Sunday, May 25, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - May 18-24, 2008

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.

* "Medieval England Soldier Database" by Tim Agazio on the Genealogy Reviews Online blog. On a scale of 1 to 10 for "esoteric," I thought this post was a 10 when I read the first paragraph. Then I read some of the links and I understand what Tim meant... this is a post to a wonderful web site with English history all over it. There were even two "Lancelot" persons, but not in King Arthur's Court!

* "What Does Memorial Day Mean?" by Ruth Stephens on the Bluebonnet Country Genealogy blog. What a poignant and eloquent letter, straight from the heart, embodying all of the hopes and fears of every soldier that ever went into battle.

* "Are Incomplete Databases Ancestry's Policy?" by the whoever writes The Ancestry Insider blog. The AI responds to a reader's question about this subject, which reveals quite a bit about Ancestry practices and policies.

* "Elizabeth T. Henderson, 1918-2008" by Harold Henderson on the Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog. Harold wrote a beautiful tribute to his late mother - full of all those details that only a child would know about his parent.

* "What If Genealogy Had a TED Conference?" by Mark Tucker on the ThinkGenealogy blog. What is TED, you ask? Why - it's Technology, Entertainment and Design. Mark is involved professionally with these concepts and wants to apply them to genealogy software too. Great ideas!

* "I Have a Complaint Concerning Many Genealogists" by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. Dick complains about genealogists who complain about the cost of commercial services. I pretty much agree with his points. Read his view, and the comments also.

* "May 23 - Friday From the Collectors -- Documenting Today for Tomorrow's History" by Nikki-Ann on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Nikki-Ann describes how she documents her life story as it happens - fascinating. Nikki-Ann's own blog is Notes of Life.

* "Some Good Healthful Exercise: Brooklyn, 1897" by Laura Crawley on The Virtual Dime Museum blog. Laura's piece about Mac Levy is priceless, and in Laura's inimitable style, she finds out more about her subject and the times he lived in.

* "A Civil War Soldier: Pvt. Joseph Uzza Benson ROBBINS, 1847-1931" by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors blog. Miriam has been posting several mini-biographies of Civil War soldiers on her blog for weeks now - each one is a gem waiting to be found by a descendant. She has 33 done already!

* "NGS Conference Report Pt. 1" "Pt. 2" and "Pt. 3" by the unknown blogger on the MoSGA Messenger blog. These three interesting posts describe this blogger's experiences at the NGS Conference in Kansas City last week. I haven't seen any other blog posts describing experiences at the NGS conference. I wonder why?

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!

2 comments:

Miriam Robbins said...

Hi, Randy! Thanks for highlighting my Civil War Soldiers and Sailors series. I've actually posted 33 biographical sketches so far; I did a number of them in April. I have a handful to finish up, and will be wrapping it up by May 30th, the original date of Memorial Day.

I liked your post about your military ancestors. Did you know Maureen Taylor is looking for photos of WWI soldiers to feature in her post next week? See more here.

Lidian said...

Thanks for the link!

Am just catching up with the genealogy blogs now after a few days...