Over the last year or so, I’ve been changing the way I look at my family history. If you’ve read Mulling and Pondering My Genealogy Toolkit or maybe Clusters: What Do You Need To Research? you will have an idea of my adjusted focus.
The first cluster our ancestors lived in is always the family tree and we have to start there, but we can’t end there. Our ancestors have always lived in multiple clusters based on geography, religion, politics and more.
This next year I’m exploring and hopefully creating new tools that will help me and hopefully you gain a better understanding of who our people were. And just to fit into my new theme, I’ve renamed my blog Cluster Genealogy. You can still finding with it the Finding Forgotten Stories link. But I’m ready for a change — it’s time to look at our families in a different way.
Happy New Year!
cluster genealogy 
Happy New Year! I am looking forward to your posts. Although I had not heard the term “cluster,” I’ve been researching at the communities my ancestors lived in for a couple years now. I’m sure I’ll learn new tips from you. Best of luck on your journey.
Happy New Year! Looking forward to reading your upcoming posts. You are so right that cluster genealogy is definitely the way to find more of the who our ancestors were.
I’ll be waiting for your posts! I have always cast a ‘wide net’ in my tree building, and it has led me to an incredible multi-layered body of information that often makes me a bit overwhelmed as I plan my 2018 research plans. Looking forward to this important top for ‘next steps.’
I really like this idea. I have found it useful in the past as a back-up plan for finding information, but I think it has some merits in its own right. I’m interested in exploring the concept of “micro-histories” (my term) of some of these clusters (communities, neighborhoods, churches, etc.).