Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

by Edgar Albert Guest (c) 1917

Gettin' together to smile an' rejoice,
An' eatin' an' laughin' with folks of your choice;
An' kissin' the girls an' declarin' that they
Are growin' more beautiful day after day;

Chattin' an' braggin' a bit with the men,
Buildin' the old family circle again;
Livin' the wholesome an' old-fashioned cheer,
Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door
And under the old roof we gather once more
Just as we did when the youngsters were small;
Mother's a little bit grayer, that's all.

Father's a little bit older, but still
Ready to romp an' to laugh with a will.
Here we are back at the table again
Tellin' our stories as women an' men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;
Oh, but we're grateful an' glad to be there.
Home from the east land an' home from the west,
Home with the folks that are dearest an' best.

Out of the sham of the cities afar
We've come for a time to be just what we are.
Here we can talk of ourselves an' be frank,
Forgettin' position an' station an' rank.

Give me the end of the year an' its fun
When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,

Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.

Amen!

Method in my Madness...

Did anyone wonder where I've been all day?  I posted my Not So Wordless Wednesday blog this morning, went to the library for the CVGS Heirloom Discovery Day program and was home by 3.  My son-in-law was here, so we got the new computer out of the box to make sure it worked.  It does, but it needs the Internet to work better (like download the Microsoft Live Essentials, Open Office, Microsoft Security suite, etc.).  That's Thursday task.

We will take the old desktop offline in the morning, hook up the new computer, get it working, transfer the Cox mail accounts to Gmail, get the router and printer working, load the genealogy software programs, copy the files from the external drive, and we should be ready to do some serious eating in the afternoon. 

I've backed up my files to the external drive, collected my email address books in one place, and my IE favorites, and saved some of the important email files to HTML files and captured the attachments.  I will set up the old desktop in the extra bedroom and use it to print stuff on the older printer until I've used up all of the ink.  I will probably save more emails to documents and transfer them into the new computer files in the future.

That's the plan, anyway, that should keep James and I out of the kitchen for most of the day, although I know that we'll have to manage the grandgirls for  most of the day. 

I've prepared my two "regular" Thanksgiving Day posts and will get back to my regular blogging duties on Friday.  Assuming everything goes OK on the new system, of course!

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 130: The D.J. Carringer house in San Diego

I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from the Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:

The handwriting above the image says "D.J. Carringer. Cor. 30th & Ivy St" in Della (Smith) Carringer's handwriting.  I believe that my great-great-grandparents (David Jackson (DJ) and Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer) resided in this house on the northwestern corner of what is now 30th Street and Ivy Street in San Diego for several years before their deaths in 1901 and 1902.  They are enumerated on 30th Street in the 1900 US Census.

The persons in this picture that I can identify are:

*  Harvey Edgar Carringer (1852-1946) is the balding man on the left sitting on the porch.

*  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976) is the young boy sitting on the porch stairs (my grandfather).

*  David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902) is the man with the white beard standing on the porch just to the right of Lyle (my great-great-grandfather).

*  Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer (1832-1901) is the woman standing on the porch to the left of DJ Carringer (my great-great-grandmother).

*  Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946) is the man standing on the ground to the right of the house (my great-grandfather, son of DJ and Rebecca, father of Lyle).

*  Della (Smith) Carringer (1864-1944) is the woman with the hat standing on the ground to the right of Henry (my great-grandmother, wife of Henry Austin, and mother of Lyle).

This was the complete three-generation Carringer family in San Diego in 1900.  The Henry Austin Carringer family lived one block south on the northeast corner of what is now 30th and Hawthorn Streets.

This picture was found pasted into a county history book in the Carringer collection.  I cut the page from the book in order to obtain a scan of the picture. 

This house does not exist any longer, at least on this site.  I believe that it was torn down and replaced in the 1920s.  I have not explored land records in San Diego yet for the Carringer, Smith and Auble families - I really should!

Enhanced ancestry.com Member Tree Viewer

Ancestry.com announced an enhanced Ancestry Member Tree viewer last week in Jen Hodnett's post Member Trees: A New Way to View Your Ancestry.com Member Tree on the Ancestry.com Blog.  See Jen's post for all of the enhancements and improvements.

