Sunday, May 24, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - May 17-23, 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:

* Report from Raleigh by Dick Eastman on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. Dick's experiences at NGS in Raleigh were different from other reporters - read his take on it. There are also photos of the exhibit hall on a separate link.

* Spread the Word – Part 1: Blog Directories by Julie Cahill Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. Julie provides the "how-to" details of putting your genealogy blog into blog directories like MyBlogLog and Technorati.

* Carnival of Genealogy, 72nd Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. The topic for this carnival was "Honoring Mothers" and 19 submitters did that. The next Carnival of Genealogy topic is "The Good Earth," about your family ties to land. The hostess will be Apple on the Apple's Tree blog.

* From Whence I Came...John Albert Kijak by Lisa on the Two Sides of the Ocean blog. Lisa's biography of her mother's paternal grandfather is a wonderful read with all of the documents she's collected. What a good example of researching both sides of the ocean.

* NGS Reflections: Part I - Before the Conference Began , NGS Reflections: Part II - Wednesday and Thursday , and NGS Reflections: Part III - Friday and Saturday by Lori Thornton on the Smoky Mountain Family Historian blog. Lori was part of the NGS team that managed the conference in Raleigh - another perspective.

* DAR vs DNA by John D. Reid on the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog. John discusses an article that appeared in the DAR magazine with this subject. He asks why the DAR doesn't consider ALL evidence, which only seems right to me!

* Are You Attending The SoCal Jamboree? by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. If you are attending the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in late June in Burbank, please let Thomas know so he can plan ahead. This should be the biggest geneablogger meetup to date.

* GeneaWEB 2.0 – Leveraging Online Resources for Meaningful Genealogy Research Issue# 5 : Online Genealogy Communities and Forums by Kathleen Schaible on the Tracing Your Routes: Official Genealogy Blog of GenWed.com blog. Kathleen continues her series about online resources.

* Sleuthing for Treasures at the National Archives by Bonnie Lynn Cary on the GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com blog. Bonnie's article tells you everything you need to know about how to find information at the National Archives in Washington DC.

* What Is Growing In My Yard? Prologue, Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 and Part 7 by Terry Thornton on the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. Terry must have a green thumb because he sure has a lot of things growing in his yard. Check out the wildlife in the Prologue too! This city boy can't relate to this, of course, but it sure looks like a great place to visit.

* Genealogy News Corral May 18-22 by Diane Haddad on The Genealogy Insider blog. Diane summarizes the important genealogy events from last week.

* When A Wild Goose Chase Isn’t A Wild Goose Chase by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig's series about his Gines surname research continues with his work searching for information about Egan Gines, who is not his ancestor. There is a promise that it helps solve his problem, however! I can hardly wait.

* Weekend With Shades - Saturday - May 23: Raiders of the Lost Ar(chive) by Rebecca Fenning on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Rebecca's article reminds us that there are treasures hiding on shelves at many repositories. Go find them!

* Reviewing Archival Practices with Rebecca Fenning by Denise on The Family Curator blog. Denise reviews Rebecca's article and applies the problem to her own collection, and challenges us to think about our own mess, er, family archives.

* The Postman Sometimes Come Twice by Terry Snyder on the Desktop Genealogist Unplugged blog. Terry wrote to the USCIS last year and finally received an immigration file for her great-grandmother. She received eight pages this week - check out her treasure trove! There is hope for many researchers if they can obtain a file like this.

* Genealogical Typosquatting — Two Annoying Examples by Dean Richardson on the Genlighten Blog: Genealogy Documented blog. Dean's article explains why we sometimes click on something and don't get what we expect. Great post, Dean.

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.

2 comments:

Lori Thornton said...

Thanks, Randy, for the link. I was just a volunteer with North Carolina Genealogical Society (of which I'm a member) which was serving as local host. The ones who really did the work were members of the local arrangements committee led by Ann Hilke, and they deserve a huge round of applause for putting together one of the best conferences I've attended in awhile.

Terry Thornton said...

Randy thanks for including my yard posts in Best of the Genea-Blogs. I recommend you plant a Fish-bait tree too! LOL!

Terry Thornton
HILL COUNTRY OF MONROE COUNTY MISSISSIPPI