Sunday, October 17, 2010

Best of the Genea-blogs - 10-16 October 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:

The BLM Government Land Office Beta Website by Gayle Gresham on the Colorado Reflections blog.  Gayle found that the BLM site had added more content and the ability to see the land location right on the site.  Excellent find, Gayle!

John Colletta "Rocked It" at Genealogy Conference by Susan Petersen on the Long  Lost  Relatives.net blog.  Susan summarizes Colletta's talks at the Lincoln-Lancaster Genealogical Society conference last week.

Prove Genealogy Backward, Read History Forward by Marian Pierre-Louis on the Roots and Rambles blog.  Marian describes her aha! moment while listening to a lecture on history on a CD.  This makes a lot of sense!

Footnote.com Acquisition by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI has some interesting comments about this inside-genealogy deal.

Docu-Challenge WinnWilliam Warner Player baptism record by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMyrtle's Genealogy Blog.   Myrt challenged readers to analyze a baptismal record and answer four questions about it.  The readers did a great job!

Tuesday Tales: Visiting iBrat in Illinois by Mary Mettler on the CaliforniaAncestors.org  blog.  Mary's back with another research tale - she helped a beginner out last year and now the lady has adopted Mary as her iMom, and Daylene is Mary's iBrat. 

A Bundle of Genealogical Joy from PerSI by Kris Hocker on the /genealogy blog.  Kris's post is a reminder that ordering those hard-to-find periodical articles is just a click away at Allen County Public Library.  She ordered 87 pages worth of articles for $25.

Just Who were the Scots-Irish? by Carolyn L. Barkley on the GenealogyAndFamilyHistory.com blog.  Carolyn provides a great history lesson and a summary of Irish genealogy print resources.

California Family History Expo - Blogger Re-cap by Holly Hansen on the FamilyHistoryExpos.com blog.  14 genea-bloggers wrote one or more posts about their experiences at this Expo last weekend.  Well done, faithful genea-scribes!  Great pictures too!

The Violin Story by Leah on The Internet Genealogist blog.  What a fascinating story about a family heirloom - and all because Leah went to the California Family History Expo and received a book.

It is Not His Fault by Joan Miller on the Luxegen Genealogy and Family History Blog.  Joan took three speakers touring in the Alberta mountains and has fantastic pictures of everywhere they went.  She even got them back safely for the Alberta Family History Society event on Saturday!

Why Seeing It is With Your Own Eyes is a Good Idea by Karen on the Ancestor Soup blog.  Karen had a haunting feeling about stopping at the cemetery on their day out, and was richly surprised and rewarded.

Other weekly "Best of..." genealogy blog posts include:

* Follow Friday: 15 October 2010 by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog. Greta's weekly reader picks are often different from mine, and she highlights new blogs (for her) also. 

John Newmark announced that he would no longer be doing a weekly pick on his TransylvanianDutch blog. I will miss his list, which included lists of other genea-bloggers.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS 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 680 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here

NOTE:  I will probably not be able to write a Best of the Genea-Blogs next Sunday due to my trip to Salt Lake City.  Greta - please do your usual wonderful job!

8 comments:

DearMYRTLE said...

Thanks for the shout out, Randy. My DearREADERS deserve all the credit, as they come up with some great responses when analyzing the 1793 baptismal record from England.

Joan Miller (Luxegen) said...

Thanks for the shout out Randy. I'll be posting photos of our FamilyRoots event on the AFHS blog soon. We heard great talks from Lyn Meehan, Thomas MacEntee and Dick Eastman.

Susan Petersen said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Randy! I really appreciate it!

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

A great list again, Randy! I tried to leave a comment on Carolyn Barkley's blog about the Scots-Irish, but since I couldn't I hope she sees my comment here. I appreciated her list of great books about the Scots Irish very much. My blog centers on Nutfield, a Scots Irish settlement whose descendants moved on to all parts of the Appalachian chain and then all over America. Our town Historical Society recieves many weekly inquiries about genealogy. I can use this list for the inquiries, and to post at our local history room in the public library.

Kathryn Doyle said...

Randy,
Thanks-thanks-thanks! One direct link and two indirect – I'm overcome! Mary will be thrilled to learn her iBrat/iMom tale made your best-of column. We'll have to get you and Linda up here next year for California Expo. (And maybe you can spend some time in our library).

Family History Expos said...

Thank you for the mention! Genealogy bloggers are the best. We're so thankful that they took the time to write about their Expo experiences for those readers at home. We had a great time at the California Family History Expo and can't wait to go back next year. We hope to see you there!

Gayle Gresham said...

Thank you, Randy! I appreciate you including my post on the beta BLM Government Land Records in the Best of the Genea Blogs!

Anonymous said...

Here is a great Genealogy Blog
http://www.gusmarsh.blogspot.com/