Beyond Fiction

I have found a couple of minutes free here at my sister’s house and thought it might be nice to try to post a little something. I’m hoping I can get this in in time for the Carnival of Genealogy as I was intriqued by the subject. This is a small attempt at answering the writing challenge posed by this edition and I will probably try to do something better later. Please enjoy this small attempt at trying to participate.

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Your Genealogy Blog’s Obituary. If your blog ended or was lost/deleted today, how would you write it’s obituary? What were the highlights of your blog? What is its history?

Please note: This is not an actual obituary for my blog. I’m offline for a while but I’m not dead yet!

Beyond Fiction Is No More!

Beyond Fiction, a small and mostly personal genealogy blog authored by Ken Spangler, has come to an end today! Since March of 2007 Ken has shared his research openly in the hopes of getting more family members involved with his research. In the course of this time, Ken made many friends in the geneablogging community and was encouraged by them to “keep on keeping on”.
Through the years Ken has shared many different series with his readers including his series on The Elusive Martin Isaic Spangler, which helped him to establish many new contacts on his Spangler side and his series on his Stevenson roots which resulted in a connection that helped him to finally make that jump across the big pond. Ken never really knew how big his readership was because he didn’t care to try to track them, choosing rather to just put his words out there and see what would come of them.
Many would possibly call the passing of this small blog just a blip on the huge scope of things but it is hoped that at least some small portion of the readers will find a void with the disappearance of Ken’s writings. Never one to try to keep up with the latest trends, Ken simply shared what was on his mind with his readers. He pondered questions, shared his thoughts, posed more questions and challenged only his family to try to make his blog a little more than what it was. Was he successful? This is something that can only be learned in the course of the next few months. Will his children pick up where he left off and continue with his blog as he wished? Will a family member step up and try to continue Beyond Fiction?
In either case, let it be known that Ken has enjoyed his time blogging. When times were tough and he didn’t really know what to do he could always come to his blog and find some kind of solace there. The many friends he made through blogging kept him going many, many days. It is an experience that he never regretted and wishes he would have started sooner.
Arrangements have been made for the blog to continue to stay online for at least another year or so. No new posts will be added but those who would like to take one last look at Ken’s writings will have an opportunity to do so. After that, it will be left to the descendants of Ken Spangler to continue his quest.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I look forward to being able to get back online and write more but I am currently 1300 miles away from my computer and I don’t see us reuniting any time soon!