I had to try this out, since it sounded pretty useful to me, at least for navigation within the Tree.  Here is the pedigree chart in my tree:

The blue background text above the chart says "Coming soon! Improved Pedigree View, Family View and More! Check out a preview of what's new and let us know what you think."

I couldn't help myself - I clicked on the link and saw:

There are three text boxes to the right of the "see What's New!" box at the top left, for "Easier Navigation," "See More of Your Tree" and "Improved controls."  The screen above shows the popup boxes that show when I ran my mouse over the "Easier Navigation" box.  See Jen's post for a full description of the new features.

On the Pedigree Chart, I clicked on the right arrow next to Isaac Seaver in the upper-right corner of the chart, and the tree expanded by another four generations:

Note that the tree can be expanded for only one selected person in the right-most generation.  This is good, but being able to expand more than one would be nice!

There is a Zoom slider control in the Tool Bar on the left of the chart.  If I zoom out, I can see the whole chart (at least along the one line I choose) on my screen:

All of the above is in the "Pedigree View."  There is a "Family View" button in the top left of the chart.  Clicking the "Family View" you can see the generations including the siblings of your direct ancestors.  If you have thumbnail pictures attached to the persons in your tree, they will show on the chart:

These enhancements are useful, I think.  Navigation to a person in the extended family tree is improved considerably - you don't have to click one person  at a time. 

Perhaps the best enhancement of all if that the Print function for the Pedigree Chart and the Family Chart is significantly improved.  The Print icon is at the bottom of the Tool bar.  Here is a screen image of the 5-generation Pedigree Chart that can be printed out:

If there are more than five generations, then there are succeeding pages.
 
This is much better than doing a File: Print on the chart that I complained about before.  There is another Print option - to create the charts on the screen in a MyCanvas printout, which takes some time (a minute?) to create and print.  The controls are at the top of the Print screen above (not shown) - the user can choose to print a Book, Poster or a Calendar.

Disclosure:  I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of Ancestry.com, and have not been remunerated for this post.  I am a paid subscriber of Ancestry.com, but have accepted gratuities from Ancestry.com in the past.

Tuesday's Tip - Find Research Ideas in Ancestry.com's FREE Article Archives

Today's Tuesday's Tip is to find how-to and informational articles about genealogical and family history research in the FREE Ancestry.com Article Archives on their Learning Center.

The Ancestry.com Learning Center has information about how to build a Family Tree on Ancestry.com, how to search for records, how to understand records, how to collaborate with others on Ancestry.com, how to create and display a family history book, view Ancestry.com Webinars, how to use the Ancestry Family History Wiki, and the Article Archive.  These helps are in the form of videos and text articles. 

The Article Archives has a wealth of information.  You can search by subject, author or date on the Ancestry Archive page (a small "Keyword" search box in the lower left hand corner of the page).  There is also an Advanced Search page here.  Articles in the Archive come from the Ancestry Weekly Discovery newsletter, the Ancestry Monthly Update newsletter, Ancestry Magazine (now defunct), the Article Archive and Webinars.

Unfortunately, the search engine is not very sophisticated, so the reader often has to add keywords or add a date range or author's name to find a specific article.

Quite often, a respected genealogy author will have written something on a genealogical research topic that explains a record type or research methodology in a helpful way.  I use it frequently.

State Research Outlines Available in PDF Form Through FamilySearch Research Wiki

Many researchers have used the LDS Research Outlines over the years, either in paper format (purchased at the FHL or a local FHC) or have read or downloaded them from the classic LDS FamilySearch.org website (http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp). 

I was reading through the Vermont page on the FamilySearch Research Wiki, and noted that there is a link to the BYU Vermont Research Outline, in PDF format, which largely duplicates the Research Wiki pages. 

I did not find a list of the different State Research Guides on the BYU website, so you will have to go to each one through the FamilySearch Research Wiki page for the state of interest, or you could edit the URL http://net.lib.byu.edu/fslab/researchoutlines/US/Vermont.pdf and replace "Vermont" with your state of interest. 

My guess is that this is how FamilySearch Labs populated the Research Wiki pages for the different states and the research topics in each state.

I checked several other states in the Research Wiki, and there are links for every state to a BYU [State] Research Outline.  There may be links for a number of countries also, I didn't check that out. 

