My Genealogy Obsession’s Editorial Calendar – 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog

     I know that I’m late with this posting, but Tonia Kendrick at Tonia’s Roots has started a series called 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog.  I have participated in one here and there and decided to participate in this posting.  On September 18th Tonia post dealt with developing an Editorial Calendar.  She stated that by developing an editorial calendar, it would help by better organizing my time and that I would not wonder what I am going to write about.  I also agree with Tonia in that the editorial calendar could give consistency to my blog.

     Although Tonia uses a spreadsheet to keep track of her editorial calendar, I am more of a visual-type of girl.  I just found online a blank calendar page.  I printed it out and wrote my blog information on it along with the publishing schedule of posts that I would like to write about including my weekly and monthly series as well.

So here is my editorial calendar:

     As you can see, I have postings that will be on a certain days every week, while the others posts are monthly postings.  I did make a few changes from what I have been doing.  For example, I will still be doing my Monthly Asiprations near the first of the month, but I decided to post my updates weekly instead of at the end of the month.  This is because I felt that my monthly udates were getting long.  In fact, the last one had to be cut into two different posts.  So I felt that by making my updates at the end of the week (Saturdays), it wouldn’t be so long of a post.

     Here is a desciption of what I will be writing about:

• Monthly Aspirations (1st Sunday of the Month) – My genealogy goals for the upcoming month.
• Military Monday (2nd Monday of the Month) – Stories of my military ancestors and any military story related to genealogy.
• Thankful Tuesday (Every Tuesday) – All things I am thankful for including genealogy items.
• Wordless Wednesday (3rd Wednesday of the Month) – Photo posting only of my ancestors with a short description of who is in the picture.
• Thursday’s Teachings (2nd Thursday of the Month) – All things genealogy edcation related.  This includes my genealogy education goals, what I have already completed, and highlighting one at a time, any genealogical education opportunity available.
• Friday’s Favorites (Last Friday of the Month) – My favorite genealogy things, i.e. books, websites, tools, software, ect.
• Saturday’s Updates – A weekly update of genealogy tasks or projects from the previous week.
• Motivational Monday (Last Monday of the Month) – Genealogy things that keep me motiviated that I hope will motivate you too.

     So, I will be starting this editorial calendar today but I will be skipping my monthly aspirations for this month.  I hope you like this calendar.  What do you think about an Editorial Calendar?  Comment and let me know.

Motivational Monday – My weekend

Ok, my weekend was the best ever and gave me the most motivation to keep doing what I am doing.  I attended my Aunt’s surprise birthday party for her 99th birthday.  My aunt is not only my dad’s older sister, but she is the oldest of all of the kids.  She has such vitality for a person who just celebrated her 99th birthday.

Although I didn’t sit down with her to interview her, I didn’t want to take away from her celebration, I was motiviated to continue my research after talking with her granddaughters, my second cousins.  These second cousins used to watch my younger sister and I at times for my dad and mom.  I hadn’t talked to them in a while but after chatting with them at the party, I gave them my contact information and told them that I am researching our family history and they were very excited.  

My Aunt is a great inspiration to me, not just because of her age, but also because of the person she is.  It was a wonderful weekend and I enjoyed seeing my family again.

Racial Prejudices – A Part of my past

Sunday, my daughter and I visited La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the first Mexican American Cultural Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

This cultural center had a wonderful exhibit in which we learned the history of California.  We learned that when the U.S. won the war against Mexico, it obtained California through the treaty of Guadalupe Hildago in 1848.  It also showed the formation of Los Angeles through out the years including the time that affected me in my childhood, the late ’70′s racial discrimination and the chicano movement.

It brought back pretty intense memories of when I was young.  While I had to walk to school when I was in the 8th grade, there was one house that I would always pass by and the caucasian boy who lived there would always shout out to me “Go back to Mexico” or call me “wetback”.  I really didn’t like  walking to school and having to pass by his house everyday.  Although I knew how ignorant he was, it was nevertheless frustrating to past by his house.  I made sure my daughter knew about this time in my life.  I also told her of  the prejudice my mother, younger sister and I encountered when we were looking for a place to live and how some caucasian people didn’t want to rent to anyone who wasn’t like them.  My daughter and I went and read everything in this section of the exhibit.

Another section in this exhibit was on the migrant farm workers.  My daughter  pointed to a picture and asked me who the man in the picture was, I told her he was Cesar Chavez and I explained to her what he did to garner a spot in this exhibit.  I told her about how I boycotted grapes to show support of the migrant farm workers and to show support to my older aunts and uncles who, when they were younger, were migrant farm workers with my grandfather as well.  I explained to her how Cesar Chavez helped to bring better treatment to the migrant farm workers.

In the end, she learned about California history and a little more about her own family history and we had a blast.   It had fun, interactive displays throughout the exibit as well.

I would recommend La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, 501 N.  Main Street, Los Angeles, CA  90012, (213)542-6200 to anyone interested in the development of Los Angeles, California from mexican territory to statehood and in mexican-american culture and history.