Saturday, October 24, 2009

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Most Unique Ancestral Name

Hey, genealogy fans - it's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

In honor of Surname Saturday (the new, official genealogy blogging prompt for Saturdays), let's consider this, assuming you accept the challenge to play along (is it Mission Impossible?):

1) What is the most unique, strangest or funniest combination of given name and last name in your ancestry? Not in your database - in your ancestry.

2) Tell us about this person in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

3) Okay, if you don't have a really good one - how about a sibling of your direct ancestors?

Here's mine:

I actually had a hard time choosing one person, because it seems like almost all of my colonial ancestors had good, common, English sounding names. Some of the German names are a bit interesting, so I chose:

Johann Balthazar Pickel (1687-1765). He was christened on 2 September 1687 in Bad Durkheim, Pfalz Bayern, Germany, as the son of Hans Balthazar Bickel and his wife Anna Eva; the sponsors names are unreadable in the record. He died on 5 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Johann Balthazar Pickel and Anna Gertrude Reiterin were married on 16 August 1718 in the Lutheran Church on Staten Island, New York, by Rev. Rosscher, recorded by Rev. Justus Falckner. Anna Gertrude Reiterin was born in 1694 in Germany, and died on 4 December 1761 in Oldwick, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Early services of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hunterdon County, New Jersey were held in the home of Baltus Pickel. He built at his own expense the Racheway Church (located today at Potterstown) in 1729 and the Leslysland Church about 1735. In 1749, when the Zion Lutheran Church was built at Oldwick, Baltes Pickel contributed money to its constructiion. In his will of 1765 he bequeathed the Zion church 1000 pounds.

Genealogy friends used to tease me by saying "you know, if your ancestor Henry Pickel had married Elizabeth Dill, then she would have been Elizabeth (Dill) Pickel." Now that would have been funny!

Surname Saturday - SEAVER

It's Surname Saturday time - a new blogging prompt theme that many geneabloggers will pursue each week.

I have plenty of surnames! Hundreds, in fact!

For this first post, I'm going to choose SEAVER, my patrilineal line. Based on my research, and that of many others, Robert Seaver (1608-1683) was the first of the name to go to New England. He arrived on the good ship Mary and John in March 1634 in Boston, settled quickly in Roxbury in Massachusetts Bay Colony, married Elizabeth Ballard and had many children. Who had many more children, and now I have over 8,000 Seaver surnamed folks in my genealogy database.

There are some genealogy reports on the New England Seaver lines on my web page at http://www.genealogy.com/users/s/e/a/Randy-Seaver/, including:

* Biography of Robert Seaver (1608-1683)

* Descendants of Shubael Seaver

* Descendants of Caleb Seaver

* Descendants of Joshua Seaver

* Descendants of Nathaniel Seaver

* Other New England Seaver Families

These genealogy reports are all in PDF format, and can be searched for names and places. These reports are four years old now, and need to be updated, but I have added very little to the database over the past four years.

My own Seaver line from Robert and Elizabeth (Ballard) Seaver is:

1. Robert Seaver (1608 England -1683 Roxbury MA) married 1634 Elizabeth Ballard (????-1657 Roxbury MA)

2. Shubael Seaver (1640 Roxbury MA -1730 Roxbury MA) married 1668 Hannah Wilson (1647 Roxbury MA - 1722 Roxbury MA).

3. Joseph Seaver (1672 Roxbury MA - 1754 Framingham MA) married 1701 Mary Read (1679 Sudbury MA - ????)

4. Robert Seaver (1702 Sudbury MA - 1752 Westminster MA) married 1726 Eunice Rayment (1707 Marblehead MA - 1772 Sudbury MA?)

