Best of the Genea-Blogs - 7-13 August 2011

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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:

*  I Know Why We Have So Many Brick Walls by Linda McCauley on the Documenting the Details blog.  Linda attended a day of ESM's presentations and came away with some insights.  Ouch!  True.

*  Integrating the law with family history by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMYRTLE Genealogy Blog.  Ol' Myrt provides some recommended books and advice about adding context to your family history.

*  In Which I Am Accosted By A Skeleton At 3 a.m. by Kerry Scott on the Clue Wagon blog.  Kerry found something in her ancestral closet while browsing the Chronicling America site.  You never know... I hope Kerry gets well soon.

*  Confessions of a Genealogy Hoarder by Lorine McGinnis Shulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  Lorine wants to know how to deal with her tubs of 129 years of NYGBR issues.  I can relate.

*  Why Can’t I Find a Record in a Large Database like FamilySearch? by AndersonSF on the FamilySearch.org - Indexing, Records and Resources blog.  This is a logical look at the answers to a really big question.

*  Coming Soon to a FamilySearch.org Near You by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI highlights some of the news from the BYU Conference.  Lots of interesting items here.

*  Your Advice for Organizing Family Archives by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.  Diane lists the advice that Allison Stacy received about organizing the 15 boxes of family papers and photos she obtained from her grandmother.

*  No Pain No Gain – Finding Family Treasures Within the Purgatory We Call Probate by Melanie on the ObituariesHelp.org Blog.  An interesting story, and a good list of possible genealogy treasures.

*  Family Tree Friday: Bounty land vs. pensions–what’s the difference, anyway? by John on the NARAtions blog.  Here's an excellent description of bounty land warrants, with a beautiful picture of one.

*  Skipping the evaluation of records by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James says many researchers make a big mistake by not critically evaluating the records they obtain.

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:

*  Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

*  Ruth’s Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

*  Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

*  Follow Friday Gems - 08-12-11 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, August 8-12 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

*  Week in Review by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog.

I encourage readers to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs 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 1030 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.