Sunday, October 5, 2008

Best of the Genea-Blogs - September 28 - October 4, 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 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:

* Tuesday Tales - Some Final Thoughts From Home by Mary Mettler on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Mary wraps up her months of genealogical travels by summarizing her experiences, and provides a complete list of her weekly sagas. Articles like these would be great for every society newsletter and blog, wouldn't they?

* Correcting Mistakes by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog. Pat discusses mistakes made in published genealogies and online databases, with a side trip through coincidence-ville to entertain us. The operative phrase is "A compiled genealogy is never done, as additional information will most assuredly come to light." Isn't that the truth? And it's usually right after I've published something about my family lines!

* The Value of an Ox by Bill West on the West in New England blog. Bill's post discusses an incident that happened to his ancestor in 1845 revealed in a 1905 newspaper, with a cautionary tale about an ox. Ox had tremendous value in colonial and pre-tractor times as a look at estate inventories will attest. I found it funny that this was written up in an Oxford County (ME) newspaper (and think about where the name Oxford came from too). [Yeah, I know this was Bill's entry in the Carnival of Genealogy, but I liked it!]

* Organizing Your Genealogy by Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog. Elyse shares her methods of controlling and organizing her genealogy charts, papers, and pictures. Elyse is a college student with little room for her genealogy stuff, so she has this down pretty well.

* Part 1. ROUNDUP at HILL COUNTY: Getting to Know You: Overture, Act 1, Scenes 1 - 15; Part 2. ROUNDUP at HILL COUNTRY, Getting to Know You: Overture; Act 2, Scenes 16 - 30; and Part 3. ROUNDUP at HILL COUNTRY, Getting to Know You: Act 3, Scenes 31 - 42; Finale and Reprise by Terry Thornton on the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. Terry put together this meme of 50 genea-bloggers talking about themselves and their blogs. Be sure to listen to Terry singing the song, too (click on the post title on the blog)!

* 1968: A Personal Memoir - Part 1; 1968 - A Personal Memoir: Like in the Duke City; 1968 - A Personal Memoir: Van Buren Junior High School; 1968 - A Personal Memoir: Presidential Politics, all by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig remembers some interesting things from 40 years ago and shares them with us. Read the last one, especially - a great story! I'm real glad that Craig is back to blogging.

* Geneablogger Yearbook by Colleen on the Orations of OMcHodoy blog. Colleen collects the funny yearbook face posts of many genea-bloggers ( created at Yearbook Yourself) in one place for eternal reference. I'm thinking of rotating one of mine each week in the blog picture at the top right. Good stuff!

* By the Number: The Importance of Using Numbering Systems by Carolyn L. Barkley on the GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com blog. This excellent article provides a great summary of six different numbering systems that all researchers should be aware of, and use, in their research.

* New London Notes by Tim Abbott on the Walking the Berkshires blog. Tim takes us with him to the New London CT area and visits a number of historic sites. I need to visit this area (my Kenyons were there for awhile) and Mystic Seaport too.

* How to share your family history with your family - Traditions by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet talks about family traditions - holidays, foods and activities - as part of her ongoing series of posts.

* A Salute to the Old-Timers! by Becky Wiseman on the kinnexions blog. Becky collects all of the genea-bloggers who have been at it for awhile and puts them all in one place - a wonderful blogroll!

* Little Women by Wendy Littrell on the All My Branches Genealogy blog. Wendy was thinking about her mitochondrial DNA line, and posted pictures of the most recent five in her matrilineal line, plus the names of two more.

* Coverleaf: Read magazines online by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on the Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. Schelly finds a really useful online magazine aggregator - did you know that you could read so many magazines online?

* Tracing a Southern Pedigree by Arlene H. Eakle on the Arlene Eakle's Virginia Genealogy Blog. Arlene describes some of the features and pitfalls of researching Southern families - a must-read for those of us with northern research and biases.

Thank you to all genealogy bloggers for an interesting and informative week. Did you notice some new blogs on this list? I hope so!

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!

5 comments:

Terry Thornton said...

RANDY, Thanks for the links to the GETTING TO KNOW ME roundup. The GeneaBloggers outdid themselves writing to that challenge --- and I appreciate their efforts. And for all of them I also thank you for calling attention to their work (and yours too).

BTW, A Part 4 (Act 4, Scene 43) has just been added to include our friend Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie who was otherwise occupied when the due date for the challenge passed.

Thanks again for the shout-out and for participating in the Getting to Know Me challenge.

Terry Thornton
Fulton, Mississippi
HILL COUNTRY OF MONROE COUNTY MISSISSIPPI

Kathryn Doyle said...

Randy,
Thanks for including Mary Mettler's closing article in your line up for the week. It would be wonderful if more societies would share their members' stories. Mary has provided a fine example!

Bill West said...

Randy,
Thanks for the mention!

You know,I never made the OXford
County connection!

Bill

SCHELLY TALALAY DARDASHTI said...

Hi, Randy,

Thanks so much.
You made my day!

Schelly

wendy said...

Randy - thanks so much for including my "Little Women" post in your "Best of" for this past week! I think many of your posts are "Best of"!
Wendy Littrell
http://allmybranches.wordpress.com