Why write about genealogy, family history, and FamilySearch?

familysearch.org

According to Google Trends or trends.google.com, Google's search volume index, there has been a steady decrease in searches for "FamilySearch" over the past five years. Here is a recent (2019) graph showing the decline.

However, during the same time period, internet use has exploded into mobile devices particularly smartphones. In addition, searches for the company "Ancestry" have pretty much maintained their popularity. Here is a graph showing the relative search frequency for Ancestry in blue and FamilySearch in red.

Of course, genealogy as a search topic has also had a relative decline over time.

If you do a comparison of the terms "genealogy" and "family history" to "DNA," for example, you can see why the large genealogy companies are so interested in latching on to the interest in DNA.

Overall, people search more for "dog grooming" than they do for "genealogy" or "family history."

So why am I writing about genealogy and family history rather than some other more popular subject and why write about FamilySearch at all? The answer to that question is difficult and involves years of complex experiences.

When you decide to write something like a book or a regular blog post, you need to choose topics that you are passionate about. I hear a lot about "writer's block"  in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, or experiences a creative slowdown. See Wikipedia: Writer's block. I have yet to experience that condition and the reason is simple, I am still passionate about life, genealogy, and a lot of other things. However, there are decisions that need to be made in your life that might require you to focus your energy on something different rather than writing all day and into the night.

Writing every day does take time and as you grow older you may decide to focus more on interpersonal relationships rather than writing. But if the reason you are slowing down or quitting is that you are tired or bored with the subject or can not come up with good ideas, then the problem cannot be dismissed by claiming some vaguely defined condition called "writer's block." It may be something as simple as the fact that you no longer like to write. This is a valid choice and does not need an excuse. Also, I know absolutely nothing about dog grooming.

I have always thought I would like to write a novel but when I start thinking of topics to write about, I always come back to the fact that I enjoy doing research and writing about factual, mostly historical subjects. I haven't published a novel yet but who knows? I might start one or go back and rewrite my early attempts. As I think, I write. It also helps to read a lot.

Now, why genealogy and why FamilySearch? Well, as I take a mental inventory, there are only a few things I am more involved in and passionate about than family history and genealogy. Writing about those subjects is easy and I have a long inexhaustible list of things to write about. As far as FamilySearch is concerned, the website and the company change so regularly and frequently, it is easy to use FamilySearch as a subject. I am getting rather passionate about the challenges of old age and how that affects my life and the lives of those around me. But then FamilySearch changes something or does something strange and I am off writing about genealogy or family history again.

I do know that I will have to stop sometime, but maybe I can delay the inevitable long enough to write one more post or webinar or article or presentation.