This blog is three years old today!

As I’ve said in previous blog anniversaries, when I first started this blog, I never imagined that I would get the response that I have. I’ve had people contact me from all over the world to share their stories, ask questions and solve the riddles of their family trees.

It feels a bit overwhelming sometimes, but I am learning how to handle it. I try to respond to each email and comment personally. Sometimes it might take awhile, with all of the different projects on my plate and other demands on my time, but it does happen eventually.

I’ve accomplished a lot of things in the past year, but the biggest one had to be scoring a mention in Family Tree magazine, in their 40 Top Genealogy Blogs for International Research! I still have yet to get my hands on the print copy of the magazine though, haven’t been able to find it anywhere! I will have to order it direct from their back issues section.

I know the blog here has been a bit quieter in the past month, with mostly only Tombstone Tuesdays and diary entries, but I’ve been busy traveling and then researching here in the archives, so my primary focus has to be on that. Hopefully in the next year I’ll be making a full-time move to Latvia, so then I will be able to take research at a more leisurely pace.

There are various projects that I’ve been working on all summer that aren’t quite ready to launch yet, but I’m hoping that they will be soon. I think you’ll all be very excited about them. Here’s a bit of an idea of what all I’ve been working on:

• An all-new system for my Latvian Surname Project database… it’s proving to be a lot of work upfront, but once it is set up, updating it is going to be a breeze!
• An ebook on Latvian genealogy… this blog is a good starting point, but the book is going to have more details and more examples.
• Dare I say it, also a novel? Genealogists deserve some time in the spotlight too, we can’t let professors and archaeologists and secret agents have all the fun!
• …Plus a super-secret project that I am not sharing until it is ready to launch, so you’re just going to have to be patient waiting for that one!

Another important thing that I’ve been this past year doing is networking. I’ve been meeting historians, museum workers, archivists and other genealogy enthusiasts. My time at the Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Centre this past winter was extremely valuable, and I am continuing to volunteer my services to them from afar. Generating awareness of their work is the main job right now, to attract more interest, financial support and donations of artifacts and stories. If there is anything that you are interested in sharing with Latvians Abroad, or if you wish to volunteer your time in any way (doesn’t matter where you live, people are needed all over the world!), do let me know and I can put you in contact with the right people.

This blog and the experience of Latvian genealogy and history has been a real adventure, especially this past year. Here’s to more adventures ahead!