Blogging for 30 Days: The A – Z April Challenge

For anyone who reads my personal blog or who is active in the blogosphere you may well be familiar with the A-Z April Challenge.

The A-Z April Challenge has its own blog (http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/) and the concept is very simple. Each day through the month with the exception of Sundays a letter of the alphabet is covered as a blogging topic, as indicated on the calendar below.

I thought this was a fantastic way to engage the Society blog, our individual studies and interact with other bloggers who perhaps do not know the concept of a One-Place Study.

The Society blog has been entered into the list of participants (http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html) and we are number 718 on the list with the history identifier of HI after our name. If you look at the sign up list you will see there is an amazing amount of topics covered, some people have a themed set of posts, and other bloggers are more varied in their approach. Each year more and more genealogical bloggers take part.

What does this mean for members of the Society?

I have been working on the alphabet schedule and hope to provide a post each day that looks briefly at the studies registered with the Society. The posts will themselves link back to the Society Study profile page.

On days when the letter of the alphabet is a little challenging, I have been a little creative and for letters that have not registered studies (with or without a degree of creativity) I will substitute the study for a study source.

How can you use the A – Z April Challenge for your Study?

You could use the April Challenge to explore individuals in your parish by their name, or by a source that has been helpful to you in your place study. You could tie this in to encompass the WW1 joint project. You might need to be creative with some of the more challenging letters of the alphabet, but anything goes!

Here is an example. Several years ago I used the theme of Australia. Reflecting back on my time living there and various lines of migration. The letter X was problematic, until I looked through my stamp and postcard collection. There I found a stamp commemorating the Royal Flying Doctors Service and the detail on the stamp shaped the letter X. As I said, a little creative.

Have fun and if you can play along with the A – Z April Challenge, in the meantime we will open up a board on the forum for everyone to share their links.

Note: An amended version of this article first appeared in the March 2014 edition of our Destinations newsletter.

Julie Goucher, Coordinator for A-Z April Blogging Challenge