Life is about change.
When I first had the idea to create my Olive Tree Genealogy website back in 1996, the internet was a brand new thing. There were very few online genealogy sites. The big sites like Rootsweb and Ancestry did not yet exist. It was a new frontier.
It never occurred to me that a quarter of a century later the Olive Tree Genealogy site would still be going strong. And over the last 25 years Olive Tree Genealogy has grown into an entire family of websites – NaturalizationRecords.com, AncestorstAtRest.com, and several more.
Then there are my blogs. 18 years ago I jumped on the blog bandwagon with my Olive Tree Genealogy blog. I’m never happy with just one toe in the waters, and several more blogs followed, all part of the Olive Tree Genealogy family.
Then came the Social Media explosion and this created many new avenues for Olive Tree Genealogy to explore and grow, including Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
The last 25 years have been busy, exciting, rewarding and yes, like all endeavours, sometimes frustrating. I have always believed in giving more than I take from the Genealogy community but now it’s time to slow down. Since it’s only a slow down, not a goodbye, I am calling it semi-retirement!
I will still be offering free and unique content on Olive Tree Genealogy (It is not going anywhere), and participating in genealogy events. My other websites will remain online but they won’t be my primary focus after December 1st .
For now I plan to get back to my roots (pun intended). I will be scaling back my blog posts and my time on Social Media. I may even be able to carve out some time for my own genealogy research!
I’ll be focusing most of my time on my Olive Tree Genealoy website but I’ll also be writing more Genealogy books, including my Janie Riley genealogy mysteries.
New horizons await and I am eager to start this new journey.
