2017 A Year Of Family History Blogging

A review of the blogging year is usually posted January 1st or December 31st, but knowing me if I left it until then I'd skip it. So here's my review.

Firstly, a few statistics:

1. Most people still check my blog after finding postings on Facebook.

2. "I fell in love with the Nazarene" is the number one google search that leads people to my blog - so Harold's music is still touching people years after he has passed away.

3. "The Hymns of my father" series is still the most popular. That contains the above-mentioned song, but also a few others. It's no surprise, therefore, that people with no connection to my family want to check out the lyrics and tunes to some of the old hymns.

4. February was my busiest blogging month, with 10 new blogs posted.

5. I managed 35 posts throughout 2017. It will probably be less this year but we will see!


Moving on, I count this year of blogging as a success. Back in January 2017 I set myself the goal of blogging once a month, and have achieved it. (Although the August post was an accidental repeat.) I hope you'll excuse that!

So what has been achieved within that year?

1. Finished detailing the life story of my grandfather Idris Davies.

2. Lent a helping hand to people trying to locate a family grave via the find a grave website.

3. Discovered the death certificate for my Dad's unborn sister, Bronwyn Mary Davies, and learned a little about her funeral.

4. Discovered an old archive of Pentecostal magazines which, amongst other things, detailed some of the histories of my ancestor's role in the Pentecostal movement in Britain.

5. Found out the cause of death for my great great uncle, David John Davies - along with some interesting facts about his funeral and ministry.

6. The above mentioned pentecostal archive yielded photographs of both my great grandfather Harold Griffiths, and many other family members. 

7. Discovering information about David John Davies' death lead me to investigate his wife, and I was able to chronicle a few things about her own contribution to church history as well as her immigration to America. 

8. Family member Roy helped me find the grave of my great grandparents, Price and Annie.  This led me to research an intriguing line at the end of their eulogy, "Y Delyn Aur."

9. Started a new series on the life and ministry of my great grandfather, Harold Emanuel Davies.

10. Lastly, I was able to contribute to the honour roll project.

All in all, I'm very happy with the discoveries and research accomplished!

For the coming year I would like to:

1. Once again blog at least one post a month.

2. Start creating a physical genealogy file.

3. Finish blogging about Harold Emanuel Griffiths.

4. Focus on my grandparents, Ernest and May Hilton.

5. Introduce the world to John Hobbs.