Sunday, May 29, 2016

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 22 to 28 May 2016

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 daily blog prompts or 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:


*  MyHeritage DNA matching & terms of use by Judy G. Russell on The Legal Genealogist blog.  Judy dissects the terms of use for the MyHeritage DNA matching.

*  Thoughts on In-Person Conferences by Lori Thornton on the Smoky Mountain Family Historian blog.  Lori shares her thoughts.

*  Behold’s Genetic Relationship Notation (BGRN) by Louis Kessler on Louis Kessler's Behold Genealogy blog.  Louis has come up with a fascinating methodology here.

*  It Takes Two: The Research Benefits of a Two-Monitor System by guest blogger Drew Smith on the Genealogy Insider blog.  Drew describes the benefits of this.  I wish I had more desk space.

*  Loss of Life Sketches on Merger? by James Tanner on the Rejoice, and be Exceeding Glad ... blog.  James highlights a FamilySearch Family Tree problem.  I use life sketches a lot.

*  Comments on the Changing Times of Genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James quotes Bob Dylan...I'm swimming as fast as I can!

*  Creating Family History Videos Easily and for Free by Amy Johnson Crow on the Amy Johnson Crow blog.  Amy created a how-to for Adobe Spark videos.  Superb!

*  Test: Treasures from Old Newspapers (Using Adobe Spark) by Pat Richley-Erickson on the DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  Pat produces her first Spark video.

*  A Troubled Life: Mina Mae Mitchell (1868-1910) by Christine Manczuk on the Ancestry Island blog.  Oh my!  Christine 's great-grandfather's other wife was trouble.

*  Is Genealogy Dangerous to Your Health? by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog.  This is an important post.  Kudos to Thomas.

*  "Every Genealogy Record You Need is Online" - I Beg to Differ! by Lori Samuelson on the Genealogy at Heart blog.  I agree with Lori, who provides excellent examples.

*  It’s in print, but is it true? by Rhonda McClure on the Vita Brevis blog.  Right on, Rhonda.  Lots of surprises in original records.

Here are pick posts by other geneabloggers this week:

 Friday Fossicking 27th May 2016 by Crissouli on That Moment in Time blog.

*  GAGs - GeniAus' Gems - 27 May 2016 by Jill Ball on the GeniAus blog.


 Recommended Reads by Linda Stufflebean on the Empty Branches on the Family Tree blog.

  Friday Finds on Saturday by Nichelle Barra on the Copper Leaf Genealogy blog.


*  Follow Friday ~ Fab Finds for May 27, 2016 by Jana Last on Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog.

 This Week's Creme de la Creme -- May 28, 2016 by Gail Dever on the Genealogy a la Carte blog.

*  Saturday Serendipity (May 28, 2016) by John D. Tew on the Filiopietism Prism blog.

*  Favorite Reads of the Week: 28 May 2016 by Nicole Dyer on the Family Locket blog.

Readers are encouraged to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs to your Favorites, Feedly, another 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 1590 genealogy bloggers using Feedly, but I still miss quite a few it seems.


Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.


 
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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

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2 comments:

mbm1311 said...

How to Research Your Family Only Using Online Sources:

Today’s “on-line only” family researchers are not going to change and there are exponentially more of them than there are of those trained and practicing genealogist who improve us all by following GPS principles.

I am a careful researcher and I have still not run out of online sources after 8 years of inquiry. My goals are to verify that the person exists and then start to get the documents that put the person in the family I’ve tentatively placed them in.

One of the back bones of my primarily on line research success, is unsourced trees often with no documentation. They have been my most helpful resource in adding a new branch to my working family tree.

What I do is create a brand new on-line tree compiled from the sourced and the unsourced trees, then find many additional online documents just by creating that tree. I prune and I edit making note of what vital records, census and obituaries still need to be found. I keep it private because it’s a roadmap only and full of pot holes. I am grateful that so many others make their trees public. Thank you!

What I always have, 100% of the time, is a tree with errors that has saved me years of trying to piece things together. I have the equivalent of a family tree sent to me by a distant relative. I have a tree to research, prune, document (found mostly on line) and then analysis to go with it. Not GPS but in-depth notes about my concerns and issues same names, same places etc.

I start with the most recent relative on this compiled tree and connect how they may be related to me. Carefully working back in time. I make notes right on that online tree of conflicting or unsourced dates and places. I look for sources back up the vital dates and families. I graft this sucker right on to my tree when I have a reasonable amount of records to believe I’m on the right track. It gets grafted with on with blemishes and all. Because I’ve noted what basic documents I missing, it makes my online research more effective. Everything is one place.

Even with my attention to detail I know I haven’t met the GPS standards but boy do I have a tree, with online documents and sources that any practicing genealogist would love to research, complete with notes about where I’m unsure, and what I think might be true.

Will online researchers be converted to GPS standards? Nope. Can we help them see what they really have and how to improve on it with on line sources only? Yes.

Louis Kessler said...

I never would have expected my new notation writeup to make a "best reads" list, so thank you, Randy.