November is National Blog Posting Month

November is upon us once again! Do you know what that means? Its “National Blog Posting Month.”

I first learned of National Blog Posting Month (“NaBloPoMo”) in 2009. At that time, I was only writing my “National African American Genealogy” column on Examiner. I asked other genealogy bloggers to join me in the celebration. That month, though I was unsuccessful at posting every day, I managed to post quite a few articles:

• “American Experience on PBS – ‘Reconstruction: The Second Civil War’ – Watch it free online” (2 November 2009)
• “National Blog Posting Month – Can genealogy blogs meet the challenge?” (2 November 2009)
• “Are census records reliable for genealogy research?” (3 November 2009)
• “Case study for Y-DNA testing in NGSQ” (4 November 2009)
• “Civil War pension application files – a rich source of detail” (5 November 2009)
• “Crafting a research plan, part one: Defining your problem” (6 November 2009)
• “Crafting a research plan, part two: Investigating the location” (7 November 2009)
• “Crafting a research plan part three: Identifying records of interest” (8 November 2009)
• “State online resources for African-American genealogy: Georgia” (9 November 2009)
• “State online resources for African-American genealogy: Maryland” (10 November 2009)
• “Happy Veterans Day! Military databases available free online at Archives.gov” (11 November 2009)
• “Catholic slaves of the Carroll family of Maryland” (12 November 2009)
• “Angela Walton-Raji launches new ‘Beginning Genealogist’ website” (13 November 2009)
• “The value of meeting together” (17 November 2009)
• “Using maps for your genealogical research” (20 November 2009)
• “FBI begins ‘Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative’ seeking next-of-kin for unsolved murders” (24 November 2009)
• “Civil War pension depositions depict horrible realities of slavery” (25 November 2009)
• “Discovering where slaves lived” (27 November 2009)
• “African-American Genealogy Examiner receives Kreativ Blogger award” (28 November 2009)

How did I do that first year? There are 30 days in November, and I posted 19 articles. Not bad, but not perfect.

Between November 2009 and November 2010, I started writing a second column for Examiner: the “Baltimore Genealogy & History” column. When NaBloPoMo came around, I decided to try to write an article every day for both columns! Once again, I did not achieve my lofty goal, but I did make (in my opinion) a noble effort:

• “It’s National Blog Posting Month again!” (National African American Genealogy, 1 November 2010)
• “African Ancestry reveals DNA results of historical African-American figures” (National African American Genealogy, 1 November 2010)
• “New database for African-American genealogy in Virginia” (National African American Genealogy, 2 November 2010)
• “National Blog Posting Month – Can genealogy blogs meet the challenge? redux” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 2 November 2010)
• “Baltimore City Star-Spangled 200 Conference” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 2 November 2010)
• “Soul of a People: the WPA’s Federal Writers Project” (National African American Genealogy, 2 November 2010)
• “Colonial church records in Maryland – Does religion even matter?” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 2 November 2010)
• “Online resources for researching Maryland in the Civil War” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 4 November 2010)
• “The 1860 Presidential election in Maryland” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 4 November 2010)
• “Exploring Your Roots Cruise – two new genealogy cruises in 2011” (National African American Genealogy, 5 November 2010)
• “Upcoming Maryland Genealogy and History Events (11/06/2010)” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 6 November 2010)
• “Anatomy of the 1850 and 1860 federal census ‘slave schedules’” (National African American Genealogy, 6 November 2010)
• “Colonial Maryland probate index, 1634-1777” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 8 November 2010)
• “‘Direct’ vs. ‘Indirect’ evidence in genealogical research” (National African American Genealogy, 8 November 2010)
• “Elizabeth Shown Mills’s newest Quicksheet for citing your sources” (National African American Genealogy, 8 November 2010)
• “Vital registration in Maryland in 1865” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 8 November 2010)
• “Continuing your education with online genealogy videos” (National African American Genealogy, 9 November 2010)
• “Maryland genealogy resources on Ancestry.com – Birth, Marriage, and Death” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 9 November 2010)
• “Maryland genealogy resources on Ancestry.com – Military” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 9 November 2010)
• “Maryland genealogy resources on Ancestry.com – Immigration” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 9 November 2010)
• “Information is only as good as the source” (National African American Genealogy, 11 November 2010)
• “The Civil War through the eyes of its soldiers” (National African American Genealogy, 11 November 2010)
• “Summary of the Jefferson Clark online case study” (National African American Genealogy, 12 November 2010)
• “Using city directories to identify your ancestor’s home” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 13 November 2010)
• “NEW BOOKS: The Civil War Draft in Maryland – Lists of Drafted Men” (National African American Genealogy, and Baltimore Genealogy & History, 15 November 2010)
• “Do you write up your genealogy research?” (National African American Genealogy, 18 November 2010)
• “Search hundreds of genealogy books with the click of a button” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 18 November 2010)
• “Upcoming Maryland Genealogy and History Events (11/19/2010)” (Baltimore Genealogy & History, 19 November 2010)
• “Researching the family history of potential slave owners, part one” (National African American Genealogy, 19 November 2010)
• “Researching the family history of potential slave owners, part two” (National African American Genealogy, 30 November 2010)

Two columns, 30 days. Should be 60 articles, right? Well, I managed to write 31. Only about half of them.

So this year I still have both Examiner columns, and now I have this blog as well. Thirty days, three blogs–that’s 90 articles! It’s going to be difficult, but I will try. We’ll see how well I do at the end of the month.

Anyone else want to give it a shot?