These are very useful research outlines that a researcher could collect on his/her hard drive and have available wherever their computer and hard drive might be.

UPDATED 10 p.m.:  Reader Darlene commented that "...the entire list of BYU research outlines is at http://lib.byu.edu/sites/familyhistory/research_outlines/.  Great tip, thank you, Darlene!

Using the FAN Club Principle - Thomas J. Newton Problem - Post 2: Which Repositories?

In my post Target the FAN Club to tackle "Elusive Ancestors" problems, I described Elizabeth Shown Mills "Bullseye" concept to help researchers solve elusive ancestor problems using the "FAN Club Principle."

The research problem I chose to start with is Thomas J. Newton. I wrote about my research and the information I've collected in Mystery Monday - Thomas J. Newton of Maine (19th century).

In the post Using the FAN Club Principle - Thomas J. Newton, Father of Sophia Newton (1834-1923) - Post 1 last week, I outlined what I think I know about Thomas J. Newton. 

The search for records concerning Thomas J. Newton, his known relatives, others of the surname, and his (and theirs) friends, associates and neighbors covers at least three states - Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts (and perhaps New Hampshire too). 

How should I proceed?  What repositories should I access online, via microfilm rental (at a repository or at the FHL/FHC) and in-person?  Here is my starting list:

1)  Online record access

*  http://www.ancestry.com/ record databases and family trees
*  http://www.footnote.com/ record databases
*  www.WorldVitalRecords.com record databases
*  http://www.archives.com/ record databases
*  www.AmericanAncestors.org record databases (including Historical Newspapers)
*  www.GenealogyBank.com record databases
*  www.NewspaperArchive.com record databases

*  http://beta.familysearch.org historical collections, research wiki, research outline, family trees and library catalog
*  www.rootsweb.ancestry.com record databases and family trees
*  http://boards.rootsweb.ancestry.com  Message Board Archives
*  http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com Mailing List Archives
*  www.USGenWeb.org state and county pages
*  www.GenealogyToday.com record databases
*  www.FindAGrave.com and http://www.interment.com/
*  Record databases listed on www.DeathIndexes.com and www.GermanRoots.com

Where else?

2)  Via microfilm usage or rental (at local repositories, the FHL or local FHC)

*  State vital record databases
*  State Bible, church, genealogical, military, etc. record collections
*  State newspaper collections
*  State manuscript collections

*  County probate records
*  County land records
*  County tax records
* County biographical and genealogical records (including manuscripts and vertical files)

*  Town public and vital  records
*  Town cemetery records
*  Town church records

What else?

3)  In-person

*  New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston
*  State Archives
*  State Library
*  State Historical or Genealogical Society
*  County or Local Historical or Genealogical Society
*  County and/or/town Library
*  County or town Courthouse
*  County cemeteries

What else?

The known localities for Thomas J. Newton include:

1)  Maine

*  Oxford County, Maine
*  Dixfield, Oxford, Maine
*  Andover, Oxford, Maine
*  Another town or county?

2)  Vermont

*  Lamoille county, Vermont
*  Windsor county, Vermont
*  Cambridge, Lamoille, Vermont
*  Springfield, Windsor, Vermont
*  Another town or county?

3)  Massachusetts

*  Worcester County, MA
*  Southborough, Worcester, MA
*  Sutton, Worcester, MA
*  Sterling, Worcester, MA
*  Leominster, Worcester, MA
*  Marlborough, Middlesex, MA
*  Another town or county?

That is a long list required to check with some consistency and organization.  How can I check into  everything within my lifetime?  I know, I'll make a form for each locality.  More later!

The problem is, of course, that the "low hanging fruit" - the census, vital, military and other online records - has already been plucked over the last 20 years.  I'm looking for the "needle in the haystack" records that are probably not indexed or digitized that are hiding in original source records in a repository or on microfilm.
 
I ask that my readers, especially those in or near these localities, to make suggestions and additions to my list above.  What experience do you have at the repositories mentioned?  Are there "secret" collections in these localities?  How can I determine the resources most that I'm most likely to succeed with?

