The Top Personal History Blogs of 2010.

Last December I  selected what I considered to be the top five personal history blogs of 2009.  I’m pleased to announce this year’s list which has expanded to eleven!

I’ve been asked what I’ve used as my criteria for selection.  Basically it’s the qualities I wrote about in What Everybody Ought to Know About a Successful Blog. Briefly these are:

• Frequent posts.
• Consistency.
• Personal.
• Short and scannable articles.
• Uncluttered.
• Use of graphics, photographs, and video.
  
• Catchy headlines.
• Generous and useful content.

If you know of a blog or you have a blog that you feel deserves inclusion, please let me know and I’ll consider it for next year’s list.

Without further ado, here are the top personal history blogs for 2010, ranked in alphabetical order.  Congratulations to everyone.  Drum role, please!

• Family Oral History Using Digital Tools. Owner  Susan A. Kitchens  says,  “This site explores how to use digital tools and media to record and preserve spoken memories of family members.”

• The Heart and Craft of Life Writing. Owner Sharon Lippincott describes herself as  “…passionate about all forms of life writing, especially memoir and journaling.”

• Legacy Multimedia blog. Owner Stefani Twyford says that on her blog “you will read about my passion for personal history, filmmaking techniques, genealogy, and related topics. I will veer off onto other topics from time to time but always come back to the things that make my work and my life a joy.”

• Lifestorytriggers.com. Owner Hella Buchheim describes her blog as “helping those who want to write a life story.” She has tips on getting started, rules of life story writing, and useful writing prompts.

• Maureen Taylor. Owner Maureen Taylor says, “As a photo curator, genealogist, and now as a writer and photo identification/preservation expert, the focus of Maureen’s work remains family photography, history and genealogy.”

• Memoir Mentor. Owner Dawn Thurston says, “My blog is an attempt to participate in the larger community of people interested in life story writing of all kinds and perhaps help a few people persevere in writing their stories.”

• The Memoir Writer’s Blog. Owner Denis Ledoux describes his blog as “helping people write family and personal stories…”

• Shoebox Stories. Owner cj Madigan says, “I revere photographs … I positively swoon over books … I have both a knack and a compulsion to give order to things … And I’m also a whip-smart project manager who makes sure that everything gets done in the right sequence at the right time. All of these strands weave together in Shoebox Stories.”

• Video Biography Central. Owner Jane Lehmann-Shafron describes her blog as a place for “Advice, essays, samples and inspiration for people interested in preserving their personal and family history through video biography, memorial video, life story and genealogy video.”

• Women’s Memoirs. Owners Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnet have put together a wealth of information that includes writing prompts, book reviews, and more. Women’s Memoirs is not strictly speaking a personal history site but there’s a lot of useful material  here for anyone involved in personal histories.

• Your Life is Your Story blog. Owner Tom Gilbert notes that his blog is a place for “… quality family history and life story news, views, methods, products, links, services…and whatever else catches our fancy.”

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