First off, an explanation.
At the time I stopped updating RandomGenealogy.com, a job opportunity had come up that I couldn’t pass up and it required my immediate attention, along with a couple of major events back-to-back. I typed up a nice post saying that I needed to take a break and this is what I would be doing in the meantime and would somebody else want the site. To make a long story short, I thought the story was published, but it in fact did not publish, and because I had to turn my attention away from a lot of my hobbies and recreational activities, I didn’t check it. End result: It looks like I dropped off the face of the earth.
I was recently asked by the person who owns the server that this site resides on exactly what I wanted to do with the site. At the time I had to stop in 2006, there were other sites that were posting similar stories and I didn’t feel like it would be missed. I had left it up just in case it might help somebody (and a few emails here and there indicated that it did) and it wasn’t costing anything to do so. As of the past few months, before I was asked about the site, I was given the opportunity for a job that would allow me to devote more time to my hobbies (genealogy) and I started thinking about my online activities. Some of those other sites have since went down (some don’t even exist anymore) and so I think there’s still a place for it.
So yes, it’s sort of returning. I’m not sure I’ll be able to post everyday – the person who asked me what I wanted to do with it offered me the opportunity to work on a couple of other dormant genealogy sites, and I will be doing so (and posting more about that here). I’m glad for the opportunity.
As for the look, this is a temporary placeholder – we did a massive upgrade of everything that drives the site and needed something fairly recent that could handle some of the newer features. I’ll be posting more about my plans in the near future.
And apologies for not making sure my “final” post was in fact posted, explaining what was going on.