5. Norman Seaver (1734 Framingham MA - 1787 Westminster MA) married 1755 Sarah Read (1736 Sudbury MA - 1809 Westminster MA)

6. Benjamin Seaver (1757 Sudbury MA - 1816 Westminster MA) married 1783 Martha Whitney (1764 Westminster MA - 1832 Westminster MA)

7. Benjamin Seaver (1791 Westminster MA - 1825 Westminster MA) married 1817 Abigail Gates (1797 Gardner MA - 1867 Westminster MA)

8. Isaac Seaver (1823 Westminster MA - 1901 Leominster MA) married 1851 Lucretia Townsend Smith (1828 Medfield MA - 1884 Leominster MA).

9. Frank Walton Seaver (1852 Medfield MA - 1922 Leominster MA) married 1874 Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857 Northborough MA) - 1920 Leominster MA)

10. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876 Leominster MA - 1942 Andover MA) married 1900 Alma Bessie Richmond (1882 Killingly CT - 1962 Leominster MA)

11. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911 Fitchburg MA - 1983 San Diego CA) married 1942 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919 San Diego CA - 2002 San Diego CA).

12. Randall Jeffrey Seaver - moi! the Genea-Muser, Geneaholic, and South San Diego County Graveyard Rabbit.

As you can see, these families moved westward about 30 miles over three centuries, and then my father drove across the country in three days in Decewmber 1940!

If anyone is descended from any of these persons, please contact me at rjseaver(at)cox.net and let's compare notes on the families involved. If anyone has a connection to the Seaver families listed in my genealogy reports, please contact me. I would appreciate additions and corrections to my database, and can probably add some generations to your Seaver line.

Robert Seaver (1608-1683) was not the only Seaver (or Sever, Siever, Syver, Sevier, etc.) surnamed person that immigrated to North America. There are quite a few other family lines unconnected to the Robert Seaver line in the genealogy records and family trees. My own research has not included all of these other lines, but I do have resources for some of them.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Follow Friday - "Genealogy's Star"

Two new Daily Blogging Prompts were announced yesterday by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog in the post The Importance of Daily Blogging Themes.

The new prompts are:

* Follow Friday -- this theme has been suggested by Earline Bradt of Ancestral Notes and it is a take off on the popular #FollowFriday meme on Twitter. The concept: recommend another blogger, a specific blog post or a genealogy resource to the genealogy community. If you've found something or someone helpful, post about it/them and tell others why they should be followed.

* Surname Saturday - this too started out as a Twitter meme as a way to get surname out so others on Twitter could see them. For this new blogging theme, the concept is: Post about one or more of your surnames - talk about the origins, talk about their geographic locations, etc. Anything that would help you bring more attention to the surname, especially if you have hit a brick wall or need assistance with research.

Both daily prompts are worthwhile for our geneablogging community. The Follow Friday prompt provides encouragement and accolades to worthy blogs and posts. The Surname Saturday prompt helps bloggers get their work online so that others might be able to help them.

Thomas will have Follow Friday and Surname Saturday summaries each week on the Geneabloggers blog. For example, the Follow Friday October 23, 2009 post will include all blog posts that have "Follow Friday" in the post titles.

For my first Follow Friday post, let me point you at James Tanner's Genealogy's Star blog. This blog has become a must-read for me every day. I appreciate and respect James's unique stature and experience as an attorney, as an LDS FHC volunteer, and as a genealogy researcher.

Here are links to the last five posts (as of tonight) on Genealogy's Star:

* New FamilySearch roll-out -- nearing the end
* Parade of States --- online digital genealogy resources -- Washington
* Genealogical software connections to New FamilySearch
* Problems With Updates to Record Search
* Genealogical proof or merely evidence?

I recommend that you add Genealogy's Star to your genea-blog reading list if you haven't done so already.

Free Genealogy Webinars

Webinars (WEB semINARS) are online seminars, usually in the form of a PowerPoint presentation where you can hear the presenter’s voice and see the charts. Some of the most recent webinars (these are FREE) include:

* "Getting the Most Out of Footnote" at http://blog.footnote.com/the-worlds-first-footnote-webinar/.

