Sunday, October 2, 2011

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 25 September to 1 October 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:


*   What is original? copyright vs. family trees online or otherwiseGovernment Documents and Public Domain -- What is clearly not covered by copyright, and Get to the point, James on Fair Use  by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James discusses how copyright laws apply to online family trees and your genealogy publications.

Native American ancestry research tools available from U.S. Department of the Interior by Sandy on the SpittalStreet.com blog.  Check out Sandy's very useful and helpful list of resources.

Rebranding History by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on the Nutfield Genealogy blog.  Heather is dismayed that the historical presentations in the Munroe Tavern in Lexington have been drastically changed. 

An Essay on Candy Baskets by Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog.  Elyse writes about the people who treated her mother at the end of her life.  Candy baskets say so much...about the giver.

What Do Modern Business Cards for Genealogists Look Like? by Kerry Scott on the Clue Wagon blog.  Kerry shows us hers, will you show us yours?

*  How to Introduce Yourself to Other Genealogists at a Genealogy Conference by Lorine McGinnis Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  Lorine shows us her business card and tells about her plan to upgrade it.

Hit the Books: Genealogy Online and Home Study Courses and Along Came A Spider: Genealogy Webinars and FamilySearch Courses by Susan Farrell Bankhead on Susan's Genealogy Blog.   Susan lists many of the formal and informal education opportunities available for genealogists.

BACK STORY: Get Off the Fence and Start Writing  by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  Ol' Myrt channels her great-grandmother at an FGS luncheon... and has the story, and pictures, to prove it.

Book Review: The Red Skirt, Memoirs of an Ex Nun by Jasia on The Catholic Gene blog.  Jasia provides some family background and reviews this interesting book.

Conflicting Evidence: What Is It?, How Do We Notice Conflicting Evidence? and Why I Think that Conflicting Evidence Gives Us Great Opportunities by Barbara Mathews on The Demanding Genealogist blog.  A very helpful series with explanations useful for all of us to remember.

You can't catch me  by Taco Goulooze on the It All Makes Census blog.  I love research stories - here is one that shows amazing perseverance and postulates a seemingly correct conclusion.

Travelogue Writing For Genealogists by Michael John Neill on the Casefile Clues blog.  I'm with Michael on this - I think travelogue writing, especially in blogs, is very helpful to other researchers.

Come On Along: Research the Right Way by Susan Farrell Bankhead on Susan's Genealogy Blog.  Susan provides a template for doing research in a repository - an excellent guide!

My Most Important Encounter with Indirect Evidence by Ginger Smith on the Genealogy by Ginger blog.  Ginger describes one of her research challenges.

DNA Test Spurs Surprising Discovery of Great Grandfather Thomas Jefferson by the writer of the Your Genetic Genealogist blog.  You never know what a DNA test is going to show, or who is on your family tree!  This is a DNA test success story.

Family Tree Search – Archives.com by Joan Miller on the Luxegen Genealogy and Family History blog.  Joan interviews Julie Hill of Archives.com - some interesting responses here.

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:

Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

Monday's Link Roundup by Dan Curtis on the Dan Curtis, Professional Personal Historian blog.

Links, 9.26.11 by Liz Haigney Lynch on The Ancestral Archaeologist blog.

Ruth’s Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

Week In Review by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog.

Genealogy Round Up, September 29 by Megan Smolenyak on Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.

Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jenn on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

Genealogy News Corral, September 26-30 by Diane Haddad on The Genealogy Insider blog.

Follow Friday Gems - 09-30-11 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

I encourage readers to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs 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 1060 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

5 comments:

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

Thanks, Randy, for mentioning my post about the Munroe Tavern in Lexington, Massachusetts. I've been getting a lot of good comments on the "rebranding" and some thoughtful email about revising history.

Taco said...

I'm glad you liked my blog post, Randy. Hope I'll write more of those!

Joan Miller (Luxegen) said...

Thanks for the mention, Randy. :)

Kerry Scott said...

Thank you for the mention!

Ginger Smith said...

Hi Randy, thanks for the mention in your Best of series.