Sunday, February 27, 2011

Best of the Genea-Blogs - February 20-26, 2011

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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:
Toward a Genealogical Democracy by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogi Bog blog.  Greta has a nice summary of recent discussions about genealogy demographics and how societies interact with the industry.

Motivation Monday - Cherie's Got Her Groove Back by Cheryl Cayemberg on the Have You Seen My Roots? blog.  Cherie found that a thorny research problem really helped her survive the week.  An excellent research adventure.

Genealogy Societies: What Keeps You Coming Back for More? by Amy Coffin on the We Tree blog.  Amy asks for responses to "What do you like about the genealogy societies to which you belong? What makes you stay a member and renew each year?"

RootsTech Ketchup by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI covers the news for the last month, with a heavy dollop of RootsTech ketchup.

RootsTech 2011 Review by Renee Zamora on Renee's Genealogy Blog.  Renee summarizes her RootsTech experience.  Everybody's was different!

How Do We Make Genealogy Fun for Everyone? by Kimberly Powell on Kimberly's Genealogy Blog.   Kimberly writes probably the best post of the month!  Amen!

*  It's Not Going To Be As Easy As It Looks On TV by footnoteMaven on the footnoteMaven blog.  fM opines on the genealogy society, source citation and WDYTYA all in one post.  Amen!

A Plethora of GEDCOM revisionists - YES! by Pat Richley-Erickson on DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  Ol' MYRT summarized why users are trying to revise GEDCOM files, saying "For good genealogists, it's all about sources."  Amen, sister!

Genealogy Inc. v. Genealogists -- Part One, the Introduction and   Part Two, What is in a name? by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James decided to test Ancestry.com's saying of "You don't even have to know what you're looking for."  

The RootsTech Revolution – Woodstock or Waterloo? by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog.   Thomas thinks that RootsTech was game-changing - genealogy's Woodstock moment.  But there are also problems ahead.

The Digital Age Discourages Sharing by Marian Pierre-Louis on Marian's Roots and Rambles blog.  Marian's thoughtful post discusses the backside of social networking - does it discourage sharing?

WDYTYA – Episode 2×03 – The Nitpicker’s Version by Banai Feldstein on The Ginger Jewish Genealogist blog.  Every week, Banai provides the most detailed and incisive look at the WDYTYA? episodes.  I really enjoy reading them.

Thriller Thursday: Mean People, Dysfunctional Families, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by Yvonne on The Mashburn Collection blog.   This is a stunning, sad and uplifting series of posts by Yvonne about her birth father. 

RootsTech Two Weeks After by Polly Kimmitt on the Pollyblog blog.  Polly summarizes her RootsTech experience with interesting observations.

What To Do With Skeletons in the Closet by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.  Susan offers some interesting questions, and a lot of readers chimed in.

Several other genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts this week, including:

Friday Newsletter and Follow News 25 February 2011 by Greta Koehl on Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.

Follow Friday: This Week’s Favs by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere - February 25 by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS 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 820 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

3 comments:

Susan Petersen said...

Thanks for the shout-out regarding my skeletons in the closets post, Randy. It was actually everyone's comments that made this a Very Interesting Discussion. Glad you dropped by!

Greta Koehl said...

Thank you for the mention, Randy, and I have to echo Susan's statement - some excellent comments really added tremendously to the discussion.

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Thanks for the mention, Randy!