Amanuensis Monday - Ebenezer Phillips (1695-1746) Will

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The subject today is the probate file of Ebenezer Phillips (1695-1746) of Southborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts, one of my 6th great-grandfathers. Ebenezer Phillips, son of Andrew and Sarah (Smith) Phillips of Charlestown, married Mary Smith (1698-????) in 1719 in Malden, and they had six children: Mary (1719-????), Ebenezer (1721-????), John (1722-????), Samuel (1726-1810), Joanna (1729-1788), and Ruth (1733-????).

Ebenezer Phillips of Southborough died testate (with probate papers in Probate Packet #46,400) having written a will on 20 November 1745. The will reads (transcribed from Worcester County (MA) Probate Records, Volume 2, page 511-513, on FHL Microfilm 0,856,273):

"In the Name of God Amen The Twentieth of Nov-r 1745. I Eben-r Philips of Southboro In ye County of worcester & ye province of the Massachussetts Bay in new England yeoman, being very sick & weak in Body but of perfect mind & memory Thanks be Given to God. Therefor Calling to mind ye mortality of my Body & Knowing that it is appointed for all men once to dy Do make & ordain this my Last will & Testament that is to say principally And first of all I Give & Recommed my soul Into ye hands of God that Gave it & my Body I Recomend to ye Earth to be buried in Decent Christian Burial at ye Discretion of my Executors, Nothing doubting but at ye General Resurrection I shall Receive ye same by ye mighty power of God and Touching such Worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me In this Life, I Give Dismiss & Dispose of ye same in the following manner & form.

"Imprimis I Give & bequeath to Mary my well beloved wife all my moveables within Doors Except one feather Bed partly filled, Likewise three Cows & one mare. Likewise one third of all the Improvements given by me To my son Sam-ll Hereafter mentioned. I give to Mary my Wife all the East part of my now Dwelling House with a Celler Under ye same Dureing her Natural Life & no Longer.

"Item I Give to my son Ebenezer So much land as it will Take to shorten a Line yt runs between my house & where the Gate now is and to westward to a stake Down by the Swamp and from thence to a Ditch in the meadow & then Runing Northward to his Former Bound. I also Give & Bequeath to my Ebenezer one acre of ??? Swamp Lying before Eben-r Duntons house as he & my son Samuel shall see cause to Lay it out & the Reason why I Give him no more now is because I have Given him his portion before by Deed of sale.

"Item I Give to my son John Philips thirty five acres of Land be it more or Less being ye Southeast part of my farm bounded Easterly by David Johnson till it comes to a corner of an old Hedge w-ch corner is to be yt Northeast Corner of ye said Land I Give & Bequeath to my son John & then Turning Westerly to a stake & stones & so Runing westerly till it Comes to a Dead Bodied White Oak and from there Westerly to a Large ??? White Oak from thence to another White oak now standing by ye old Field ??? it being yt Northwest Corner of ye said Land I Give & Bequeath to my son John & from thence Runing Southerly as ye Feild Fence Run to ye End of ye feild & now Turning Easterly to a mark Tree so Running Easterly till it comes to ye first mentioned bound this south Line bounds partly upon Comon Land & partly upon John Goulds Land & partly upon Isaac Newtons Land To Have and to hold ye said premises with all ye appurtenances priviledges * Comodities to ye same belonging or in any wise appertaining to him ye sd John Phillips his Heirs & assigns For Ever. To his & their proper use Benefit & behoof forever Also I Give & bequeath unto my son John one peice of meadow Containing about three acres be it more or less Bounded as follows Easterly up on my Land by a Maple stump & a pole & then Turning to ye Ditch & Runing as the Ditch Runs Till it comes to ye North shore bounded Northerly upon upland & Westerly upon Common swampland & Southerly upon my own land with Liberty to pass & Repass with a Team from his own place to ye meadow for Carting of Hay, also two acre & an half more of Land Bounding Westerly upon Ebenezer Dunton Land & ye North Line is to Extend four Rods north from a stump that is a Mark between said Duntons Land & my own this Line is to Extend Southerly Twenty five rods & yn Turning & Runing Easterly sixteen rods & then Turning & Runing Westerly Sixteen rods which Land I Give & Bequeath unto my son John only Reserving half the mine therein. Also I Give & Bequeath unto my son John a strip six rods in Wedth from ye oak that stands by ye old Feild Bares to ye last mentioned Land only Reserving Liberty to pass & Repassover it to my Feild.

