Sunday, February 6, 2011

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 30 January to 5 February 2011

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:
US Federal Penitentiary Case Files by Kathleen Brandt on the a3genealogy blog.  NARA has some really interesting records on federal prisoners - any of them your family members?

Assumptions Can Be So VERY Wrong! by Karen on the AncesTree Sprite blog.  Wisdom and good examples of 20th century research assumptions.

"I Need Help With My Family History! Where Should I Turn?" by Marian Pierre-Louis on the Roots and Rambles blog.  Marian summarizes the options for paid and random act research after ExpertConnect.

My Two Cents – Genealogy and Privacy Restrictions by Banai Feldstein on The Ginger Jewish Genealogy Blog.  Banai asks good questions about vital records access.

Free Databases on Ancestry.com by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI finds all 260 of the FREE databases on Ancestry.com and lists them.  Great job!

Remembering Past Homes by Polly Kimmitt on the Pollyblog blog.  Polly shares the homes she's lived in along with her autobiography.  A great-great-grandchild will love reading this in 100 years.

Organize Photos Like an Archivist: Level of Description by Sally Kitchens on The Practical Archivist blog.  Sally will be offering a free PDF on the topic - this is the first installment.

Are Virtual Presentations now Mainstream? by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  Ol' MYRT describes the hows, whys and wherefores of making virtual presentations to groups large and small.

Carnival of Genealogy, 102nd Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog.  There were 19 entries in this monthly carnival on the topic of The 4th Annual iGene Awards! This is the award show for genealogy bloggers.

Life Before Genealogy - And How It Shapes Our Genealogy Paths Now by Leslie Albrecht Huber on The Journey Takers blog.  Leslie asks an interesting question - respond to her plea about life before, and outside of, genealogy.  C'mon, there's life outside of genealogy?  Who knew?

Anna's Story - Family life and later years by the writer of the Nolichucky Roots blog.  This biography is so well done, with pictures.  The story touched me - this woman had many struggles and hardships in her life, and persevered. 

First Friday Folder: John Richardson & Isabella Shaw by MHD on the GreatGreats blog.  I was intrigued by this post - it's a great idea to help a researcher reconnect with their data.  Thanks, MHD!  I shudder to think what I might find if I do this!

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

Friday Newsletter and Follow News: 4 February 2011 by Greta Koehl on the Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.

Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere - February 4 by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net 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 810 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

5 comments:

DearMYRTLE said...

Thanks for the shout out, Randy. I do see virtual presentations as main stream. Practical, too!

Susan Clark said...

Thanks so much for your kind words, Randy. Anna's one of my personal heroes and I wanted to do her proud.

Valerie Elkins said...

Randy love your blog and your list. Thanks for the great service!
Regards,
Valerie

MHD said...

Thanks, Cousin! I really was seriously considering dropping the First Friday Folder review til your post reinforced the concept. And, now with the positive feedback, I guess I'm locked in!

Tracing Ancestors, an a3Genealogy Partner said...

Thanks so much for the mention. I'm so behind in reading, that I missed this. Thanks for all you do for the genealogy community!