Monday, March 31, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - March 23-29, 2008

This is a day late, but I was having fun at Disneyland with my granddaughter, her parents and my wife, celebrating our wedding anniversary.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week.

My criteria are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant.

I don't list posts destined for the Carnival of Genealogy, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

* "Verisimilitude" by Tim Abbott on the Walking the Berkshires blog. Tim is working on a historical novel that postulates that the American Revolution failed to win American independence. Read his "writing plan" and also read the comments - lots of great ideas there.

* "Open State Vital Records: Some of the Best States" and "Open State Vital Records: The Bad and the Ugly" by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig reviews the state of open vital records and praises five states in the first post and laments the policies of 22 states in the second.

* "What American Accent Do You Have?" by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas had the first post about an American Accent test that led to a number of bloggers taking the test also. Do you know what your American Accent is?

* "Website, Weblog, Blog, Blogsite" by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. This is a great response and analysis to the question posed by Janet the researcher if she should create a web site for her genealogy research business. Yes, I know I have Thomas twice on this list - he deserves it!

* "What Do You Want in a Web Site?" by ShaniFaye on the Ancestrally Challenged blog. Shannon celebrates her one-year blogging anniversary, asks some questions and makes lots of good suggestions.

* "How Much Is Enough" by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee discusses computer memory over time and takes a look at the future too (terabytes!).

* "Must Have Books for Your Genealogy Reference Collection" by Carolyn L. Barkley on the GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com blog. Carolyn selects the books she can't do without - are they on your bookshelf too?

* "My Top 5 Favorite Footnote Collections" by Tim Agazio of the Genealogy Reviews Online blog. Tim tells us why he likes the ones he lists.

* "No Pox Party in John Adams" by J.L. Bell on the Boston 1775 blog. Mr. Bell has written many posts about the HBO mini-series John Adams. This is one of the most interesting because it addresses the health perils faced by people in that time. Read all of the John Adams related posts for an inside view of what actually happened.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - we all appreciate feedback on what we write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me!

1 comment:

Thomas MacEntee said...

Randy - wow, two mentions! Thanks for the shoutout and the honor. I should have my next installment on Websites vs. Blogs later today if I can become unburied from my work!