Sepia Saturday 772. First in what will now be monthly blog posts.
Today marks eleven years since I launched Molly’s Canopy on April 24, 2014, to begin documenting my ancestors’ and relatives’ stories — and for more than a decade there has been an endless supply!
A shout out here to my parents Norm and Peg (Laurence) Charboneau for providing me with a sufficiently diverse heritage — French, English, Irish, Welsh, German, Italian and Swiss — to keep things interesting as I blogged away, placing each ancestor in historical context.
To be honest, maybe my folks bequeathed me too diverse a heritage. Because despite blogging weekly for over a decade, there are still entire family lines I’ve yet to explore and more stories to tell. Which leaves me wondering, “How I can possibly share them all?” A quandary that is not mine alone.
Turning to story
Lately in the genealogy community, and its publications, societies, and workshops, there has been a general turn toward the ancestral story.
New digital tools have become available to help researchers go beyond the records to position forbears in their time and place, and to better chronicle how their daily lives fit into the history that unfolded around them.
Other family historians are concerned with how to pass on their decades of research in a popular and accessible way to future generations.
Then there are genealogy bloggers like me, who have been writing their ancestral story for years and now want a permanent way to share the family history stories they have discovered.
Genealogy by the book
I began blogging eleven years ago because I wanted to write a family history book but found the solitary writing experience too isolating.
Much better (and more fun!) to post stories one by one, receive comments and feedback, and read what other genealogy bloggers were writing. (Not to mention being able to post clickable links to sources.)
In retrospect, this was my best path at the time. Each week, like a family news reporter, I would turn research into story, then into more research — often unfolding an ancestor’s saga over several months in a series of connected blog posts. Step by step, I moved forward for more than a decade and accumulated a substantial body of work.
Last year, I took stock and happily discovered I have enough material for several family history books as well as inspiration for fictional characters in at least two novels — if only I can find the time and discipline to write them! So that is my new challenge.
Molly’s Canopy still has my heart
To switch focus, I reduced my blogging to twice monthly last year. I plan to reduce it still further this year, to once a month, to see how that goes. This will allow me more time in writing groups, workshops, and at the keyboard as I learn to transform blog posts into continuous, thematic prose — both fiction and non-fiction.
That said, Molly’s Canopy still has my heart. Without my blog, which connected me to the genealogy blogging community and my beloved blog readers, I might never have gotten this far or been so inspired to move in a new direction.
Heartfelt thanks to everyone who read my posts and left comments like, “Wow, I’d read a book about that!” To you I say, “Hang in there, a book is coming!”
See you next month. Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday.
© 2025 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
Wishing you all the best for your journey. I know your books will become family treasures. One of my proudest moments was holding my published book of one couple, their history, and their descendants. It’s an amazing experience.
Since then I’ve done loaded blog posts into book form but of course they’re a mixed set of stories which isn’t the same.
I hope you have fun with the book(s) and look forward to your monthly posts.
Congratulations on taking the plunge. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your blogs. I feel like I should be trying to do the same sort of thing but where to start.? I have boxes and files and piles and stacks of papers and keep accumulating more. I am sure I am not alone here!
Best of luck with your new venture!
Thanks so much, Lorraine. I appreciate having you as a blog reader for so long! There comes a point when we need to move from accumulating to preserving what we have learned for posterity. I encourage you to make a start and join me on that journey. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your family treasure trove of memories for all those years! Wishing the best of success for your leap into new endeavors!
Thanks so much, Barb. Great having you and the other Dempsey cousins as regular readers. I’m hoping there will be even more to read as the books take shape.
I can’t wait to read your books, Molly, both the fiction and non-fiction. You’re excellent writer and researcher and I know how much thought you put into your work. Write on!
Thanks, Corinne. I can’t wait to get them written 🙂
Can’t wait to read your book (s) Molly! Your blog posts are such a great read.
You are a gifted writer 📝!
Best of luck 🍀!
Pamela
Thanks so much! Appreciate the lucky shamrock 🙂
Good luck! I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog posts so I think your books will be a huge success!
