A Blogging Milestone: 100th Post from 200 Years

This post is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post on 200 Years in Paradise.  Who would have thought I’d have that much to say?

I was trying to figure out what would be a good topic for my 100th post.  Should I discuss something from general genealogy?  Island history?  An article on an ancestor?  A house? Records?  DNA? Nothing seemed right for such a momentous occasion.

Then this past week I got an email from a reader, Rolf Klausen, who read one of my posts, Pulling a Thread to Unravel Genealogical Tangles, where I discuss the family of my 3rd great grandmother, Mary Aletta Quickly.  In the article I mention that I had not seen the image of the 1846 census, just the extracted information on Ancestry.com by VISHA.  Rolf kindly sent me a photo of the census page in the Danish Archive showing my family at 27 Hospital St in Christiansted, along with some other pages of interest.  How kind of him to look this up for me and send it along.

This made me think of all of the people who have helped me in researching my family that I have met through this blog.  The people who have left helpful hints, suggestions, and information through comments and email.  People have found records of my family, in the islands and in Denmark.  They have pointed me in directions where I could find information about the society where my ancestors lived. 

Others have shared their family stories, often giving me hints where I might look next on my own journey.  Others have found me through my posts and have turned out to be relatives.  They have provided much information that has grown my family well beyond anything I could have imagined.

So this post, the 100^th post, is a Thank You.  A thank you to those who have helped me, to those who have allowed me to be part of their journey, and a thank you to you, my readers, for supporting me and accompanying me on my own journey to learn and understand where I’m from, who my people are, and what they were like.  It’s very true, no man is an island (even an island man).  I thank you all and look forward to 100 more.

Now, what to say in the next 100?

Happy Anniversary to 200 Years in Paradise

It was one year ago today that I began 200 Years in Paradise.  Through this blog I have been introduced to a passionate and knowledgeable community of Virgin Islands history enthusiasts and professionals.  I have been able to share my research, what I have learned about genealogy, and the continual unfolding of my family’s Virgin Island history.

I started this blog with modest goals.  I wanted to share my research with family and friends, without the eye-glazing that often accompanies my energetic discussions of “interesting family facts”.  In addition, I was frustrated at the almost complete lack of on-line references and research aids to Virgin Islands genealogy.  I wanted to begin to fill that void.  I wanted to bring the Virgin Islands into the world stage of genealogy as a full member, not simply as a curiosity.  I wanted to bring the history alive with people, places, society, pictures, and poetry, connecting these little islands with their Danish roots and their century of American ties.  I hope that I achieved at least some of that with my posts.

A New St Croix Family History Blog

I’d like to welcome a new member to the blogging community and the only other Virgin Islands genealogy blog I know of.  My Genealogical Journey traces blogger Shelley Dewese’s experience researching her family.  Like this blog, she shares her personal discoveries as well as bits and pieces of Danish West Indies history as she uncovers them.  Her family, the Bough and Beaudhuy families, have lived in St Croix for over 200 years, in paradise!

Although I don’t know of a connection between our families, there is one person whom I ran across with a very interesting name:  In Oct 1874 a child of one Ernst McNobney Beaudhuy and Mary Duncan was baptized in the Lutheran Church.  The middle name suggests that there may be a maternal relationship with my ancestor, Amey McNobney.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway, please welcome Shelly to the community!