"Item I Give & bequeath unto my son Samuel my house & Barn & plough Land mowing Ground & pasture Land and Orcharding also all my Woodland To him his heirs & Assigns for Ever to have & to hold the said premises with all ye appur-s & Comodities to ye same belonging or in and Appertaineing to him ye said Sam-ll Philips His Heirs & Assigns forEver. The Last mentioned Land w-ch I Give & Bequeath to my son Samuel is Bounded as Follows yt is Easterly upon David Johnsons Northerly upon Eben-r Philips Jun-r Westerly upon Isaac Amsden Land partly & partly upon Eben-r Duntons Land Southerly upon John Philips Land Likewise another peice of Land lying South of John Philips Land Bounded Northerly upon Jno Philips & Westerly upon Eben-r Duntons & Southerly by Moses Johnson & Easterly by other Lands. Also I Give & bequeath unto my son Samuel one yoke of Oxen & one Cow & two Calves also I Do Give unto Sam-l almy moveables without Doors as oxen Plough Chains hoes Except half my small Cart w-ch I Give Eben-r.

"Item I Ordain & appoint that my son Samuel shall pay to his sister Mary Nichols one hundred & twenty pounds old Tenor Bills of Credit & Two Cows one half thereof to be paid & one Cow to be Delivered when he Takes possession of ye Lands I have Given him & the other part to be paid at his Mothers Death & ye other Cow to be ?? at ye same Time also I Do give and bequeath to my Daughter Mary one heifer.

"Item I Give unto my well beloved Daughter Joannah Phillips one Hundred & Twenty pounds old Tenor Bills of Credit to be Raised & paid by Sam-ll Phillips my son & Two cows to be Delivered unto her by him. I Do will that he shall pay one Half thereof unto his sister Joannah when he takes possession of what I have Given & bequeath unto him & one Cow to be Delivered unto her at ye same Time & ye other Half to be paid at yer Death of his Mother & ye second Cow to be Deliv-d unto her at the same Time.

"Item I Give & bequeath to my Daughter Joannah one heifer.

"Item I Do give & bequeath unto my son Sam-ll & My Dearly Beloved wife Mary these Two whom I Do Constitute make & ordain my sole Executor & Executrix of this my Last will & Testament all ye Debts that are due from several persons unto me & that is Due for keeping Ambrous & also that will be Due for keeping Ambrous also I Do Giveto ym full powers to act as to paying out money & Receiving of money & to pursue to final judgement & I Do hereby Utterly disallow Revoke & Disanull all & Every other former Testament will Legacies & Bequest & Executors by me in any way before named Willed * Bequeathed Ratifying & Confirming this & no other to be my Last Will & Testament. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal the Day & year above Written

.................................................................... Ebenizer Phillips seal.

"Signed Sealed & published pronounced & Declared by me ye said Ebenezer Philips as my Last Will & Testament In ye presence of us ye Subscribers
Jonathan Ward,
Nath. Webb,
John Lyscom."

The will was proved at a Court in Worcester on 21 August 1746, with Jonathan Ward and John Lyscom appearing and making oath that they saw Ebenezer Phillips sign, seal and heard him publish, pronounce and declare it to be his last will and testament, and that he was of sound and disposing mind and memory.

These were the only two records included in the Probate Packet according to the Probate Packet files on microfilm.

When Ebenezer Phillips died, his oldest child, Mary, was only 27 years old, and his youngest son, Samuel, was only 20 years old.  It is probable that daughter Ruth was dead in 1745 since she is not named in the will.  Apparently, son Ebenezer had already been given, probably by deed, a portion of Ebenezer's homestead, and he split the remainder between the three sons, with the youngest son Samuel receiving the farm house.  The widow, Mary, was given part of the house for her use during her life (note that it didn't say "if she does not marry again"). 

Land records would probably show the approximate location of the homestead relative to geographic features and neighboring families.

My connection to Ebenezer Phillips is by his son, John Phillips, who later lived in Shrewsbury and Sterling in Worcester County.  He married (1) Hannah Brown in 1749 in Southborough and (2) Mary Richards in 1774 in Southborough.

