A few weeks ago, I was looking at my blog statistics, and I found that people had clicked on links from the Family Tree Magazine website to get to my blog. I’d never seen links from there before, so I went over to investigate… and discovered that I’d been named one of the Top 40 Genealogy Blogs for International Research! This article is also appearing in the July/August 2012 issue of the print version of Family Tree Magazine, which is very exciting. I’m mentioned in print!

I’m honoured to appear in that list with a number of other bloggers that I read and respect. When I started this blog two and a half years ago, I didn’t think that there were that many people interested in Latvian genealogy. I’ve been proven wrong! I’ve had people writing to me from all over the world, asking questions, sharing their stories, providing new information. I’ve even connected with some distant relatives.

It’s been a great journey, and I can’t wait to see where the future takes me. Thanks to the networking that I’ve been able to do as a result of this blog, I am able to spend more and more of my time working with genealogy, pursuing research in the archives, and developing my skills. This also means that I can spend more time with this blog, sharing what I learn with all of you, my readers.

I am leaving tomorrow for a three-week holiday, but don’t worry, I have a number of posts queued up to keep you busy while I am away, including more posts from my new series – translations of my great-great-aunt’s First World War diary. After I get back, I promise I’ll have a long-awaited update to the Latvian Surname Project. It has been two years since I updated it online, but I have been adding my personal database, so I have plenty of content to add to the site.

In closing for this post, I want to ask: What do you want to see here? What do you want me to write about? I’m also considering writing an ebook series, which would become my first “premium content” on this website. If you were to purchase an ebook regarding Latvian genealogy (wouldn’t be expensive, only $2-$5 each), what would you want to read about? Deciphering handwriting? Case studies? Common problems in Latvian research and how to overcome them? Something else? Let me know!