Sunday, August 2, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 26 July - 1 August 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:

* Oscar Wilde, Sonny Bono and the Naked Orphans Redux by Craig Manson in his Appealing Subjects column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog-ezine. Craig writes about photograph copyright issues in this appealing post.

* Crossing My I's and Dotting My T's by Leah on The Internet Genealogist blog. Leah discusses handwriting here -her own, and that of her ancestors, and others too. I really identified with this post! My handwriting is atrocious now.

* Gravestone Rubbings by Midge Frazel on the Granite in My Blood blog. Midge discusses rubbings, and mentions that they are illegal in Massachusetts. I'm glad I haven't been tempted while there!

* Using the Wikipedia map tricks for genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James tells us about a neat trick to find the geographical coordinates of a place using Wikipedia. Superb!

* Do I need a Terms of Service agreement on my blog? by Thomas MacEntee on The Geneabloggers blog. Thomas describes blog content protections for genealogy bloggers. Wise words here.

* 25 Great Ideas for Genealogy Society Blogs by Amy Coffin on the We Tree blog. Amy has suggests that genealogy societies create blogs to reach the widest audience possible, and has content suggestions too. Excellent!

* Where Have I Been? by Renee Zamora on Renee's Genealogy Blog. I hate it when a blog goes dormant for awhile, but I love it when the blogger tells us all about their great trip. Renee had a wonderful trip for research and family - the pictures are great! I'm glad she's back among the blogging!

* Setting Your Ancestor in History by Lorine Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine has great advice about how to find out about events that you ancestors may have experienced.

* Five We Like: Another week of family history goodies by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry's weekly list of favorites has some interesting links - check out the beginning genealogy video.

* Sometimes "Crazy" Works by Caroline M. Pointer on the Family Stories blog. Caroline tracked down an elusive Mary in the US Census using logic and savvy.

* It's 2014! Do You Know Where Your Data Is? by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. Dick's magnus opus (maybe his longest post ever?) discusses genealogy software, online family tree databases, data transfer and preservation. Read the comments too.

* The State of Genealogy Software Today by Louis Kessler on Louis Kessler's Behold Blog. Louis reviews today's crop of genealogy database software as it applies to data transfers and preservation.

* We Both Screamed For Ice Cream by Lisa Burks on the Adventures in Grave Hunting by Lisa Burks. Lisa haunts Los Angeles area cemeteries looking for celebrity graves. This post is typical - great pictures and a good story.

* Graveyard Rabbits Carnival – August 2009 by Julie Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 19 submissions for this Carnival - the topic was "Favorite cemetery-related photo."

* No Fish Tale -- How a Lady Learned to Cast a Line and Landed Quite a Catch by Denise Levenick in her Miss Penelope Dreadful column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog-ezine. Penny Dreadful tells a fascinating story of looking for love in a pretty good place way back when. Enjoy!

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.

1 comment:

Midge Frazel said...

How does Randy read 500 blog posts? I don't know how many I read but it can't be nearly that many. Now, it really is an honor to be chosen as a "Best of" with odds being that great.

Thank you!

Midge