Zuiker Chronicles Online was initially to have been for the descendants of Francis Zuiker - my father and his siblings, and all their children. Mostly, though, it's only been my brothers and a few friends who have regularly visited the site.

As Paquet wrote, blogs aren't communal because they are the source of individual expression. One of the main frictions to my administering of Zuiker Chronicles Online is the balance between my personal voice through my blog and the community nature of the site.

One writing style that I often use in my blog posts is to mention a recent activity, and relate that through reminiscence to something my relatives can relate to. For example:

In the woods The Zuiker Chronicles Online is a memorial to my grandfather, Frank the Beachcomber. Grandpa loved to comb the sands of the Outer Banks and Florida for shark teeth and sand dollars and driftwood and dollar bills. Much of what he found he carted back to suburban Chicago and up into Studio One. In his workshop, he crafted necklaces, mirrors, lampshades and wallhangings, which he sold at craft fairs across the country.

Every day, Little Anna and I take a walk along the path behind our apartment. Usually, we stop on the bridge over the brook and listen to the water babbling over the stones. At first, Anna was mesmerized simply by the sounds of the water. A couple of weeks ago, she realized that that water was going somewhere, and so she follows the water to the other side of the bridge. Yesterday, as we sat on the bridge listening, a red-headed woodpecker whistled above us as it cleaned its burrowed nest. Today, Anna and I crossed the bridge and followed the creek into the woods (there are apartment buildings that rise on the hills over the creek, but for the most part, this little valley is wooded and peaceful). Along the way, we saw a brilliant-red cardinal bathing in the water, and then a barred owl flapped up into the trees to perch and watch us. As we walked home, the owl would fly ahead and alight on a branch, always facing us.

My grandfather was a woodsman, too (in the 1930s and '40s, he wrote about hunting and fishing for magazines such as Field & Stream), and his love of wildlife came through in his crafts. I loved his mobiles, simple and unique, clay Canada geese hanging from a piece of driftwood. One day up in Studio One, before I was a teenager, he showed me how to take a piece of modeling clay, to roll it and shape it into a bird's form. His fingers touched the birds lovingly. His eyes sparkled with memories of formations of geese banking overhead.

These birds I'm seeing today -- the woodpecker, the cardinal, the owl -- they signal the coming arrival of Spring to North Carolina. They also remind me that the spirit of Frank the Woodsman soars naturally above us. (From March 6, 2002)

In my blog posts, I've tried to mention my relatives as often as possible, sharing as much news as I could glean from my own infrequent communications with aunts and uncles and cousins. Ours is a large family, and there is obviously more to tell on the site. I've encouraged family members to share their news with me, but group e-mail messages between my father and his 8 siblings remains the norm. As I mentioned elsewhere, I tried to enlist these relatives to a listserv, but that didn't catch on.

One of my relatives, a daughter of my father's cousin, responded to an informal survey with this:

"[Try] to expose a few of the "silent" family members to hear about what is going on in their lives and letting everyone know who's who. I feel like I've gotten to know so much about your lives yet, I don't think anyone knows who we are or that we exist."

One way that I have tried this is by creating an online family tree, a collaboration with another relative, who gathered the initial information. This online family tree is an extended family tree, with more than 200 Zuikers and their spouses. (I used GreatFamily freeware.) It has been popular among the extended family.

The surprising part to Zuiker Chronicles Online has been a connection to far-off relatives, Zuikers distant both in geography and relation. A handful of Zuikers living in Holland, the country of my great-grandfather who emigrated to the U.S.A., have discovered Zuiker Chronicles Online through Google searches.

One Holland Zuiker, John Zuiker, wrote to me by e-mail. He's about my age, also has a young child, and, he mentioned, his father's name is Anton. This floored me. All my life I thought I was the only Anton Zuiker on the planet. But, sure enough, there is an Anton Zuiker in the Netherlands. I've yet to contact him, but John and I are discussing my visiting Holland next year.

Another Holland Zuiker, Theo Zuiker, wrote with some history:

Lodewijk Napoleon was the brother of the emperor of France and conquered the half of Europe. Lodewijk was the chief, or how must you call his function, in Holland and he ordernay that everyone must have a familyname. Untill this time only the nobility- families had a familyname. The usual people had names as : John from Paul or Peter of John or John son of Paul a.s.o Many people choosed ridicule names. The name Zuiker then has been born. It is - for me - not clear if the first name was suiker that means suiker (sugar). I always thought that a the dministrations of some municipalyties had made a mistake and wrote for Zuiker Suiker. What was there at first : the chicken or the egg. I remember me a mortuary card from Neeltje Suiker and that was a sister of Petrus (Peter) Zuiker, my grandfather.

And, finally, the popularity of photographs. I include a photolog, which contains mainly photos of my own family and friends. Whenever I can, I include photos that relatives send me, or images I take when I visit family gatherings. Another feature of the site is a photo feature of images taken by my grandfather; a cousin with image editing skills created this feature.

In the future, I expect to include these new features:

• multiple authors (other Zuikers able to contribute to the weblog)
• ability for others to post photos to the photolog
• implement TrackBack feature
• include more news about more Zuikers (first goal is an online interview with cousin Anthony Zuiker, the creator and writer of the hit tv series C.S.I.)

continue with theory