* New England Historic Genealogical Society has quite a few online seminars at http://www.newenglandancestors.org/events/online_seminars.asp

* Ancestry.com has many webinars listed at http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Webinars.aspx including:

*** Best Strategies for Searching Ancestry.com
*** Getting Started on Ancestry.com
*** Family Tree Maker 2010 New Features Demo
*** Genealogy in Gotham: New York City Research
*** Ancestry World Archives Project: New Features Demo
*** Introducing Ancestry.com ExpertConnect
*** European Research: Tips and Tools for Success
*** Genetic Genealogy Made Easy

Thursday, October 22, 2009

New or Updated Online Databases - September/October

Some of the new and updated databases from some of the subscription web sites are listed below from early September and early October:

1) New or Updated Databases at www.NewEnglandAncestors.org ($$)

* The Connecticut Nutmegger, Volumes 37-41
* The American Genealogist, Volumes 29-33
* ACGS Index of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials
* Massachusetts Vital Records: Marriages 1913
* The Virginia Genealogist, Volumes 6-10

2) New or Updated Databases at www.Footnote.com ($$)

* Holocaust Collection, including
** Concentration camp registers and documents from Dachau, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, and Flossenburg.
** The "Ardelia Hall Collection" of records relating to the Nazi looting of Jewish possessions, including looted art.
** Captured German records including deportation and death lists from concentration camps.
** Nuremberg War Crimes Trial proceedings.

* Baltimore City Directories, 1863-1923
* Boston City Directories, 1786-1926
* Brooklyn City Directories, 1862-1900, 1902-1912
* Buffalo City Directories, 1861-1923
* Chicago City Directories, 1843-1916, 1923
* Dallas City Directories, 1878-1923
* Detroit City Directories, 1861-1923
* Fort Wayne City Directories, 1861-1923
* Los Angeles City Directories, 1873-1924
* Louisville City Directories, 1861-1923
* New Orleans City Directories, 1861-1923
* New York City Directories, 1786-1922
* Newark City Directories, 1861-1923
* St. Louis City Directories, 1863-1923
* San Francisco City Directories, 1861-1923

3) New or Updated Databases at www.WorldVitalRecords.com ($$)

* 1860 Census Index (view images on Footnote.com)
* 1930 Census Index (view images on Footnote.com)
* Australia and New Zealand records
* Selected Mexico Newspapers
* Selected Canadian Newspapers

4) New or Updated Databases at www.Ancestry.com ($$)

* Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1963-1974
* Honolulu, Hawaii Passenger Lists, 1900-1953
* Atlanta GA Federal Penitentiary Index, 1880-1922
* US Patent and Trademark Office Patents, 1790-1909
* US Special Census on Deaf Family Marriages and Hearing Relatives, 1888-1895
* London, England Marriage Banns, 1754-1921
* London England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1637-1812
* Many Italian and German Books

5) New/Updated LDS www.FamilySearch.org Indexing Projects (Free) -- These databases are available for FREE at http://pilot.familysearch.org/ - the LDS site for volunteer-indexed and browsable databases -- recently added or completed projects:

* Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915
* United States Census, 1920 (51% complete) (no images)
* Wisconsin State Census, 1855
* Mexico Census, 1930 (17 states) (29% complete)
* Mexico, Coahuila, Catholic Church Records, 1627-1978 (browse images only)
* Mexico, Tlaxcala, Civil Registration, 1867-1937 (browse images only)
* England, Cheshire School Records, 1796-1950
* France, Protestant church records, 1612-1906
* Italy, Palermo Province, Monreale diocese, Catholic Church Records, 1530-1919 (browse images only)
* Slovakia, Presov Record Books (Hungarian and Slovakian Place Names), 1592-1952 (browse images)
* Argentina National Census, 1869
* Argentina National Census, 1875
* Argentina, Tucuman, San Miguel de Tucuman, Catholic Church Records, 1727-1949 (browse images only)

CVGS Fall Seminar on Saturday, 24 October

The CVGS Fall Seminar will be Saturday, 24 October, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Fredericka Manor (183 Third Avenue, Chula Vista). The program will feature Every Life Is a Story by Susan Walter.

