Sunday, December 7, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - November 30 - December 6, 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:

* Holiday Meme by TennLady on the GENERATIONAL blog. TennLady brings us this holiday meme which is making the rounds. No tag, just write!

* Unraveling a little mystery by Becky Wiseman on the kinexxions blog. Becky has a fascinating research problem identifying people in a photograph. She battles through many records and inconsistencies to reach a conclusion. I love posts like this!

* Why I look at every available source by Kathy Brady-Blake on Kathy's Genealogy Blog. Kathy blogged about her Bestick ancestral family in Ireland all week, and gives excellent advice in this post.

* Alien Registration Records USA by Lorine Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine provides information and links for these records made after 1917.

* 125 reasons you'll get sent to the lunatic asylum by Dave Tabler on the Appalachian History blog. Dave has this list - it's amazing that everybody wasn't in this asylum!

* No Passport. No Reservations. by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee has some great ideas for taking virtual vacations and involving children in family history. Check this out.

* Carnival of Genealogy, 61st Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. The topic for this edition is Traditions, and 30 bloggers participated. The topic for the next edition is Three Wishes - tell Genea-Santa the gifts you desire from your ancestors.

* Library Rules c1910 by Debra Osborne Spindle on the All My Ancestors blog. Deb found a fascinating list of rules from 1910.

* Newspapers: Important Resources for Your Research by Carolyn L. Barkley on the GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com blog. This article concentrates on current genealogy columns in newspapers, which I haven't really explored (except for Terry Snyder's Desktop Genealogist column, of course!).

* Genealogy Round Up and Genealogy Round Up by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak on the RootsTelevision: Megan's Roots World blog. There are two separate posts as Megan catches up with the news (I completely understand that...).

* Yoo-hoo! Are You In There, Daniel? by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Graveyard Rabbit blog. Sheri wonders if her 3rd-great-grandfather is buried beneath his stone, why the stone doesn't have a death date, and other important matters.

* Who's Blogging Where Update by Chris Dunham on The Genealogue blog. Chris has created a map showing where all of the genea-bloggers reside in the world. Impressive. Is this a prelude to genea-voodoo?

* Death Certificate Challenge - John W. Davis by Apple on the Apple's Tree blog. Apple describes her research challenge, and the research performed to solve it. Did I say that I love posts like this?

* African-American Sites to Break Brick Walls by Tina Sansone on the Gtownma's Genealogy blog. Tina has great advice for African-American researchers about names, records and stories.

* December 6 - The Graveyard Rabbit by Terry Thornton on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Terry's monthly "Weekend with Shades" column concerns selection of burial sites. If you only read one of these posts today, read this one!

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!

5 comments:

Tex said...

Woot! My blogging life is complete. Thanks for the inclusion in this week's "Top Ten."

Did you win your battle with Ancestry's MyCanvas? I feel your pain. Maybe next Christmas.

Susan K said...

hey there. silly eentsy request time that's a combination of asking you to do a little more work while simultaneously acknowledging what a useful tradition this is -- how about tagging this (and, oof, sorry) all previous BestoftheGeneaBlogs posts with their own, unique tag, say, BotGenBlogs -- so that, with one click, a person can view ALL Best of the GeneaBlogs ALL at one time.

(suggestion offered w/ full humility and knowledge that much work has been done on a project already, and whyohwhy is it that response to such things is only a request to do more work, geez, how many times have I been on the receiving end of such a request, I tellya. taxes and dealer prep extra. Offer may not be valid in all areas. Ask your doctor. I am aware of all internet traditions.)

Jasia said...

Thanks for mentioning the COG Randy!

Terry Thornton said...

Thank you Randy for recommending your readers take a look at my Graveyard Rabbit column at SHADES.

I am planning a followup article --- I am going to be measured for a coffin!

It is always an honor to be selected for Randy's BOTG-B. Thanks!

Terry

Sheri Fenley said...

Thank you Santa-genie for mentioning my blog. You thought I was having a problem with the grave issue. I am simply beside myself trying to figure out where the name "Derondo" came from!