I think I now have enough infrastructure up and running that I can go live with the website.   Now that things have settled into a final form, I can explain what is there, how to navigate it.  Actually, that is already done for you.  There is a table of contents that tell you what is there and links to everything.

I have been researching our family history since 1978, and I’m going to share that with everyone on this new site.  There will be two types of works I will be posting, and the first will be biographical sketches.  Consider these to be mini-biographies of our ancestors.  The other type will be articles, and these will cover the actual research itself, which is sometimes quite a fascinating tale.  The biographies tell the stories of the people, and the articles tell the story of how I found the information or show the proof for conclusions I have made.  To get up and running as quick as possible, I’ve only uploaded one article (on the Death Certificate of Thomas Downs) and one biographical sketch (my grandfather, John W. Downs).  There will be plenty more of both in the coming weeks.

There is a sister site, DownsFamilyTrees.com, that contains what most of you would consider the “genealogy.”  The two sites are cross-linked.  I have made a quick User Guide with screenshots to help you navigate that site too.

I will use the blog to let everyone know when I’ve added or updated anything.  You might also find there the progress reports on research, recent news, tangents that may be of interest and much more.  If you want to get an email when something new is published, follow the blog.  There is a link to do so on the right sidebar of the page.

There is also a Facebook group that I have created where you can keep up with updates.  I hope that maybe this group may be used for discussion on the topics I’m writing about in DownsGenealogy.com. Perhaps I might get inspiration from you on where to turn my sights next.

So, click around and explore both sites.  You can’t break anything.  If you have questions or need help with anything, please reach out to me at bill@downsgenealogy.com.