Sunday, July 5, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - June 28 - July 4, 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:

* Online Digitized Collections for Genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James compiled this list of websites with digitized genealogy books. Great finding aid!

* 20th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy by Jessica Oswalt on the Jessica's Genejournal blog. There were three entries in this monthly Carnival, and the topic was a Carousel (any topic the autohr chose).

* Your Oldest Relative has Photos for You! by Craig Manson in his Appealing Subjects column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Craig points the way to http://www.usa.gov/ which has many photographs taken by and for government agencies. I didn't know this! Thanks, Craig.

* Is Google’s Search Really a Single Field? by The Ancestry Insider on the The Ancestry Insider blog. There are some interesting and useful tips in this post - but they aren't about Google per se - they are about other sites that do a better search than Google does!

* Comment: Successes and Failures of Genealogy Conferences by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. Dick opines about why some genealogy conferences are successful and others flounder. Good ideas and excellent commentary!

* Why Twitter is Great for Genealogists by Tina on the Tina's Genealogical Wish List blog. Tina has excellent thoughts about using Twitter for more than promoting your blog posts.

* Graveyard Rabbits Carnival – July 2009 by Julie Tarr on The Graveyard Rabbit blog. There were 15 entries to this monthly Carnival on the subject of Obituaries - submitters were to find both a gravestone and an obituary.

* Preventing Identity Theft with the SSDI by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. This is a timely article by Dick that explains why the SSDI is helpful to preventing identity theft. [I know - I have two of Dick's posts on this list - but they are good!]

* Days Four and Five: Longford, Day 6: Belfast, Day Seven: Belfast to Dublin,
Day Eight: Dublin, Day Nine: Dublin, Day Ten: Dublin, and Day Eleven: Last Day in Dublin by Doona Moughty on Donna's Genealogy Blog. I've been following donna's research trip to Ireland over the past two weeks. It's a great look at how an Irish genealogy expert does research.

* A Critique of Genetic Ancestry Testing in Science Magazine by Blaine Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog. Blaine discusses the support of government regulation of genetic testing endorsed by five leading bioethicists, and has some different opinions about the issue.

* Taking on your Brickwalls by Gena Philibert Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena has an outstanding list of ways to attack your brickwall research problems.

* Will They Appear Again? by Denise Levenick in the Penelope Dreadful column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Penelope writes another fascinating account - what a great picture too. Fiction? Non-fiction? Doesn't matter!

* THE "JUST MAKE UP SOME GENEALOGY LYRICS" GENEAMUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA! by Bill West on the West in New England blog. Challenge geneabloggers to something and they respond! Here is Bill's summary post for 13 geneablogger posts about genealogy-oriented lyrics sung to well-known music. Enjoy!

* ThinkGenealogy Innovator Award #4 by Mark Tucker on the ThinkGenealogy blog. Mark awards his innovation award to RootsMagic's developer team for implementation of research analysis classification of sources, information, and evidence.in RootsMagic 4. (edited)

* The 75th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Justice and Independence by Colleen McHugh on the Orations of OMcHodoy blog. There were 19 submittals for this Carnival on the subject of Justice and Independence.

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

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

UPDATED: 7:30 p.m. Mark Tucker emailed a correction my notes and I updated my item on his ThinkGenealogy blog post. Thanks, Mark.

4 comments:

James Tanner said...

Thank Randy, I always enjoy your lists but it keeps adding to the number of blogs I follow.

Bill West said...

Thanks for the mention, Randy!

footnoteMaven said...

Bravo Randy! Another great Best of.

Thank you for the Shades' mentions. A really great group of writers.

Can't wait for next week.

-fM

Jack Reidy said...

Thanks. A very nice list. I'm new to blogging and following blogs so this "Best of ..." is really helpful.