Sunday, September 7, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 31 August - 6 September 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 genealogy carnivals, 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:

* It's Data Backup Day! by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas has an excellent article about backing up your computer files, and encourages each of us to do it on the first day of each month. Great advice. I did it!

* Tuesday Tales from the Road - Suffield Connecticut by Mary Mettler, posted by Kathryn M. Doyle on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Mary continues her genealogy journey and meets one of her genea-angels, finds a treasure-trove of records, and solves a brick wall problem. We should all be so lucky - or good - on our genealogy trips!

* Genealogical Round Up (2 September), and Genealogical Round Up (4 September) by Megan Smolenyak on her Roots Television, Megan's Roots World blog. Megan has some excellent links for researchers to follow on genealogy-related video and DNA studies.

* Photographing Your Ancestor's Tombstone by Kathy Jones-Kristof on the Genealogy Help and Hints blog. Kathy has great advice for photographing tombstones, and lots more information about tombstones and cemeteries.

* Golden Rule of Genealogy by Shani-Faye on the Ancestrally Challenged blog. Shani-Faye tries to do the right thing by returning a family Bible to its owner and in the process finds out that she has had useful family information all along but didn't know it. A wonderful lesson!

* The Problem with Pauline - Part 7 by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. Sheri is almost done with her series about Pauline/.Helen - this post covers some of the land records and all of the sources for these posts to date. This is one of the most intriguing Case Studies I've ever seen - Sheri should write it up for a journal.

* Newspaper Indexes - California (Reference Shelf) by Jennifer on the Rainy Day Genealogy Readings blog. Jennifer provides an outstanding list of online indexes to genealogy-related items on California newspaper web sites.

* Interview with Forensic Genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick, PhD (Part 1) and Part 2 by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Blaine interviews Colleen about her work as a forensic genealogist, and she explains more about her involvement in a number of forensic/genetic research projects.

* One Year and 199 Posts Later by Terry Snyder on The Desktop Genealogist blog. Terry celebrates her first genea-blogiversary with lessons learned about blogging, genealogy and herself. It's a beautiful introspective post. Terry is probably the most prolific genea-blogger in the newspaper world right now, and I enjoy her work immensely.

* Road Trip Pt 4, Road Trip Pt 5 and Road Trip Pt 6 by Bill West on the West in New England blog. Bill finishes his road trip with three excellent stories, and some real good surprises at the end.

* I Met Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross at the FGS Conference, Linda's Friday at FGS, and It's Over, I'm Home. Now to start using techniques I've learned by Linda in Lancaster and loving it, on the From Axer to Ziegler blog. Linda goes to the FGS conference and blogs about it - excellent work with great pictures.

* Friday from the Collectors: The Best of by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. My favorite Maven provides a summary post for the 19 Friday from the Collectors contributors to date. All of those wonderful posts in one place!

* Just 15 minutes by Amy Crooks on the Untangled Family Roots blog. Amy ponders her good fortune of randomly pulling out a file folder. Lots of genealogy research, and more unanswered questions, occurred.

* Genealinspired by Janey Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet asked for inspirational stories from her readers and colleagues, and has two here that are wonderful. If you have one for Janet, please contact her!

Thank you to all genealogy bloggers for an interesting and informative week. Did you notice some new blogs on this list? I hope so!

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!

8 comments:

Sheri Fenley said...

I am extremely flattered and grateful for such high praise. I'll give it a go and send Pauline out. After all, all they can say is no!

Sheri Fenley

Janet Hovorka said...

I would love some more genealinspired stories. Thanks for spreading the word Randy. Do you have one?

TERRY SNYDER said...

Thanks Randy! I am always honored when I make the list.

Bill West said...

Randy,
Thanks for the kind words!

Bill

footnoteMaven said...

Randy:

Thank you for "a link and a nod."

I am always grateful that you enjoy Shades and Friday From The Collectors. It makes it all worthwhile.

fM

Kathryn Doyle said...

Hi Randy,

Thanks for including Mary's latest post in your list this week. I think we are all going to go into withdrawal when she gets home!

Shannon said...

Thanks for including me Randy!!

Linda in Lancaster said...

You honor me! Thank you for including my account of the FGS conference. My blog is the book I wanted to publish "someday!"