Sunday, February 14, 2010

Best of the Genea-Blogs - February 7-13, 2010

Hundreds of 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:

* Madness Monday - "Point and Click Genealogy" Was A Bad Idea by Linda McCauley on the Documenting the Details blog. Linda bemoans the presence of some really bad family tree data in online databases, and the lack of sources in many family trees. Rant on, Linda!

* New Angles on Old Problems: A Benefit of Putting Your Genealogy Online by Chris Staats on the Staats Place blog. Chris comes at the family tree data and source discussion from the attitude of "put it out there" and "let's talk about it."

* Who Do You Think You Are? by Tim Agazio on the Genealogy Reviews Online blog. Tim has some comments about WDYTYA and expresses some wishes...good stuff.

* Madness Monday: Open Letter To The Genealogy Community – Help Me To Understand! by Luckie Daniels on the Our Georgia Roots blog. Luckie asked "Why isn’t there ever ANY mention of {or events to address} the very present slave history in this community OTHER than from an African-American author?" Many genea-bloggers answered, and a new genealogy Carnival may result. Cool.

* Interview Questions of the Future by Leah on The Internet Genealogist blog. Leah gives us a sample of an interview with an ancestor about what it was like living in those ancient times - you know, the early 21st century. Good one!

* Become an Evangelist for Genealogy by Paula Hinkel on the Southern California Genealogical Society and Family Research Library blog. Paula challenges all of us, and our societies, to promote the two TV programs. Excellent ideas.

* Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Content and Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Content (Part 2) by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI has more information about Blogger Day 2 than all of the other attendees combined. Thanks!!!

* Faces of America: Episode 1 by Taneya Koonce on Taneya's Genealogy Blog. Taneya has the best summary of the PBS program IMHO, and has suggestions for improving interactions with people interested in tracing their ancestry.

* The Labors of Hercules by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John said he didn't have any information about slaves in his family in a comment on Luckie's post, and 16 hours later he received some in the mail. And posted it on his blog. Well done!

* Let Your Light Shine. Let Their Light Shine II. by Bernie Gracy on the HistoricalTownMaps Blog. Bernie has a fascinating story about what customers really want and what vendors think they want. Good advice for the conference exhibitors.

* Shades The Magazine - February Issue edited by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The Shades team of excellent writers has produced another magnificent online magazine. I love Penelope Dreadful!

* What I Did During the Blizzards of 2010, Part I and What I Did During the Blizzards of 2010, Part II by Missy Corley on the Bayside Blog. Missy stayed in Washington DC during the two blizzards and lived, barely, to tell about it. Fascinating slice of life in a snowy city...what would our ancestors have done?

* Genealogy News- A Television Show, A Chat Room, A Podcast......and some new records! by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog. Lynn posted a nice summary of the highlights of her genealogy week.

* Researching William Dikes leads to Texas History Lesson by Ruth Himan on the Genealogy is Ruthless Without Me blog. Ruth got sidetracked and had a lot of fun learning about the places her Dikes family lived. She's still searching for Mr. Dikes, though.

* Footnote, FamilySearch and the Power of APIs by Dean Richardson on the Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented. Dean visited with Footnote and FamilySearch about APIs, and has some ideas for the content/database providers.

* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John finds more interesting posts, stories and media that I miss - thanks, John!

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

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

5 comments:

Linda McCauley said...

Randy, I can't tell you how excited I am to find my name on your "best of" list!!! If I was ever going to be speechless, this would be the time. Your blog was one of the first genealogy blogs I started reading, probably the first that wasn't strictly news. When I started a blog less than 2 months ago, my only goal was to get some of my family to read it. Thanks so much. Linda (Documenting The Details)

footnoteMaven said...

Randy thank you so much for listing the February Shades Magazine in your "best of." Your support is always appreciated.

And I have a soft spot for Miss Penelope Dreadful as well.

-fM

Miss Penelope Dreadful said...

Oh my, oh my. Thank you for your kind words, but what will your Sweet Linda, think, Mr. Seaver? Do be discreet, please, sir.

Tim Agazio said...

Randy,

Thank you for mentioning my post!

Tim

Paula Hinkel said...

Thank you so much for listing the "Evangelist" column in your Best Of list, Randy. I take it a great compliment to be listed among the other notable posts you listed.