I first saw a Wordless Wednesday post a couple of years ago on a blog that I subscribe to. It was a photo of children in front of a car. It was a black and white photo from around the 1940s. The caption under the photo simple read ‘our family’s first car’. Seeing that photo made me wonder about the first cars in my family. I then went to the archives of that blog to search for other Wordless Wednesday photos. That blogger had quite a few, and all the photos had a simple caption. Curious about just how popular Wordless Wednesday were in the blogging community, I searched Wordless Wednesday on the entire platform that I use. That’s when I discovered that Wordless Wednesday isn’t exclusive to genealogy bloggers. You can find Wordless Wednesday blog posts about animals, flowers, maps, shoes, food, and anything else you are interested in.

I soon decided that I would incorporate Wordless Wednesday posts into my blog. At first it was just fun going through my photos and picking one to post. But when I didn’t know what to write about, I used Wordless Wednesdays as a way to get conversations started and memories shared on my FaceBook page with family and friends. Wordless Wednesdays have been among some of my most popular blog posts. Wordless Wednesdays have also helped me get started organizing my photos. I didn’t know just how many shoe boxes full of photos and photo albums I had until I started going through them looking for a photo to post.

A couple of months ago someone asked me what is the purpose of Wordless Wednesday. I gave them the generic answer that a blogger will just post a photo with a simple caption or no words at all, hence Wordless Wednesday. Then I added that for me photos have always been a way to get my family involved with my genealogy. I learned early on in this journey that not everyone is interested in family history or reading my blogs including my own family. So I have been able to use my Wordless Wednesdays as a way to get my family and friends intrigued about my blog/research. Sometimes all it takes is one photo to get a person to start talking and sharing memories, and this is why my journey continues…

Click HERE to see one of my favorite Wordless Wednesday posts.