Sunday, June 22, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - June 15-21, 2008

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 Carnival of Genealogy, 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:

* "Keeping a Journal for History & Genealogy" by Lorine on the Olive Tree Genealogy blog. Lorine has been writing her historical and genealogy memories in a traditional journal for awhile. This is a really good practice for each of us.

* "Making the Case for Digital Over Print in Genealogical Publications" by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. Jasia has questions about the Everton's decision to go digital, and gets the answers from Leland Meitzler. Then she tells us what she really thinks. Good thoughts!

* " 'She has had a hard time...", "A little revision (already)," and "Another e-Book on the way" all by Ruth Stephens on the Bluebonnet Genealogy blog. Ruth wrote and published one e-Book and is writing another one. She is uploading them as PDF files to Lulu.com, where she set up a storefront to permit free downloads of her books to anyone who might want to read them. This gives me a great idea about my family letters, Della's Journal, my own research, etc.

* "A genealogy blog? What's that?" and "Even More Genealogy Blogs ..." by Tom Kemp on the GenealogyBank, The Official Blog. Tom highlights some of his favorite blogs as he informs his readers about blogging. I'm honored to be included on his list. Are you reading Tom's blog for the GenealogyBank content? You should be ... I'm waiting for any San Diego newspaper.

* "Search tips for online databases" by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog. Diane provides some useful research tips on how to search online databases.

* "Fruit Salad in the Census" by Chery Kinnick on the Nordic Blue blog. Chery finds some interesting names through censuswhacking on the names of fruits - you know, like Orange, Banana, Lemon, etc. (but not Cherry?). Thanks, Chery, for the chuckles. Whenever I hear the term "Fruit Salads," I start singing the Wiggles song by that name - my grandkids love it!

* "June 20 - Friday from the Collectors: Eliciting Stories from your Photo Albums" by Susan A. Kitchens on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Susan helps us understand how we can use photo albums, and the memories they create in our minds, to create or add on to oral history interviews with family, friends and associates. Excellent ideas here!

* "Genealogy and Serendipity book review" and "Genealogy and Serendipity Web review" by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet reviews two of Hank Jones' books about "Psychic Roots," and one of Megan Smolenyak's books, and then finds a number of online articles about this topic. Nice catches, and I need to go read some of the ones she mentioned!

* "My Greatest Genealogical Mysteries - Was he an Illegal Immigrant or Not?" by Tim Agazio on the Genealogy Reviews Online blog. Tim found blogging inspiration in his "idea booth" and has started a series about his own genealogy mysteries. The specific story is fascinating - trying to piece together the immigrant from Italy to Canada to the US. If his lines are like mine, he will have an endless series of posts!

* "Family History through Photographs" by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena's post has a nice list of web sites to investigate when trying to figure out your old family photos - processes, photographers, clothing, books and websites.

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 - we all appreciate feedback on what we write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me!

1 comment:

Jasia said...

Thanks for the mention, Randy!