Sunday, December 20, 2009

Best of the Genea-Blogs - December 13-19, 2009

Hundreds of 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:

* State Census Records Online by Miriam Midkiff on the Ancestories: Stories of my Ancestors blog. Miriam listed the states with state census records, the years available, and the online web sites that have them (if any). Excellent finding aid!

* Working with the Federal Population Schedules by "TGblogger" on the Blog of a Genealogist in Training. Persistence and a bit of help from an ED finder paid off for TGblogger - she found her target family in the 1900 census. An outstanding example of census research - and typical of maybe 10% to 20% of the population enumerated.

* SNGF: Dream Database by Taneya Koone on Taneya's Genealogy Blog. Taneya summarizes last week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun submissions, but then provides the wonderful example of making those dreams come true. Well done, Taneya!

* Newspaper Research by Robyn on the Reclaiming Kin blog. What a great collection of newspaper clippings that Robyn has posted. They are examples of what can be found in local newspapers all over the country. Not all are online!

* 10 top new genealogy resources online in 2009 by John Reid on the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog. John put this list together of Canadian and British Isles resources - a keeper!

* A Lesson in Writing a Narrative Family History by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog. Lynn has helpful advice on the subject, obviously from her experience.

* It's All a Memory Now.... by Terri Kallio on The Ties That Bind blog. Terri wrote a beautiful tribute to her late husband - thank you, Terri, for sharing your memories, and we mourn your loss.

* Canadian Genealogy Carnival 7th Edition by Kathryn Lake on the LOOKING4ANCESTORS blog. There were three submissions to this Carousel edition of the Canadian Genealogy carnival, but they are good ones!

* A MOMENT OF SANITY by Bill West on the West in New England blog. Bill had an encounter with a customer in his bookstore that ended with satisfaction for both of them. A small event in a hectic day that both will remember.

* My Favorite Christmas Carol by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination: Austin Family blog. Thomas sings a little ditty for the Choir of Genea-Angels, and it is, um, unique. Funny too. Priceless, in fact. Is it viral yet on YouTube?

* Cemetery Inventories and Find A Grave by Denise Olson in her Tech T.I.P. column in the Online Graveyard Rabbit Journal blog. Denise discusses submitting cemetery inventories to Find-a-Grave using an Excel spreadsheet to organize the entries.

* Carnival of Genealogy, 86th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. This Carnival had two themes - "The Other December Events" (birthdays and anniversaries) and "Our Wish Lists for Genea-Santa". There were 17 and 22 entries, respectively, for the two themes.

* Saw Dust and Dark Holes by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee tells a fascinating story about ice and his great-grandfather's business of providing it in the 1800s without refrigeration.

* The Carnival's In Town by footnoteMaven on the Shades of the Departed blog. The topic for the 19th edition of the "Smile for the Camera" carnival was "Gift" and had a record 62 entries.

* The Discussion about Standards, Certification, Maturity, etc.: Useful or Divisive? Elitist Envy or Intellectual Inevitability? by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. This is Part I of a courtroom drama - well done, and the readers can hardly wait for the sequels!

* Furthering the discussion on certification by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James follows up on Craig's post with summations and comments about expertise.

* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the Transylvanian Dutch blog. John's list of good genea-blog readings!

* Weekly Rewind by Apple on the Apple's Tree blog. Apple's weekly summary of her activity, including favorite blog posts.

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

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

UPDATED 9 p.m. Added the Shades of the Departed carnival post, which I missed in my Bloglines review during the week. sorry, fM!

3 comments:

Bill West said...

Thanks for the mention,Randy!

TGblogger said...

Holy cow! Thanks for the mention, Randy! ~Nikki LaRue

footnoteMaven said...

GeneaSanta:

Thank you for the plug for Smile. So glad you caught us, as you are mentioned as the carnival's sexiest man!

62 has to be a record!

-fM