Reservations are required by 10/22 – Contact Betsy Keller at (619) 205-4116.

The morning will begin with introductions and door prizes in the Auditorium, followed by Susan Walter’s presentation. After Susan’s talk, we will adjourn to the Dining Room for a sumptuous lunch. CVGS members are encouraged to talk about their own memories and to encourage Fredericka residents to share their memories.

There will be a registration list for CVGS members, guests and Fredericka residents to sign up to record their memories and family stories in coming weeks using state-of-the-art digital voice recording equipment.

Susan Walter will present the idea of writing or recording memoirs and family stories for future generations. Because the idea of "writing an autobiography" can be so daunting, the more simplified collection of brief memoirs will be explained in the hopes that it may help to get those with stories to tell to actually tell them. Susan will share some examples of memoirs from her own life, and her very treasured tape recording, featuring the voice of her grandmother, will be heard.

Susan Walter is a historical archaeologist. She and her husband, Stephen Van Wormer, also a historian and archaeologist, have lived in Chula Vista for about 15 years. They live in the 115 year old orchard home of John M. Davidson, who was one of Chula Vista's founders. Stephen was raised in National City; Susan was born in Texas, raised in the San Fernando Valley, and moved to the San Diego area about 30 years ago. They have 2 adult children. Susan and Stephen have cooperated on hundreds of projects throughout the county, as well as working separately. One of Susan's specialties is conducting oral interviews and the collection of local history stories. She loves it when those stories are preserved for future generations. She knows each of you have fascinating tales to tell, because "Every Life Is a Story."

We hope to see you all there!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

New "Living Tree" on FamilyLink

Reading my Twitter feeds this morning, I saw this tweet from FamilyLink.com:



I thought to myself: "Finally, a new family tree program from FamilyLink.com." F
FamilyLink.com has had several cracks at putting family trees on the Internet - first with (what is now) http://www.familyhistorylink.com/ and http://www.webtree.com/, and with the We're Related application on Facebook (which I've complained about many times....).

I clicked on the link in the tweet with anticipation, and saw the http://www.familylink.com/ home page:




Uh oh, lookie there, in the right hand text it says "We'll port over your relatives from the We're Related app on Facebook." On the page above is a link to "Connect with Facebook."

Trying to be fair and balanced, I said to my self "OK, let's see what this looks like." I clicked on "Connect with Facebook" and saw a popup window to login:



I entered my Facebook login information and my http://www.familylink.com/ Home page appeared:


This is the "Stream" page which lists recent Facebook status updates from the relatives that I've included in my We're Related application on Facebook. There was the opportunity to add an update to the Stream and I took it - you can see it above - it said:

"Will the new FamilyLink tree application work better than We're Related did? I sure hope so."

With eager anticipation boiling over now, I clicked on the "Tree" link and saw:



Hmm. Only me? Where's my tree from We're Related? It wasn't much, but it had my parents, grandparents, and my children. I had painstakingly entered the information by hand, one person at a time using the very clunky We're Related interface.

Maybe my data in the We're Related application will get transferred over in the next day or two. I hope so.

Of course, if any "real family historian" is going to use any online family tree application to the fullest, they will want to upload their GEDCOM file filled with all of the names, dates, places, facts, notes, stories, and sources that they have accumulated over the years. Their hope is that distant cousins (those second, third, fourth and earlier cousins) will find the information and make a connection and share their information with them.

I'm going to wait awhile to pass judgment on the "new" FamilyLink tree. I do wonder why they would announce this release and not have the application ready to transfer the information from the We're Related application right into the new "Living Tree" (is that the right name?) application?

Not So Wordless Wednesday - Family Photographs:: Post 76: Something Different

I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

This post card is from the Lyle Carringer photo album handed down to me from my mother in 1988:



No, they are not my ancestors!!! Hmmm, maybe very distant cousins (the back hair kind of gives it away). And they are real gorillas, not my grandparents or someone else dressed up as gorillas.

