Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Best of Genea-Musings for 2008

I have nominated the following posts as my "Best of Genea-Musings for 2008" based on my own subjective criteria. I tried to pick only two or at most four posts from each month so that it is a manageable list.

January 2008:

* Bridging the Internet vs. Traditional Genealogy Gap (commentary on different types of researchers)
* The Four-Mile House of Ranslow Smith (my best Christmas genealogy-related gift)
* Online Research Strategy for Russell Smith (a list of web sites to check)
* Articles on Information, Sources, Evidence and Proof (a compendium of online articles)

February 2008:

* A Valentine's Day Gift (all about me and Angel Linda)
* "Genealogy in the 'Information Age': History's New Frontier?" (commentary about Genealogy 2.0)
* Searching for Distant Living Cousins is Hard (you bet!)

March 2008

* Traffic for Genealogy Social Network Sites (traffic for the social networks)
* Free Genealogy Database Site Traffic (traffic for free sites)
* Commercial Genealogy Site traffic statistics (traffic for commercial sites)
* My top 3 "genealogical smart moves" (commentary on what I did smart)

April 2008:

* The Pace of Genealogy Research - Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3. (a short series contemplating personal and society research problems)
* Social Security Death Index data (useful information about pre-1962 SSDI entries)
* The Imminent Demise of Genea-Musings (note the date!)

May 2008:

* Dear Genea-Man: Am I descended from John Tyler? (a research survey posted in response to a Comment query)
* The Most Important Announcement from NGS (about the FHLC Catalog)
* Funny Place Names (any post with "Lake CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG" in it has to be included)
* The "Magic of Genealogy" Moment - a "Genea-gasm" (I coined a new word and provided examples)
* How did mom get so smart? (a tribute to my mother on Mother's Day)
* The genealogy pub experience (and you thought we were all sober all the time!)

June 2008:

* Taking Genealogy to the People (my experience going to a local social group to promote genealogy)
* The Words We Use (trying to quantify words from impossible to certainly)
* Is Genealogy Blogging Healthy? (doh! what do you think?)
* Jamboree Musings - Post 3 (there were 8 SCGS Jamboree posts all up, this is about the Genea-bloggers Summit)

July 2008:

* Indexing Periodicals, Manuscripts, Collections, etc. (commentary on one of the keys to finding elusive ancestors)
* More on Ancestry "Ownership" of User Databases (comments from Cath Madden Trindle's SCGS presentation, plus my own commentary - read Craig's comment too!)

August 2008:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Summary of Posts (a list of my 25 posts working with Family Tree Maker 2008)
* San Diego Slanguage (slang for San Diego visitors)

September 2008:

* I need advice - the best way to contact a living relative (and I got it!)
* Family Trees and Social Networks out the wazoo (?) (a list of what I want from a family tree and social network site)
* My mtDNA is in the K Haplogroup (My mitochondrial DNA was tested by GeneTree)
* Getting to Know Randy and Genea-Musings (an introduction and summary)

October 2008:

* Doing Genealogy Time (I tracked my genealogy related activities for a month)
* Using GeneTree as a Social Network (examples from GeneTree pedigree charts)
* Digging in the Putman Garden of Genealogy Mysteries (part of my genealogy research, and an excellent one-name study example)
* Is This My New Computer Genealogy Filing System? - Post 2 (a start on a new genealogy filing system for my digital files)

November 2008

* Wholly Genes/The Master Genealogist Conference and Cruise posts (my carnival of WG cruise posts)
* Learning from the Masters (my lessons learned from the WG cruise)
* I Knew How the Election would go - because... (how I knew long ago that Obama would win)
* Building a Genealogy and History Library (examples of online books)
* Why do I do genealogy? (another look at why I do this)

December 2008:

* Searching for Mary's Parents - Post 1 (another research post, following up from the one-on-one on the cruise; hmm, I need to do a Post 2 some time)
* The "Forrest Gump Principle of Genealogy Research" strikes again (ever had this happen to you?)
* How did I do on 2008 Genealogy Goals? (not well, I fear!)

OK, that's 44 of them - out of about 975 for the entire year). I can't parse them any further. Frankly, I don't remember writing some of them - I look at some of the posts on that list and think "hmmm, that was pretty good!"

The list didn't include some of the genealogy software and web site series I wrote - I recall doing GeneaNet, Family Historian 3.1, Geni, WebTree, GeneTree, in addition to the Family Tree Maker series. I know that I've forgotten some of the reviews I've done, and that I haven't really "finished" some of them with summaries and conclusions.

Which is your favorite post on that list (or in all of Genea-Musings for 2008)? And why?

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