Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Welcome to Genea-Musings, Legacy Family Tree 2013 Cruisers

Apparently, very few of the 170 or so genealogists and Legacy Family Tree software users have heard of Genea-Musings or of genealogy blogging in general.  This didn't really surprise me...I see it at genealogy society meetings and seminars too.  Many genealogists that use the Internet and use genealogy software do not read genealogy blogs.

In conversations at the dinner table and in the conference center, several attendees asked me "How do I get started reading genealogy blogs, and which ones do you recommend?"

I explained that a genealogy blog is simply a website that has genealogical content on resources, software, databases, methodology, research successes and problems, etc.  Every geneablog is different, with an emphasis on whatever the author wishes to post; none are comprehensive in terms of writing about "everything" occurring in the genealogy world.  A reader really has to read a number of geneablogs each day, week or month in order to "keep up with" genealogy events and news.

There are several ways to read a number of genealogy blogs on a regular basis:

*  You can put the blog URL (e.g., www.geneamusings.com is the URL of this blog) in the bookmarks or favorites of your Internet browser, and then go through that list on a regular basis, reading all of the posts one by one and blog by blog.

*  You can "subscribe" to most genealogy blogs so that you receive an email every time (or every day) a geneablog of interest posts something.  On the Genea-Musings blog, the "Follow by Email" field is at the top right of the home page.  You enter your email address and receive an email every morning with the previous day's articles.

*  You can "subscribe"  to use an RSS Reader.  I use Feedly, which works well for me because I access over 1400 blogs (not all are genealogy).  The beauty of Feedly, and other readers, is that they only provide new content - if a blogger doesn't post for several days or weeks, you don't see them on the list.  On the other hand, the list of blogs you have subscribed to acts as a Bookmark list so you can quickly find the blog by name rather than have to remember the blog URL.

So which genealogy blogs do I recommend that a "new" blog reader access on a regular basis (I recommend daily, but some persons just don't have the time, they say!).  Here is a short list that should provide a broad overview of what is available:

*  Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com/) - genealogy news releases and technology news.

*  The Legal Genealogist (http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/) - legal issues related to genealogy, plus DNA, probate records, land records, court records, etc. commentary.

*   The Ancestry Insider (http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/) - issues about Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.

*  Genealogy's Star (http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/) - genealogy opinion, issues, research.

*  4Your Family Story (http://www.4yourfamilystory.com/blog.html) - daily genealogy, social media and technology news

*  Hack Genealogy (http://hackgenealogy.com/category/blog/) - daily genealogy, social media and technology news

*  GeneaWebinars (http://blog.geneawebinars.com/) - genealogy webinar and Google+ Hangouts on air schedule.

*  Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com/) - genealogy and family history, plus professional issues.

*  The Olive Tree Genealogy (http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/) - personal genealogy and genealogy opinion.

*  Mocavo Genealogy Blog (http://blog.mocavo.com/) - genealogy news and opinion.

*  Ancestoring (http://ancestoring.blogspot.com/) - genealogy research and opinion.

*  FamilySearch Blog (https://familysearch.org/blog/en/) - FamilySearch.org information and news.

*  Your Genetic Genealogist (http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/) - DNA news and analysis.

*  Anglo-Celtic Connections (http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/) - Canadian genealogy news and opinion.

*  DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog (http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/) - genealogy education and news.

*  Genea-Musings (www.geneamusings.com) - genealogy research, news and opinion.

Many of these genealogy blogs have a blog roll that list many other genealogy blogs.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/welcome-to-genea-musings-legacy-family.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

4 comments:

Diane Gould Hall said...

Thanks Randy. I've read a few of those blogs. Being relatively new as a blogger myself, I'm still trying to learn my way around. You're articles are very helpful.
With your permission I will add my blog site here:
michiganfamilytrails.com. I cover lots of resources and how to's. I only named the site the way I did because of my Michigan roots.
Thanks,
Diane

Harold Henderson said...

Thanks, Randy. I find that many of my better posts grow directly out of "real life," as yours did here!

Anonymous said...

Worst list of genealogy 'blogs' I have ever seen.
A few good ones, but most are corporate blogs, sock puppets and splogs.
Way to go, Randay! Good way to turn readers of genealogy blogs altogether :-(((

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous, I do not share your opinion. Each blog has something of interest, to me at least. And they are legitimate blogs so no need for the 'blog'. I doubt that his list will cause novice blog readers to throw up their hands and stop reading blogs altogether. I suspect that that the genealogists are capable of judging for themselves which blogs are worth reading.
All the best.
Tom Raftery
p.s. you might want to find some productive outlook for your frustrations instead of trolling blogs. :)