Here is the back of the post card:

Ah, a name, date and place! My great-grandmother, Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944) went to the San Diego Zoo for her 75th birthday on 11 April 1937 and saw these gorillas dancing (or whatever) and someone snapped the picture. Or did she buy the postcard?

San Diego's Pioneer Park - not what it seems

“ 'There was supposedly a woman (ghost) who would rise up and walk around there,' Valerie Goodpaster told a group of Grant Elementary school kids who did an impressive research project on Pioneer Park in 2005 ..."

An article about Pioneer Park by Priscilla Lister appeared recently in the San Diego Uptown News and was put online on the San Diego News Room website on 20 October. It recounts the history of Calvary Cemetery in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego city. The tombstones in the cemetery were collected and put in a ravine at Mount Hope Cemetery some miles away, while the graves were undisturbed but covered over in 1970 and the place turned into Pioneer Park. Some of the tombstones were recovered and erected in a corner of the park many years later, but the tombstones were not placed over the appropriate graves.

I didn't know that my friend, Marna Clemons, current President of the San Diego Genealogical Society, had studied the history and residents of Calvary Cemetery. The article says:

"Marna Clemons, a professional genealogist and president of the San Diego Genealogy Society, spent more than two years full-time researching Calvary Cemetery.


"She was doing some research for her sister-in-law when she came upon a Bible on eBay that belonged to the John Stewart/Rosa Machado family — whose 1830s adobe home is today part of Old Town State Historic Park. While it wasn’t related to the research she was doing for her sister-in-law, she thought it held a lot of San Diego history, so she put together family information to give to the San Diego Historical Society.

“One thing led to another, which led me to learn about the history of Calvary Cemetery,” said Clemons. “There was no complete record of who was buried there. I had the time, I started researching, and it led to a Web site.” Her Web site, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clement/Calvary/home.htm , is an invaluable resource for information on the historic cemetery."

Read the entire article - it is a decent summary of what happened to Calvary Cemetery. Just in time for Hallowe'en!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Genealogy and Family Tree Patents

Who invented the "family tree," the "pedigree chart," or the "family group sheet?" How did these familiar and very useful charts that we have all used throughout our genealogy careers come about?

The short answer is that someone had a bright idea, created charts for researchers to fill out on paper, sold the charts to researchers and publishers, etc. The creators probably received no profit from their invention and are virtually unknown to current researchers.

Here are some interesting patents found in Google Patent Search (with links to the US Patent and Trademark Office):

* 0,324,535 "Game Apparatus" by Samuel L. Clemens, issued 1885

* 0,432,148 "Genealogical Chart" by Oscar W. Rogers, issued July 1890.

* 0,458,358 "Chronological Chart" by John A. Cole, issued August 1891.

* 0,527,261 "Ancestral Record Book" by Frederic J. Bailey, issued October 1894

* 0,627,718 "Genealogical Chart" by Robert H. Chapman, issued June 1899.

* 0,699,799 "Chart for Recording Ancestry" by Georgiana Guild, issued May 1902.

* 0,705,833 "Genealogical Chain Record" by Pattie Williams Gee, issued July 1902.

* 1,058,859 "Chart" by Norman C. Gray, issued April 1913

* 1,098,833 "Genealogical Record" by J. B. Olinger, issued June 1914.

* 1,297,663 "Genealogical Chart" by Herman S. Davis, issued March 1919

* 1,447,279 "Means Employed in the Art of Keeping Family Records" by William W. Carson, issued March 1923.

There are quite a few more - and later in the 20th century people started inventing genealogical games!

Sharing Ancestry.com images on Facebook, Twitter and Email

Ancestry.com announced last week that a user can now "Share" document images found in the Ancestry.com databases on Facebook, Twitter and in email. I finally got around to exploring this opportunity.

I chose my second great-grandfather Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) to test this out - he is in the 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900 US Census records. On the Ancestry.com database record page shown below, there is a "Share this record" link in the "Page Tools" box on the left hand side of the page:



When you mouse over the link, you see the opportunity to share the record on Facebook, Twitter, or Email to a friend. I chose to share this image on Facebook, and when I clicked that link I got a popup window and the opportunity to write a note for Facebook:




I clicked "Share" and closed the window.

