The Word is Out

I'm nuts. If the family didn't now it before, they do now. The only reason I'm allowed to live free among society is that I'm not a danger to self or others. I'm not sure if things like my Rod Serling and the Genealogy Zone, or the Cousin Game, may just be a bit too weird for the average visitor. Either way, the site reflects the true me along with my warped, and often irreverent, attitude towards things. The last thing I want to do is report everything in a dry and boring format.

I am hoping for more input and the future is looking bright in this regard. I just added another person to the distribution list a couple of days ago, and I might be adding another this week. I have also received my first request for a blog membership. I value input and constructive criticism. If I know my audience better, I can cater to their needs.

Indirectly, from a couple of comments, I think people are finding the site a little difficult to navigate. For this reason I'm adding a site map next month. Hopefully after people get used to the layout, they will find it easy to get around. Is there anything else I can do?

BD

Big Update!

I have a really big update that I hope to post by the end of this week. The first thing it is going to cover is what I know about Thomas and Anna Downs. This is going to be a large piece and I think everyone will be interested in the content.

If that wasn't enough, I also plan to review the descent of Helen (Hopkins) Downs from Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower. I have a lot of information to share on Helen's ancestry and this gives me a springboard to start covering parts of what I have. As I put information up on the site, I will be adding the family group sheets concerning these families.

This month I will be introducing a new feature, a game. I am hoping that this might generate some interest. What I will do is put up a picture of my grandmother, Helen (Hopkins) Downs, and surround with 20 smaller pictures. Each of the smaller pictures will be of someone famous and all of them will be cousins to some degree of Helen's. That is, all except one. Can you guess which? Each month I will take one of the cousins and show how they are related. When I'm done, there will only be one left and they will be the one that is not related to her. There will be a prize of sorts and some rules, but I'm still working out these details.

I talked about rewrites in my previous blog entry. The rewrites are on schedule and when I update the site later this week, everything should be in a final form. So, if you read something before and go back and find it is shorter, I assure you that all of the info is still there. I tend to cut out a lot of superfluous junk when I rewrite.

The August update actually came out at the end of August. It seems that an update for any given month should come out at the beginning of the month. With this in mind, I hope to make the next few updates in less than a month each. This coming one is slated for this Friday, September 23rd. Hopefully next month I can do it by the 15th of the month. Eventually, they will come out at the beginning of the month. None of this is a promise, only goals to work towards.

Bill

To Write and Rewrite

What I have up on DownsGenealogy.com is by no means static. I hope people realize that I have invited the family in to participate, and that I am still in the process of rewriting what is there now.

My normal process for writing something for the public is to write it once and finishish it. I then put it away for a few days or a week. I then revisit it and rewrite it. If time permits, I let it sit again and follow with another rewrite. This process hasn't completed itself yet. I am working on the rewrites for much of the site this month. These should be final rewites, but don't expect a piece you read lastweek to be the same next week.

This process is necessary for several reasons. The first of these varied reasons is that my normal mode for conveying information through the vehicle of writen prose tends to be rather loquacious and challenging for the average casual reader. My first rewrite would normally take a sentence like the one above and state it simply as, "I make it hard to read by using too many words." Cutting this down can be handy for the publisher of a website, since this cuts down on both storage and bandwith. My first rewrite usually gets rid of unnecessary wordiness, use of cliché, and needless similes.

My next rewrite will usually catch things like split infinitives, passive voice and inconsistancies of person and case. None of this has happened in the current version of DownsGenealogy.com, so pardon the cliché but "pardon our dust."

I assure you that if you began reading something and return to it at a later time, if it seems that half of it is missing, it really isn't. The same information is there, stated more clearly and with fewer words. I hope to have this process completed by the October update. From that point foward, everything posted on the site should be a final draft.

As far as September's installment goes, I'm already on my second rewrite. I should be able to make that a final edition too.

Bill