Sunday, March 8, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - March 1-7, 2009

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:

* Graveyard Rabbits Carnival - March 2009 by Julie Cahill Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There are 23 posts by 22 Graveyard Rabbits on the topic of Exceptional Finds. This is the first edition of this carnival.

* Thank You by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The Shades blog is one year old, and is one of the finest examples of an online genealogy e-zine there is. Congratulations to footnoteMaven for her fine collection of authors and articles.

* Two Wrongs Never Made One Right by JoLyn on the Uphill Both Ways blog. JoLyn tells a wonderful story about her grandparents reaching out to German prisoners after World War II. Check out JoLyn's About page for a terrific tribute to her elders and siblings and all of their family history efforts.

* St. George Expo Report Report by the Ancestry Insider on The Ancestry Insider blog. Here is a summary of the A.I.'s activities in St. George last weekend. And a picture of the top of his head...the most we've seen of his face since, well, January.

* Report from the St. George Family History Conference by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet's report on the St. George conference is from the vendor perspective. Janet always seems to have fun at conferences, and I'm glad the business part of it was good for them too.

* Ancestors on Facebook? by Donna Pointkouski on the What's Past Is Prologue blog. What a great idea! Donna put an interesting wonderment into practice - see conversations with her great-grandparents on Facebook. Be sure to click on the picture and magnify it. I wish I had a scorecard to know the players.

* A Light That Still Shines! by Msteri River on the Heritage Happens... blog. Msteri pens an interesting treatise about the history of lights, and describes visiting the world's longest burning light bulb. With pictures.

* America at last: Ilona's arrival at Ellis Island, 1909 by Lisa on the 100 Years in America blog. Lisa tells the story of her great-grandmother's entry into America at Ellis Island, on the 100th anniversary of that important event in her family's history. Absolutely beautiful work!

* 67th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Nobody's Fool by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas hosted the latest Carnival of Genealogy which had the topic of "Nobody's Fool." There are 12 entries in this carnival. The topic for the next COG will be "A Tribute to Women," with a deadline of 15 March.

* ThinkGenealogy Innovator Award #3 by Mark Tucker on the ThinkGenealogy blog. Mark awards Footnote.com the ThinkGenealogy Innovator Award for their transformational innovation of user annotations on document images. It's well deserved. This should be the model for all database companies that offer document images.

* The Census Birth Date Calculator by Sean Sexton on the Sean on Family History blog. Sean has created a calculator to determine birth date ranges from census records. Check it out!

* 10 Things I really like about genealogy by Elizabeth Powell Crowe on the Crowe's Nest by Elizabeth Powell Crowe blog. Libbi's list includes names, dead people, living people, and herself. I like her list.

* Finally Get Organized - March 2009 Checklist by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog. Ol' Myrt is laid up a bit and has been blogging up a storm this week. Here is her third organization list for researchers to use wisely.

* The Dirty Thirties: No Easy Street, Part II by Chery Kinnick on the Nordic Blue blog. Chery continues her story about her grandparents lives in the Depression 1930's. Another wonderful family history story.

* Who Do You Think You Are? Conference 2009: Building Bridges by Emily Aulicino on the DNA-GeneAlem's Genetic Genealogy blog. Emily attended the WDYTYA? Live! conference in London and writes about her experiences there. Looks like she had fun and worked hard.

* Memories of St. George 2009 by Kathryn Lake Hogan on the LOOKING4ANCESTORS blog. Kathryn describes her time at the Family History Expo last weekend. Sounds like she, and her husband, had a great time.

* Historical Societies and Online Groups by Amy Crooks on the Untangled Family Roots blog. Amy is working in four online volunteer groups to bring interesting and useful information to the genealogy world. Nice work!

* Organizing as you Research by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena has useful ideas about ways to get organized and stay organized as we pursue our research.

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 - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me!

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

5 comments:

footnoteMaven said...

GeneaHugs and Kisses to you for the Shades Shout-Out and the very kind words.

I couldn't do it without my friends and you have been such a supporter from the very beginning.

Thank you!

-fM

Anonymous said...

I am so honored to be included in your list! Isn't blogging a great way to do family history?!

Thanks so much for your kind words and your support!

JoLyn from Uphill Both Ways

my Heritage Happens said...

What utter surprise to see my article making the "Best of the Genea-Blogs" list! Wow! I am so very surprised and honored! I thank you for the priviledge to be on your list! I am stunned. :-)

I think you have such a great theme here, and I follow it weekly. I am just not sure how you can keep up with ALL of the blogs!

Thank you again Randy!

Anonymous said...

Randy,

Thanks for the mention! I thought about the "scorecard" afterwards...maybe I'll go back and edit the photo. You're right, it would have made it funnier to others. ;-)

Donna

Janet Hovorka said...

Thanks again Randy. I so appreciate your encouragement. Looking forward to SCGS and seeing you at the conference again.