I know the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I’ve been intending to update my genealogy site for more than a decade. I created it in the early 2000s, back when sites were html, not mobile friendly (few had mobile devices!), and sometimes, a bit unwieldy. Over the years, I’ve found new facts, photos, and records to add to the site, and it was such a chore building new pages and working with awkward menus, that I neglected to publish anything new. I knew if I revamped it into a WordPress site, uploading new info would be easy-peasy, so I waited until that “someday” in the future when I’d get around to the revamp.
Well, the years went on, life was busy, and the revamp never happened. In fact, my time spent exploring my roots began to dwindle. I promised myself that I’d get to it when I retired. That joyous event finally occurred in July 2022, but I seem to have gotten involved in all sorts of other projects: home improvements, writing courses, card nights, dating, cottage visits, [happy hours with friends], and other miscellaneous activities, but finally, the time has come!
I still own a web design company – with a few dedicated clients – and earlier this year, it was time to move all my client websites to a newer, more up-to-date server. Once they were safely transferred, I knew it was time! I installed a new WordPress site, and began moving my old site, page by page, photo by photo, every birth, death, and census day by day to new pages in the fresh installation. It’s been a few weeks of work done sporadically at the end of each day, but once I started those first steps, the journey became easier.
The new site should be much easier to navigate. I know it will be easier to update, because I’ve already added quite a few new pages and subsections to display the new records. It was sooo much easier than the old days that I’m anxious to get rolling on my research, once again, and to blog and post some of the new facts that I’ve found in the past decade.
I’ll probably do another review or two, going page by page one last time to compare the old and new sites to be sure I haven’t missed anything. I found a great plugin that searched out and repaired broken links, and I’ve searched each family tree and descendant report to purge them of any information about living relatives that shouldn’t be published. (However, if you see any, please notify me!)
My next goal is to post some private, passworded trees and reports for family members to access. I’m sure my cousins will have new babies and grand babies I’ve missed since I haven’t updated the newer generations in years.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the old and new site [if you’re viewing on a large enough screen]. Can’t wait to start adding new info!
