Best of the Genea-Blogs - December 5-11, 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:

*  Some of My Favorite Texas Resources by Greta Koehl on Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.  Thank you, Greta, for the nice list of resources!

*  For better or worse? Unusual names in our marriage records  by Jess Moore on the findmypast blog.  A funny survey of English marriage records.

*  A Date With An Old Photo by footnoteMaven on the Shades Of The Departed blog.  I knew fM would love the historical Sears Catalogs on Ancestry.com - see what goodies she highlights in this post.

*  Kudos: Michael Hait  by Craig Manson on the  GeneaBlogie blog.  Craig is doing the genea-blogging community a wonderful service by pointing to others that contribute to genealogy.  Michael Hait is one of the good ones.

*  It's Love All Over Again: Google eBooks by Gena Ortega on Gena's Genealogy Blog.  Gena looks at the benefits of Google eBooks from the iPad user;'s view - it's all good!

*  How I Got Here - The Path to Becoming a Family Historian     by Marian Pierre-Louis on the  Roots and Rambles blog.  Marian provides probably the most thoughtful post of the week - giving credit to those that helped her become the Family Historian that she is.

*  The Science of…Generations  by Robert on the MyHeritage Blog.  This post summarizes the seminal Strauss and Howe book, Generations.  I loved the book, and I've always wanted to do this!

*  Your Family's Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island  by Leslie Albrecht Huber on The Journey Takers Blog. A helpful article for beginning genealogists who may think otherwise by Leslie, who should know!

*  If Our Ancestors Wrote Christmas Letters: Dreadful Greetings by Denise Levenick on The Family Curator blog.  Penelope Dreadful shares a Christmas letter from 1900.  Funny.  Creative. 

*  G-Notes: Essential iPad – Genealogy by Denise Barret Olson on the  Moultrie Creek Gazette blog.  Denise summarizes the genealogy apps for the iPad.

* From Deep Web to Deep Dust by Debbie Parker Wayne on the Deb's Delvings in Genealogy blog.  Deb explains the dep web and why we don't get search matches from online historical collections.

Several other genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts this week, including:

* Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere - December 10 by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.

* Best Bytes for the Week of December 10, 2010 by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog.

* Friday Newsletter and Follow News: 10 December 2010 by Greta Koehl on Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.

* Donna's Picks - December 10, 2010 by Donna Pointkouski on the What's Past is Prologue blog.

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 740 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here