Sunday, August 3, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - July 27-August 2, 2008

Several hundred genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, 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.

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

* Looking into the heart of Ireland by Lisa on the Small-leaved Shamrock blog. This is a Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture summary. Lisa does a wonderful job of summarizing and highlighting the entries. I still wish that I had some Irish ancestry... I'm green with envy of those who have Emerald Isle folks.

* Open Library: Online Books Resource by Jennifer on the Rainy Day Genealogy Readings blog. Jennifer explores a relatively new wiki - online books at http://openlibrary.org/. She tried it out, and it provides sparse results at present, but perhaps is a web site to keep tabs on while it is "filling out."

* How Much is That Redcoat (of Scarlet or Dusty Rose)? by Tim Abbott on the Walking the Berkshires blog. Greenman Tim discusses the colonial era English soldier's uniforms, and tries to figure out what color a "redcoat" really was and how it was created.

* Tuesday Tales from the Road - Salt Lake City by Kathryn Doyle on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. One of the CGS members, Mary Mettler, is on a cross-country genealogy trip, and sends her first installment. I love genealogy travel stories, and can hardly wait for more in this series.

* Will your work survive the digital age--Refreshing and Backup, Will your work survive the digital age--Replication, Will your work survive the digital age--Migration, and Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Naming, Tagging, and Filing by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet continues her series of posts on the subject - all excellent advice that all researchers should follow.

* Two Roads: Do McEntee and MacEntee Converge or Fork? Part 4 by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas describes his research to date trying to determine the answer to his question. He has more work to do, I think, but this is an excellent example of using a genealogy blog to post noteworthy work while searching for answers.

* Learning to date old photographs by Sally Jacobs on The Practical Archivist blog. Sally uses one of my photographs (I was surprised to see this post a year later!) and provides great resource advice. As a result of reading Sally's post, expert photo analyst Maureen Taylor commented on my blog post with very helpful dating advice.

* Xmas in July by John Newmark on the Transylvanian Dutch blog. John gets his hidden treasure in the form of a box of paper found in a storage room. It really pays to help your parents or other relatives sort through stuff!

* This and That by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: The Stories of my Ancestors blog. Miriam hits a number of interesting subjects, including the Facebook genealogy activities.

* Turf and Twig Ceremony by Carla Joyce Gade on the Relatively Speaking blog. This was probably the most interesting post for me this week. I had never heard of turf and twig, even though I've done a lot of research in colonial New England land and probate records. Carla has many interesting posts on her blog!

* How to Get Your Family History Printed For Free by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia's friend, Waleria, tipped her to this method of getting a free published book.

* Genealogy Courses & cruises by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog. Pat answers a question about "why continue learning?" with very sage advice. In the process, she tells us about the recent Legacy cruise (that I so wanted to sail on!), and also her thoughts about the real value of courses, conferences and cruises.

* Learning Probate Records, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 by the GenMaster (Brian Nichols?) of The Mad Genealogist blog. These are part of an ongoing series of excellent posts about probate records.

Thank you to all genealogy bloggers for an interesting and informative week.

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!

UPDATED 8/4: I know it would happen one of these days - I mixed up Sally and Susan's names, my apologies to both. It's like getting your tang tongled, I think. Or your brain addled. I've had so many conversations with a 3-month old this week that I'm not thinking straight.

4 comments:

Lisa / Smallest Leaf said...

Thanks for the mention of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, Randy. Here's hoping you'll join us for one, Irish heritage or not!

Lisa
Small-leaved Shamrock
A light that shines again
100 Years in America

DearMYRTLE said...

Thanks for the kind words, Randy!
Myrt :)
http://blog.DearMYRTLE.com

Kathryn Doyle said...

Randy,
Mary Mettler has sent in several more installments of "Tuesday Tales" - some with photos! Thanks very much for your kind review.
Kathryn
California Genealogical Society and Library blog

Sally J. said...

Hiya, Randy! I'm so glad that my re-posting of your ancestor photo led Maureen to help you ID the date.

-Sally J.

P.S. Practical Archivist is my blog, not Susan Kitchens' -- Susan's blog is about recording family oral histories. Cheers!