Rather than send the same image to the other sites, I went back and found the 1860 census record for Isaac Seaver, and did the same thing, but clicked on Twitter. A new window popped up and the pre-written message (which I edited a bit) appeared in my Twitter account:



I clicked the "Update" button and the note posted on Twitter. It even used a TinyURL! Since I also have my Twitter posts put onto Facebook, the message should appear there also.

I went back and found the 1870 US Census record for Isaac Seaver, and decided to send that image to a friend via email. When I clicked on the "Send email to a friend" link a popup window opened:



I put the email address for my friend (not an Ancestry.com member) and clicked on the "Send" button.

So what does this look like on Facebook? Here is my "Home" page on Facebook.com:



The top note is the one I sent to Twitter, and the third one down is the one I posted to Facebook. The latter has a thumbnail image of the census page, and a "View this record on Ancestry.com" link. When I click that link, the Ancestry.com page opens as shown below:


A Facebook reader needs to click on the "View this record on Ancestry.com" link in order to see the image online.

After logging off of http://www.ancestry.com/, I went back and clicked on the link in the Twitter message on both Twitter and Facebook. The Ancestry.com image was visible. However, you may have to deal with the Ancestry viewer and you get some notes about accepting the Ancestry Terms and Conditions. The image took awhile longer to load (the download status bar) when I was logged out of my Ancestry.com account.

All of this works very quickly and efficiently, and can be a way to get family members, especially those on Facebook, to get interested in genealogy research. IMHO, the big deal here is that family members who read this may decide to contact the person that posted the link and offer to share family stories, photos and data on a Ancestry Member Tree.

Monday, October 19, 2009

World Genealogy Web Sites

In my senior adult education class today, two of the students asked about research in Russia, Turkey, the island of Rhodes and the former Belgian Congo. I had several suggestions for them:

* The http://www.worldgenweb.org/ site
* Message boards on Rootsweb and Genforum for the specific countries
* Mailing lists on Rootsweb for the specific countries
* Use a search engine to find "turkey genealogy" or the equivalent.

The http://www.worldgenweb.org/ site now has subdivisions for:

* AfricaGenWeb
* AsiaGenWeb
* BritishIslesGenWeb
* CaribbeanGenWeb
* CenEuroGenWeb

* EastEuropeGenWeb
* MediterraneanGenWeb
* MiddleEastGenWeb
* NorthAmericaGenWeb
* PacificGenWeb
* SouthAmericanGenWeb

Each sub-division has the list of countries, and the page for each country lists resources and links for that country.

I was able to show that the Russia-General message board has over 8,700 messages to date. We searched for the surname without success. But we found some of the surname on the appropriate surname board.

For Turkey, there wasn't much on the WorldGenWeb page except for a map and a short history. There was a fascinating "Genealogy of Nations" chart on the Middle East page that shows the descendants of Noah (www.genealogynation.com/middle-east/):



If anyone has suggestions for other resources for these countries, I will be happy to pass them on to my students. We also visited and talked a bit about the www.JewishGen.org site and the www.FEEFHS.org site. I recommended that the students try to find knowledgeable and helpful researchers who know more about these countries than I do!

"Best Strategies for Searching Ancestry.com" Webinar available

The latest Ancestry.com Webinar (WEB semINAR) was broadcast last week, and is now available on their Webinar page. Click here to access the recording of this Webinar titled "Best Strategies for Searching Ancestry.com."


The Webinar had over 10,000 participants and was targeted for beginning and intermediate users. It runs 65 minutes, with the last 20 minutes (approximate) devoted to answering viewer questions submitted to the Ancestry.com staff. Tony Macklin, Anne Mitchell and Laura Dansbury were the presenters.

The viewer has to register by providing a name, zip code and email address but then s/he is able to launch the presentation, which comes up in a PowerPoint slide format with voiceover.