Thanks, Lisa. Now I just have to keep at it to get them written!
Good luck with your book! It’s wonderful that you have lots of previously written content to work with.
Thanks, Lisa. It’s tempting to create even more written material on the blog, but the time has come to consolidate what’s already there.
Congrats, Molly! I’d say you definitely have enough for a few books or more. 😉 Good luck and have a great time in your writing groups and workshops, along with turning your stories into books! 🙂
Thanks, Diane. I’ll still be around once a month to see what you and the other Geneabloggers are up to 🙂
Bravo for reaching another blogging milestone, Molly. I’ve always enjoyed following your blog posts because you have so artfully brought out the personalities in your family stories and given them a voice in the context of their own time. You are very fortunate to have such a wide family tree with many varied roots and branches. I admire how your series have also illustrated the larger story of how America evolved through waves of immigrants, pioneers, and entrepreneurs. I can easily understand how you would like to concentrate on bringing all those stories together in another format. But I hope you will find time to update your blog with news on your writing project and, of course, leave a link on Sepia Saturday. We are a very small club but in a way we have shared so many family stories with each other that we are now part of one giant family tale.
Thanks, Mike. As I am scaling back, what I will miss most is reading your wonderful weekly blogs and those of the other Sepia Saturday contributors. But if all goes as planned, I’ll be showing up at least once a month for a mini reunion! Thanks for your support and thoughtful comments these last few years. Will definitely keep you all updated on my progress.
Telling the stories of our ancestors takes many forms – blogging, vlogging, podcasting, authoring books. Thank you for branching out.
Congratulations on 11 years!
Myrt
Thanks so much! Yes, it is all communication — the main focus is sharing the family story that has taken so many years to discover.
I found your post on blogging very thought provoking. I started my blog in mid 2010 and here we are 15 years later! And I am running short on family history stories and it is a long time since I acquired any more new to me family photographs. So yes,, I know I am repeating many of my images and have considered withdrawing from my blog. But I value the responses of the blogging community and try to come up with fresh posts to. match the Sepia Saturday prompts.
Thanks for this, Sue. It has been a tough decision to change direction, but a needed one at this stage. You have such a rich family history. Maybe you should consider joining me on the book journey and combining your ancestors into a volume or two. We could blog about the experience!
I’ve enjoyed reading your Sepia Sat. posts learning a little something about some of your foregoing family members and hope there’s more yet to come. Meanwhile, congrats on having put together enough ancestry notes to think seriously about publishing them in books! You go, girl! 🙂
Thanks! And yes, definitely more yet to come … there are still those unexplored family lines to write up even as I tackle book creation. Stay tuned 🙂
Congratulations on your anniversary! I’ve enjoyed learning about your ancestry and about your research methods.
Thanks, Susan. Appreciate your visits and comments.
I was beginning to worry about you! Glad to hear you have turned to writing books. I have thought I should do that too, and if I don’t do it, time will have passed me by!
Good luck on your writing. Let us know when you get one written.
Your family stories would make excellent reading if you decide to go the book route. Your family legacy will be the richer for it. I have also been feeling the now-or-never sentiment you mention — and as much as I love blogging, decided that now is the time.
Congratulations on #11! Well done. I’ve enjoyed your stories and am a bit sorry that you are reducing posts to just once a month, but understand your switch over to a book.
Thanks, Linda. I’d love to continue blogging more frequently, but I found it too difficult to keep up while learning and applying the book craft. Maybe that will change a I get into the swing of the book world.
Congratulations, as I’ve read many of your blogs over these years…though perhaps not the very first. Sepia Saturday was my connection by which I discovered your well written blogs. I send you my interest and hopes that your book adventure will be productive and interesting (I’m sure of that actually) and provide more avenues of sharing your stories!
Thanks so much, Barb, for the encouragement. Trying to balance regular blogging with the other writing has been a challenge. Hopefully, if I can slow my roll a bit on the blog I can achieve a sustainable equilibrium!