Sunday, December 14, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - December 7-13, 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:

* 10 Simple Steps to Start Writing Your Genealogy Memoirs Today by Coralie Johnson on Ben Sayer's MacGenealogist.com blog. Coralie is a published author, and has excellent ideas for writing family history stories and books.

* Definitions, Explanations and Clarifications of Sociological and Anthropological Terms by Carolyn Earle Billingsley on the Life in Possum Hollow blog. Carolyn links to an excellent paper about these terms - read all about sodality, exogamy and many more terms.

* What is Truth? by John Newmark on the Transylvanian Dutch blog. John has some interesting examples of sorting out truth from family fiction - three fascinating stories about names and dates.

* Tuesday's Tip: City Directories by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: Stories About My Ancestors blog. Miriam has written a comprehensive summary of what city directories care, why use them, and where to find them. Excellent work!

* First Parish Cemetery of York, Maine by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog. Ol' Myrt spotlights Tom Feeney's email about the efforts to write online biographies about every person buried in this cemetery. This is a tremendous undertaking, and could be a worthwhile project for genealogy societies.

* The Heirs of Emily Bair by Becky Wiseman on the kinexxions blog. Becky tries to figure out who all of the people are in a guardianship court record and why their father had to be named their guardian. It's an interesting case and Becky finds more questions to answer.

* Compiled Military Service Records by the author of The Ancestry Insider blog. The Insider continues with his series of posts about visiting NARA and NARA records. He discusses the records, their organization, finding aids and sources of information.

* Canadian Genealogy Carnival - 2nd Edition by Kathryn Lake Hogan on the LOOKING4ANCESTORS blog. Kathryn spotlights eight genea-bloggers that contributed posts about their most famous Canadian ancestor.

* Genetic Genealogy Links for December 12, 2008 by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Blaine provides a great summary of DNA Testing specials, Genetic Genealogy Research Articles and Genetic Genealogy in the News.

* Bringing Family History Through the Back Door by Bob Kramp on the Life's Journey blog. Bob has some great ideas for involving children and young adults in genealogy and family history research, and tells some good research stories too.

* Edit is a Four Letter Word by Emily Aulicino on the Writing Your Memories blog. Emily has wise advice for writers about taking the time to EDIT - Educate, Draft, Incorporate and Take Time - my/your deathless prose.

* Survey of Washington Chapel Cemetery by Terry Snyder on The Great Black Swamp Graveyard Rabbit blog. Check out Terry's terrific slide show presentation with photos of stones in this cemetery.

* A Note From Beyond the Grave by Kathryn M. Doyle on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Kathryn hears a genea-gasm (well, a shriek of delight, anyway) in the library, and tells us about a wonderful, but not fortuitous, find hiding in a musty book donated 75 years ago (and probably not opened since).

* The thrill of the hunt, the fun of the search by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on the MyHeritage Genealogy Blog. Schelly's article describes what many of us feel about genealogy and family history research, and she has many words of wisdom for new researchers. For me, this is the Best Of the Best Of for the week.

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!

Have you noticed that I created a blog category for all of the Best of the Genea-Blog posts in the Labels below this post? Click on it if you've missed earlier editions of BOTG-B.

4 comments:

Ben Sayer said...

Thank you for the recognition Randy! I'll be sure to point it out to Coralie.

----Ben

TERRY SNYDER said...

Thanks for the pat on the back for my graveyard slide show. It was an interesting (if not entirely successful) project.

PS I'm loving your current profile photo. It makes me smile each time I visit your site. :-)

SCHELLY TALALAY DARDASHTI said...

Hi, Randy,

Thank you for your recognition of the MyHeritage Genealogy Blog.

Best wishes
Schelly

DearMYRTLE said...

Randy, how WONDERFUL that you picked up on Tom Feeney's First Parish Cemetery of York, Maine project. This is the sort of preservation effort all genealogists are just praying will happen in the remote areas where our ancestors once lived. -- Thank-you, also, for all that YOU do to promote sound family history research.