CVGS Program on Wednesday, 24 November - "Heirloom Discovery Day" with Georgie Stillman, ASA

The Chula Vista Genealogical Society program meeting on Wednesday 24 November (12 Noon at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library, (365 F Street, Chula Vista) Auditorium) will feature Georgie Stillman, ASA, who will present an “Heirloom Discovery Day.”

Georgie will evaluate, provide some historical background and estimate a value of family heirlooms brought in by CVGS members. Her expertise is in evaluating and appraising silver, China, glass ware, furniture, artworks,quilts and samplers.


Georgie Stillman (http://georgiestillman.com/bio.htm) has worked as a professional appraiser in London, England, Phoenix, AZ and San Diego since 1971. She served as president of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), vice president of the San Diego chapter, and was founding director of the International Society of Appraisers. She has received numerous awards for her outstanding service, including Appraiser of the Year.

Besides being a professional instructor at various colleges, she has made many radio/TV guest appearances and written articles for many publications, teaching audiences about antiques and art.

If you would like your item evaluated by Georgie, please contact Barbara I (619-477-4140, or email baribai@cox.net) to get on the evaluation list -- there are a limited number of spaces on the list. Barbara has a form for you to complete and return by November 19th.

Please enter through the Conference Room door on the East hallway in order to register your attendance, pick up a program, buy a drawing ticket and have a snack before going into the Auditorium.

There will be a short business meeting before the program, including election the 2011 slate of officers.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 14-20 November 2010

Best of the Genea-Blogs returns after three weeks - did you miss it?  Grandfather duties, vacations, computer problems, Charger football, real life - they may cause BOGB breakdowns again in the future.

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:

*  Saving Compiled Genealogies for Future Generatrions by Pat Richley on DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  Ol'MYRT is one of the most modern and up-to-date genealogists I know, and she shares her thoughts on genealogy software, databases, collaboration, kinship and more. 

*  Nominate a Genealogy Blog for the 2011 Family Tree 40 by Diane Haddad on The Genealogy Insider blog.  Please do!  I am honored to be on the Family Tree 40 panel with Lisa, Pat and Thomas.

*  Saftey Rule #2 for the Genealogy Internet Playground and Saftey Rule #3 for the Genealogy Internet Playground by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog.  Janet has great advice for working on genealogy on the Internet.  For reference, here's Rule #1 from last week.

*  I Am Thankful for - 17 November 2010 by A.C. Ivory on the Find My Ancestor blog.  A.C. has his own living history resource - his grandparents.  I loved this post!

*  Indexing Errors: Test, Check the Boxes by the write of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI comments about Indexing Errors and provides a fun test.  His post Answers to Indexing Illustration provides the test answers.  I had guessed them all once I knew the context.  Read the comments for both posts.

*  Saturday Evening Post: Interviewing Family During Holidays by Susan Kitchens on the Family Oral History Using Digital Tools blog.  Susan is quoted in the magazine, and she has observations about asking "why" in interviews.


*  Atlanta Family History Expo Recap by Amy coffin on the Family History Expos blog.  Amy provides a list of the bloggers and their blog posts from last weekends conference. 

* Research Challenge: Join in a quick group consultation/research plan exercise by Marian Pierre-Louis on the Roots and Rambles blog.  Marian posted an intriguing and baffling research problem from a friend - can you help solve this puzzle?

*  News Flash! 1852 New Year's Resolutions Solve Genealogical Mysteries! by Dee Burris on the Shakin' the Family Tree blog.   I bet you've always wondered why some families are elusive - here's some of the answers!

* Ten Commandments of Genealogy by Dick Eastman on the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog.  Dick's observations ring true (although his terminology is a bit outdated).  Some commenters have ideas of their own.

*  Review: The Women Who Came in the Mayflower by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.  Here's a free genealogy eBook for your Kindle.  I wish it was on Scribd or another online site too.

*  My First FHL Film -- Score! by Tonia Kendrick on the Tonia's Roots blog.  I love it when researchers discover a useful resource!  Tonia discovered the joy of finding information on FHL microfilms, and will order more!

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

* Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere - November 19 by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.

* Best Bytes for the Week of November 19th by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog.

* Friday Newsletter and Follow News: 19 November 2010 by Great Koehl on Greta's Genealogy Bog blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral: Nov. 15-19 by Diane Haddad on The Genealogy Insider 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 700 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.