Tony posted Thanks to everyone who joined us for the search webinar on the Ancestry.com blog which covers a few of the major points made during the Webinar presentation and answers some of the viewer questions.

The staff asked a number of survey questions throughout this Webinar about how users access different search features. I'm sure that many of these survey responses will be summarized in the weeks to come on the Ancestry.com blog - at least I hope that they will! I also hope that the answers to the questions will be posted to the Ancestry.com blog also.

I always learn something from these Webinars, and this one was no exception. There is so much to learn about Ancestry.com! I'm pleased that they are considering doing a Webinar on Search for more advanced users.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - October 11-17, 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:

* Blogging Workshop: Easy as 1-2-3 by Kathryn Doyle on the California Genealogical Society and Library Blog. CGS had a blogging workshop last weekend with Thomas MacEntee and Craig Manson leading, and Kathryn has pictures to prove it.

* Video Conferencing & Genealogy Societies by Taneya Koonce on Taneya's Genealogy Blog. Taneya wonders why more societies and speakers aren't using videoconferencing.

* The Bleh Effect by Patti Browning on the Consanguinity blog. Patti coins the term "genea-bleh" as the opposite of "genea-gasm" and provides some examples. I love it! I've always thought in terms of Genea-Arrggghhh or Genea-Awsh!t...

* Professor Gates, Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy and Mine by Sally Sheridan on Everybody's Blog Posts on GenealogyWise. Sally discusses the slave-holding issue and links to Henry Louis Gates' post on http://www.theroot.com/.

* Infants and Mourning Dress by footnoteMaven in The History Hare column of the Online Graveyard Rabbit Journal. fM describes Victorian mourning customs for children with several wonderful pictures.

* The REAL Genealogist by Ruby Coleman on the You Go Genealogy Girls blog. Ruby thinks "real" genealogists are dedicated to doing research and to learning more about the field.

* Look Beyond the Population Schedules and Discover the Agricultural Census by Carolyn Barkley on the GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com Blog. Carolyn reminds us that some really useful records are not online - check this article out!
* Genealogy – Goin’ Green by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. Thomas has advice for how researchers, societies and vendors can use fewer resources in their genealogy pursuits.

* Growing Up in a Massachusetts Mill Town by Polly Kimmitt on the Pollyblog. Polly weaves the story of her grandmother into the trials and tribulations facing mill workers in 19th-century Massachusetts.

* DNA: Was Columbus Jewish? by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on the Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. Schelly ponders the question, and provides useful information from a newspaper article and a new book about Columbus's writings.

* Reading Women's History: A Family History Project in the High School English Classroom by Denise Levenick in footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Denise used her grandmother's pictures and letters to teach high school girls about the past - a beautiful article.

* Managing Your Facebook Experience by Julie Cahill Tarr on the GenBlog blog. Julie offers helpful ideas about your time and activities on Facebook.

* Plagiarism in the Genealogy Community by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena has concerns about plagiarism and has wise advice for all writers and presenters.

* Genealogical proof or merely evidence? by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. This post continues James's series on the elements of the Genealogical Proof Standard from an attorney's view.

* Mingling of Families and Murder by Wendy Littrell on the All My Branches Genealogy blog. Wendy tells the story and then untwists the family members involved in the murder...well done!

* Where were you when the Loma Prieta Quake Struck? by Melody Lasalle on the The Research Journal blog. Melody leads the pack of 1989 earthquake "I was there" genea-bloggers with this first-person story.

* I Survived The Loma Prieta Earthquake by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. A fascinating story by Thomas of being in the earthquake 20 years ago in San Francisco.

* I Too Survived The Loma Prieta Earthquake by footnoteMaven on the footnoteMaven blog. Another first-person story by fM of the 1989 earthquake. This is material for the descendants of course!

* All lined up in the school playground in their Sunday best by Brett Payne on the Photo-Sleuth blog. Brett wondered if the children dressed up for school photos, shows some of his collection and researches some of the photographers. I've been on Uttoxeter Road in Derby myself.

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 530 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.