunt
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Newspapers
  • Newspaper Links
  • Obituaries
  • BMD Records
  • Photos
  • Yearbooks
  • Directories
  • By Location
  • Cemetery Records
  • Divorce Records
  • Naturalizations
  • Immigration
  • Mortuary Records
  • Church Records
  • School Records
  • Voter Records
  • Coroner Records
  • Probate and Wills
  • Alumni Records
  • Newsletter Page
  • Tools
  • Genealogy News
  • California Genealogy
  • Videos
  • Fun With Newspapers
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Build Your Family History Website

10/5/2012

4 Comments

 

Why Should You Build a Family History Website?

Picture
One of the best research tools that will help you find other family members (living, of course) is to create a personalized Family History website. I did so about 3 years ago, and posted photos, family stories, articles in the newspaper, etc.












​There are four VERY good reasons to create such a website:

  • It is fun.

  • It enables you to document interesting family stories and photos that will be preserved for future generations (as long as the website remains active).

  • It is a way to keep your relatives involved in what's happening with your research and enables you a way to share your discoveries.

  • By having it on the Internet, it is a terrific way to find other relatives. This is often called "cousin hunting" or "cousin bait"

Cousin Hunting and Cousin Bait

An excellent example of the positive results of having a family history website is as follows:.

During years of research prior to 2009, I had found several people with the last name of "Braunhart". At the time, I called them "stragglers", because I did not know how they were related to me.

Only because of placing their names on my family history website, in the past two years I have found two remote cousins who were able to connect the stragglers to my family.

The first, a woman who lives in New Jersey, is the great granddaughter of Alexander Braunhart, who was the younger brother of my great great grandmother Sara Braunhart Bernstein. As it turns out - all of the "stragglers" were either sons, daughters or grandchildren of Alexander. The puzzle pieces now fit!

The second, who lives in Berlin, was the great granddaughter of Alexander, and her grandfather, Philipp, who stayed in Berlin while many of his brothers and sisters emigrated to America. All of his ancestors remained in Berlin. I now had a connection in Germany. What a great surprise!

This happened ONLY because I had created a family history website and they had Googled the name Braunhart and found the site. They submitted comments on one of the posts and I was able to connect with them.

THESE CONNECTIONS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED IF I HAD NOT SHARED MY RESEARCH AND FAMILY STORIES ON MY WEBSITE.

They are now the most prolific providers of information to the family history, and I appreciate them both very much.

So start a family history website - it's easy and will produce many wonderful results, I guarantee it.

Free Website Builders

So, now it is time to get started building your family history website. You probably don't want to pay to host your site and the good news is that you don't have to. The most important decision on who to host is to make sure that they have a blogging capability. And this is because your family history should be presented as stories about a person, or about an event or activity in the lives of your ancestors - and blog posts are the best way to present those.

I personally have used Google's Blogger and Weebly for two of my sites - but there are many others. Word Press is quite popular. I will not engage in a discussion of the pros and cons of each. But the following are links to discussion of the pros and cons of free hosting sites. You can read these yourself and draw your own conclusions:

  • 7 Best Online Website Builders To Create Free Websites - Opensource, Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers
  • 15 Best Free Website Builders - It's become very popular nowadays to use website builders to create your own website
  • 12 Best Online Website Builders To Create Free Websites - 12 Best Online Website Builders To Create Free Websites
  • 45 Web Builders to Create an Insanely Awesome Free Website - Become A Better Web Designer!

Let's Build Your Site

Okay - now you have selected the company that will host your free site. It is now time to start building your site. I have two example sites that are for my family that you can browse through to get some ideas.

The first site I have entitled "Braunhart Mania". It contains stories and many other documents, photos, and artifacts that the reader can access. I built it using the Weebly platform, and right now I find it to be the easiest by far to use.

It is located at Braunhart Mania

Go through the site and you can get some ideas as to what to include in your site. In another article I will be discussing the components of a successful family history website.

If you have chosen weebly as your platform, I would highly recommend visiting YouTube and watching these free videos. Although they are geared to a Weebly based site - there are lots of great ideas in them and if you choose Weebly as your platform, you can't find a better tutorial.

Building a Family History Website Using Weebly

Another one of my other family history websites can be found below. Please browse around it to get some ideas. It is based on the Google Blogger platform.

Marksology

You now have the reasons to build your family history website; and you have some platforms to build it on, and some examples of what should be included.

I will be writing further articles that go further in depth as to what components should be added to make your family history website attractive, alive, and popular!

So get started and have fun.
4 Comments
Marsha F
11/4/2012 07:16:29 pm

Kenneth, thank you for the great article. I have been thinking about this for a while, but life has been getting in the way. Do you have any tips for Mac users, or do all these sites work regardless of your OS?

Reply
Kenneth R Marks link
11/9/2012 10:34:42 pm

Hi Marsha,

Sorry for taking so log to respond. All of these website builders are available on the Internet so they will work regardless of the operating system of your desktop or laptop..

Thanks for visiting,

Kenneth

Reply
Marsha F
11/10/2012 05:28:12 am

Duh! Don't know what I was thinking...Thanks for the reply.

Reply
Diane C
10/23/2019 08:38:46 pm

Do you have any suggestions for hosting service that provides for password protection on pages? I have committed to family members to keep aggregators from gaining access to private family information and make it only available to family members. I have a wonderful site now that allows for this option by page on the 32+ page site.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Check Out the NEW Subscription Options

    Save Time

    With the ​By Location Feature
    ​

    Free Resource Links
    ​​

    By Location Newspapers Obituaries BMD Records Directories Photos Yearbooks Cemetery Records Divorce Records Naturalizations Mortuary Records Immigration Church Records School Records Voter Lists Coroners Records Probate and Wills Alumni Records

    Subscribe
    Option 1 - Receive Links to New Published Articles 4 X per month

    Enter Email

    Subscribe
    ​
    Option 2​ - Receive New Complete
    Bi-Monthly Newsletter​ 
    ​
    Enter Email

    Search This Site


    Write or Record Your Autobiography the Easy Way

    Picture
    ​Use the Coupon Code HUNT to get a 10% discount
    Picture
    ​Use the Coupon Code HUNT to get a 10% discount



    Facebook Page
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    November 2010
    October 2010


Picture
©2012-21

Thanks for Visiting The Ancestor Hunt
The Ancestor Hunt is focused on helping primarily hobbyist genealogy and family history researchers to achieve their goals.

"The Ancestor Hunt" is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.  There may be a small commission paid to "The Ancestor Hunt" should you purchase from Amazon.
.
"The Ancestor Hunt" is also an affiliate for "A Life Untold", Trace.com, and "Audiobiography". There may be a small commission paid to "The Ancestor Hunt" should you purchase from these companies.