Sunday, February 7, 2010

Best of the Genea-Blogs - January 31-February 6, 2010

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:

* Assumption Genealogy… by the writer of the Generations Gone By Weblog. Interesting article about the assumptions we make, and why we have to make them. Part of the scientific method.

* Graveyard Rabbit Carnival – February 2010 Edition by Julie Cahill Tarr on the Graveyard Rabbit blog. This Carnival theme was "Cemetery Critters" and 14 authors submitted articles.

* A New View of the SSDI by Amanda Acquard on the A Tale of Two Ancestors blog. Amanda finds her grandfather's listing in the SSDI, and pens a loving tribute to him, including a neat picture of the two of them.

* My GG Grandfather's Immigration (And The Woman who Followed her Recreant Husband across an Ocean) by Tina Lyons on the Gen Wish List blog. Tina finds her ancestor's passenger list record, then finds an interesting newspaper article about other passengers on the same voyage. Great article!

* Genealogical Workflow: Step 1 of 5 – Decide What to Do by Dan Lawyer on the FamilySearch Labs Blog. This is the first of in-depth articles about Genealogical Workflow.

* Build Something For Yourself, Revisited by Dean Richardson on the Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented blog. Dean demonstrates how easy it is to use the Genlighten lookup service with one of his own research challenges.

* Remembering Christmas... by Texicanwife on the Mountain Genealogist blog. Cyndi has some of her Christmas shopping already done - her Christmas Advent memories published in a book. Read how she did it.

* A Canvas of My Own - Creating a Family History Book by Thomas MacEntee on Lynn Palermo's The Armchair Genealogist blog. Thomas' guest post is about creating a book using Ancestry's MyCanvas product.

* The Living Book of the Dead by Denise Barret Olson in her The Tech T.I.P. column for February 4, 2010 on the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal blog. Denise describes her "living" cemetery transcription project with images published on Scribd.

* Carnival of Genealogy, 89th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There were 18 entries in this Carnival with the theme of "Ode to My Family History." Joan Hill's post Carnival of Genealogy's Ode to My Family History: I Dinna Hear The Voices posted at Roots'n'Leaves was the featured poem.

* Open Letter To Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Luckie Daniels on the Our Georgia Roots blog. Luckie's letter to Dr. Gates suggests ways to help the many researchers who don't get the work done for them . Hear hear!

* Reading Between the Lines, The Marriage Records of Arline Paulen and Albert F. Edwards, Part 1, Introduction and Part 2 The Documents, Reading Between the Lines, The Marriage Records of Arline Paulen and Albert F. Edwards by Denise Levenick on The Family Curator blog. Denise ordered marriage records from Wyoming and received a bonanza of useful and new information.

* Happy Reflections on a Busy Year by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog. Elizabeth has been working on DAR/CAR tasks - see her recap of January with pictures of one of our "cutest genealogists."

* If Genealogists Ruled the Television Networks by Donna Pointkouski on the What's Past is Prologue blog. Donna's humor is wonderful - she has great ideas for some genealogy-themed series of the future.

* Failed Genealogy Television Shows by Thomas MacEntee on the Destination:Austin Family blog. Thomas' follows Donna's lead with his list of genealogy-themed TV shows that didn't make the cut.

* Solving the Mystery of August Hellmund by Lori on the Genealogy and Me blog. Lori found a 1915 state census entry that surprised her, then found out the shocking truth by digging deeper into the puzzle.

* Goth Genealogy? by Thomas MacEntee on Katrina McQuarrie's Kick-Ass Genealogy blog. Some good ideas about getting the younger generations involved in genealogy from Thomas in this guest post (TM sure gets around, eh?).

* Weekly Rewind by Apple on the Apple's Tree blog. As always, Apple finds really interesting blog posts and stories that I've missed.

* Weekly Genealogy Picks by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog. John finds more interesting posts, stories and media that I've missed.

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

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

6 comments:

Moultrie Creek said...

Another Sunday and another collection of great reads. Thanks for including me in this week's list.

Jasia said...

Thanks for promoting the COG Randy! We miss you!

Tina Lyons said...

Thanks Randy for including my post in your list. I enjoy reading it and seeing what I missed weekly.

Joan said...

Randy,
Your weekly "Best of ..." is my favorite read of the week. I always find great reads that I had missed. I don't know how you keep up on all of these wonderful sites --- but so glad that you do!

Also, thank your for mentioning my entry into the 89th Cog. I was suprised and ever so grateful for your mentioning my "I Dinna ..." poem.

Family Curator said...

I always look forward to your "Best of" list to see what I might have missed. Thanks for including my Marriage Certificate posts in this weeks roster.

Elizabeth O'Neal said...

Thanks for including my post about our C.A.R. activities in your esteemed "Best of" list this week, Randy. I'm always happy to brag on the great work of our kids!

BTW, aren't you sitting on an incomplete SAR application?? You know, there's a chapter in San Diego that meets on the 3rd Satuday of the month. See http://www.californiasar.org for more info (hint, hint). And your grankids are eligible for the C.A.R., you know. ;-)