Sunday, July 19, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - July 12-18, 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:

* Blog Content Theft – How To Deal With Splogs by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. This is a real timely issue - Thomas has good ideas on how to deal with spam blogs that use your blog content.

* Tim's Report from Jamboree 2009 by Tim Cox on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Tim wrote from the exhibitor and Jamboree worker perspective and relates his experience at Jamboree. He shows off the iceberg chart again, too! I love that chart!

* A Report from Family History Kid’s Camp 2009 by Michael Melendez and Jean Hibben on the Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter blog. This is one of the events that set the 2009 SCGS Jamboree apart from other conferences. A tremendous effort made to ensure the future of genealogy.

* Researching, Blogging, Social Networking, and Finding Time by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog. This article really struck home with this Geneaholic - are there really only 24 hours in a day? Read the comments too!

* The Twig That Knocked Down A Brick Wall by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee tells an excellent research story that is a good lesson for all researchers.

* How Grandpa Zeke Collected a Bounty on Himself by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig sure has interesting ancestors and research problems! I didn't know about the Civil War Bounties for slave enlistments.

* My Genealogy Heartbreak by Jennifer Eklund on the Genealogy Wise blog. Jennifer tells a sad story about family pictures, and the lives of her grandfather and his family too.

* How Genealogists Use Social Networking by Gena Philibert Ortega on the WorldVitalRecords Blog. Gena asked geneabloggers the question, and uses four examples to describe how they use social networking.

* The music question I can't answer by Jean Wilcox Hibben on the Circlemending blog. Jean provides resources for historical American music.

* Why Cloud Computing Makes Sense for Genealogy by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter blog. This is an extensive description of Genealogy and Cloud computing, with lists of pros and cons. The commenters make good points too.

* Top Secret FamilySearch Project by The Ancestry Insider on The Ancestry Insider blog. This is a review of a recent Ron Tanner talk about Source Centric Open Edit features on the LDS new FamilySearch Family Tree. Maybe.

* To Group or Not To Group, That is the Question... by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia's question brought many excellent responses from bloggers who like the freedom of expression and lack of a formal organization, but still feel part of the group.

* Is A Lookup A Copyright Violation? by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. Another great question, and some interesting answers.

* The Carnival's In town - Finally! by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The theme for this Smile for the Camera carnival was "They Worked Hard for their Family." 31 writers contributed photos and descriptive material for this carnival.

* Five We Like: Another week of family history goodies by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry lists some things he likes from the genealogy world.

* Sheri Goes To Samford - Sophomore Year - The End by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. Sheri's humor is infectious, as is her zest for genealogy learning. She sure was busy at Samford!

* Carnival of Genealogy, 76th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. This 76th Carnival of Genealogy has 23 entries on the topic of "How I spent my summer vacations."

* Canadian Genealogy Carnival - 5th Edition Favourite Canadian Vacations by Kathryn Lake on the Looking4Ancestors blog. There were six entries in this monthly Carnival - read them!

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! I am currently reading posts from over 500 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

2 comments:

Greta Koehl said...

Thank you so much for the mention, Randy. I also found a couple of new blogs to follow from this list, so double thanks!

geneabloggers said...

Thanks for pointing out the GeneaBloggers articles!

Thomas MacEntee