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:
* "Why" Genealogy in Second Life? by Tami Glatz on the relatively curious about genealogy blog. Tami explains the "Second Life" chat room very well, and explains why she likes it. I haven't been there yet, but I'm tempted! What name should I use? "Gene Aholic" I think!
* Carnival of Genealogy 82: Breaking Into Society by Kathryn Doyle on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog. There were 19 entries for this carnival on the subject of "What is your favorite genealogical society? Do you belong to a society? Tell us why, or why not?"
* The Best Fishing Trip – Ever… by Sherry Stocking Kline on the Family Tree Writer blog. Sherry caught no fish on her best trip, but did catch something else. Read this story!
* Another Date with RootsMagic by Amy Coffin on the We Tree blog. Amy is building a new family tree and sourcing every fact in the process. She had a free day last week and made great progress.
* Warnings Out in New England by Becky Wiseman on the kinexxions blog. Becky has been touring the country doing genealogy, and obtained some of these records in Vermont. This is an excellent article about some little-known records.
* I Think He Had Them at Hello by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog. This post summarizes Steve Danko's presentation at the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society meeting last weekend. Excellent photos, too. Do audience members really talk about speakers that way?
* The Clock, the Chart, and the Compass Rose by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors blog. Miriam recounts some of the practical lessons she learned growing up in Alaska and laments what kids are missing these days.
* Search for the Living - Honing Your Research Skills, The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost and So Many Questions - Whither Marjorie Pauline Frost? by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas's series of posts is a step-by-step, minute-by-minute account of doing online research. These three articles cover about 90 minutes of actual research time.
* He Had Me at "Detective" by Caroline M. Pointer on the Family Stories blog. Caroline writes a fascinating post about the lessons her father taught her that made her a problem solver and a family detective - read it all, and there's more coming!
* Citation Geeks - Elizabeth Shown Mills Bats Cleanup by footnoteMaven on the footnoteMaven blog. As you might expect, this dissertation is about creating and using source citations (for the Find A Grave website - see last week's BOGB). fM consulted with ESM, and did not get a ticket from the source citation police.
* My Search for Mrs. J.H. Belote by Apple on the Apple's Tree blog. Apple transcribed a letter from this woman, and wondered who she was and how was she related to her family. She figured it out!
* First 10 Lessons by Ruth Himan on the Genealogy is Ruthless without Me blog. Ruth is the first to answer Holly Hansen's question about the first ten things that a beginning genealogy researcher should learn and do.
* The Writer's Curse by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John always wants to write about something, and we are better off for it. No curse at all!
* O Where O Where Has My Ancestor Gone? by Lorine McGinnis Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine finds a marriage record hiding in plain sight, but very poorly indexed. Check out her search strategy - an excellent example of persistence!
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 530 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.
4 comments:
Yes, my knees were knocking when I received the email from ESM, but she wanted to refine rather than ticket.
Thank you for the shout out for an article that was very challenging.
-fM
Thanks for including my post Randy!
Thank you, Randy. I am honored to make your list.
Thank you for including my post, Randy. I'm always so pleased when you read my blog and like what you see.
P.S. And yes, audience members really do talk that way. I can't make this stuff up, you know. ;-)
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