You’ve gone through the process of creating your own Genealogy Blog. Now, you must find a way to fill it with interesting content. This is an election year. That’s a good reason to discover who were the very first presidential candidates that your relatives voted for.
I am writing this blog a few hours after the second 2012 Presidential debate. One of the biggest issues in this election cycle is, without a doubt, health care. This issue can be shortened into two sentences. The Democrats want to continue the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
When you are adding content to your personal Genealogy Blog, it is good to include some historical information, for context. Now would be a good time to learn about the voting history of your relatives and ancestors. This topic has the potential to lead to an uncomfortable debate in some families. To prevent that, I would suggest doing short interviews of your relatives, with specific, pre-selected, questions.
In the United States, a person must be 18 years old before he or she can vote. Who was the first candidate that you voted for in a presidential election? Your relatives will most likely remember their experience as a first time voter. You could ask each relative who they voted for, what year it was, and why they chose that candidate. Ask them what it felt like to vote for the first time. Were they nervous, excited, intimidated, or unenthused? You might get a really interesting story about what they did before and after voting for the first time.
Once you have gathered that information about your relatives, it is time to put it into context. Do a little research about the candidates that were running for President for that election. What party was each candidate from? What were the biggest issues in that particular election? A quick way to learn this historical information can be found on HistoryCentral.com.
Now, you are ready to take the story of your relative’s first time voting, and the historical context, and put it on your website. I would recommend specifically asking your relative before posting a photo of him or her onto your blog. Be careful about adding photos of Presidents, (or candidates that “also ran”). You need to make sure that the images you post have been released under Creative Commons, and that you properly attribute them.
Start interviewing your relatives right away. If you work diligently, you could have a really interesting, well thought out, well researched, political post on your Genealogy Blog. Get it done before election day, and it will have more impact than if you wait until the election is over.
Image by Theresa Thompson on Flickr