Sunday, June 21, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - June 14-20, 2009

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:

* Bing vs. Google by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog. Pat tested Bing and Google side-by-side and had some interesting results, and had some useful comments.

* Give Dad the gift of an organized life by Larry Lehmer on the Passing It On blog. Larry has a great idea for helping your Dad with his "stuff" and spending quality time with him too. Frankly, I hope my daughters don't do this... but it's a great idea for non-genealogist fathers!

* Loveland Colorado Family History Expo by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog. Janet really enjoys meeting people at conferences - here is her summary of the Loveland Family History Expo. Great pictures, too!

* Online Death Indexes and Records - Latest Additions and Updates by Joe Beine on the Genealogy Roots Blog. Joe has added quite a bit to the http://www.deathindexes.com/ site recently - one of my favorites!

* Sheri Goes To Samford - Sophomore Year, Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog. We could hardly wait to read about Sheri's exploits at IGHR in Samford this year... and are entertained and informed by her first four posts about her week in Lloyd Bockstruck's class. Some pictures too! In her last episode, she went off campus for fun...

* Home Sweet Home! by Ernie Marheim on the Ernie's Journeys blog. Ernie has started posting himself after his surgery and recovery - welcome back, old friend! I hope that I have this spirit when I'm 88 (I gotta be more optimistic about life).

* The Carnival's In Town - 14th Edition of Smile for the Camera - Belle's Wedding by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. There were 31 entries in this carnival about pictures of June weddings.

* How to Find a Loyalist Ancestor by Lorine Schulze on the Ask Olive Tree Genealogy a Question blog. I love Lorine's question and answer blog, even more so when it really helps me understand how to research something I can relate to. This one does!

* The Brick Wall–Did We Really Knock It Down? by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig continues his search for Richard Gines in the records...and doesn't know if he found him or not. Stay tuned!

* Janice Brown Is Lost In The Puckerbrush and We Miss Her by footnoteMaven on the footnoteMaven blog. fM's touching tribute to Janice who "walked away" from her Cow Hampshire blog last year. We haven't forgotten.

* Carnival of Genealogy, 74th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There are 34 entries for the Swimsuits! edition. The topic for the next COG is Justice and Independence.

* How Do I Survey a Cemetery? by Stephanie Lincecum in her Graveyard Guru column in The Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal blog. Stephanie summarizes the methods to survey an entire cemetery based on Sharon Carmack's work.

* MyHeritage Genealogy and Translation Manager touring the US by Daniel Horowitz on The MyHeritage Blog. It sounds like Daniel really enjoyed his US tour, visiting libraries and companies, and meeting many bloggers and colleagues.

* Forbes Magazine: Genealogy doesn't exist by Schelly Talalay Dardashti on Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. Schelly highlights a recent magazine article that doesn't include genealogy as a hobby, and dissects it well. Several commenters said it was probably because it's an obsession and an addiction and not a hobby.

* California Bill AB 130 by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena publishes an analysis by Susan Park about a California legislature bill that will restrict access and information on California vital records certificates and indexes. This is important for genealogy researchers! The CA legislature is not getting this right.

* EVERYBODY’S GOT ONE by Tom Pearson on the MoSGA Messenger blog. Got what? A family tree, of course. See Tom's post for some interesting ones.

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

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

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