The time I normally devote to finding interesting stories to post, I’ve been using to answer a question that Dick Eastman posed recently – How Popular is Genealogy.
This is the “challenge”:
In summation, I will suggest that genealogy is indeed a very popular activity among Americans. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, people are actively looking for their family heritage. However, that number pales in comparison to some other personal interests that I have mentioned.
Do you believe there are more genealogists than that? Is genealogy one of the top five personal interests in America? I have one challenge for you: prove it!
Just so you know, that’s why things have been slow. I recommend you read the linked article above, and perhaps chime in with your own observations. As for me, I’m working out a unique response that will answer the burning question of what do I do with my free time, wait, no, I mean one that will give somewhat of a measure of how popular I think it is. I’ll even be using some numbers that I didn’t make up!
I’ve posted 300+ posts here just on genealogy-oriented stories (as a matter of fact, I hit number 300 sometime earlier this week), and I’ve set aside another 500+ that “didn’t make the cut” – stories that would have interested an incredibly small number of people or were redundant (that were carried across multiple media organizations, such as AP/Reuters). Somehow I’m going to come up with some statistics out of all of that, that will, for sure, allow you to guage my Excel spreadsheet proficiency.
I might even come up with something kinda cool. The gears are still grinding, so expect some “slow” days over the next week while I work on this a bit.
There is one site that took a look at the interest in genealogy, The Internet Genealogy Community Study – “An Australian ‘Internet Studies’ PhD student researching online genealogy within the broader context of hobbyist Internet usage. How do genealogists use the Internet? What are the consequences of the development of genealogy as a significant Internet-based activity? This blog is my academic head-space, so stay tuned, and perhaps all will be revealed!”.
Keep in mind this blog has been quiet for quite some time, as she works on compiling the information, but it looks like it will be open again in a few days.