(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 215: The 21-year-old Geraldine Seaver

 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).    

Here is a photograph from the Geraldine Seaver Remley family collection handed down from my aunt in 2007 after her passing.  

This is a photograph of my father's youngest sister, Geraldine Seaver (1917-2007). The note on the back of this photo says that it was taken in 1938, which would make Geraldine Seaver age 21.

I don't know where this picture was taken - perhaps it was at church, or at her college.  It was possibly a special occasion since she is in a long dress and has a flower bouquet.  It may be her college graduation in 1939, or it may be after one of her singing performances.  

Reader Suzanne S. emailed me after last week's Wordless Wednesday post with a link to the Leominster (MA) High School 1935 yearbook (http://www.leominsterhigh.com/35_mag_002.htm).  The yearbook image is:

Thank you, Suzanne!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-215-21.html

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

FindMyPast.com Debuts - A Pretty Good Deal

FindMyPast.com has made its existence in the United States known in a press release - see British “David” Takes On Billion-Dollar U.S. “Goliath” For Share of U.S.’s Growing Online Genealogy Market.  A second press release highlights the "Pioneer Offer" - see FindMyPast.com Launch Offers Big Bargain on Global Records to First Subscribers.

The second press release notes:

"This introductory price point will give access to not just a wealth of US census and vital records but also a vast overseas collection. The latter includes almost 1,000 unique British, Irish and Australian record collections, some of which contain up to 30 million records in a single collection. Findmypast.com is offering a limited number of these introductory-rate subscriptions on a 'first come, first served' basis."

Here is the home page for www.FindMyPast.com: 

I was curious about the different membership levels, so I clicked on the "Pioneer Offer" link at the top right of the page.  It says"Limited time only" in real small print.  Here is the page with the prices:

Registered users can pay for either a one-time subscription (one-year, six months, one month) or for 100 credits over a 90 day period.

The "World Subscription" prices for the "Pioneer Offer"are:

*  $4.95 per month (total $59.40 ?) for a one year subscription vs. normal price of $20.83 (total $249.95)
*  $20.83 per month (total $124.98) for a six month subscription vs. normal price of $23.33 (total $139.98)
*  $23.96 per month for a one month subscription, vs. normal price of $29.95 (one month).

The "U.S. Subscription" prices for the"Pioneer Offer"are:

*  $4.17 per month (total $50.04) for a one year subscription vs. normal price of $8.33 (total $150)
*  $5.25 per month (total $31.50) for a six month subscription vs. normal price of $10.49 (total $62.94)
*  $9.48 per month for a one month subscription vs. normal price of $18.95 (one month).

The incentive is to sign up for the "World Subscription" if one has an interest in the records for England, Ireland and Australasia!  I'm surprised by the 6 month subscription rate for the World.  I would have thought that it would have been slightly below the total for the 12 month subscription with the discount.  The six month and one month subscriptions quoted above make no sense to me for someone interested in the World Collection.

The rates for the US collection are pretty sensible - but they reflect the lack of U.S. record collections currently available on FindMyPast.com (which are essentially U.S. census records).

I was interested in how the credits system costs and how it works.  This is essentially a pay-as-you-go system.  You can buy 100 credits for $13.95, which are valid for 90 days.  It is unclear to me if that is the "normal price" or a "discount price" for Pioneer  Offer takers.

I clicked on the link for "Credits Explained" and a window opened with the schedule of pay-as-you-go credits:

For the U.S. census records, (1790-1840), the user can see the transcription for free. For the 1850-1880 and 1900-1930 U.S. census records, the user has to spend 5 credits to see the transcription and another 5 credits to see the census image.  For the 1940 census, the transcriptions and images are free to view.  That's complicated!

If a user had was searching for census records in the 1850 to 1930 time frame, and guessed the right match on every search, they would be able to see only 13 record images before they had to pay again.

I was surprised to see that some of the English records cost so much on the pay-as-you-go.  for instance, the 1911 England census costs 10 credits for the transcription and 30 credits for the page image.  

I fail to see why anyone would use pay-as-you-go for English records on FindMyPast.com!!

I think that I had a FindMyPast.co.uk registration, and put in the likely email address I used to register, and the possible passwords, but my sign in bounced.  So I requested the password be sent via email at 11 a.m. this morning, but I have not received it yet.  I may have to register as a new user if it doesn't show up soon.

Because I have some 17th century English ancestry, as well as 19th century families(as does my wife), I will probably sign up for the World Subscription at the Pioneer Offer rate as soon as I can clear up my registration.

I will try to look at the available databases on FindMyPast.com in my next post about the site.

I am happy to see the debut of www.FindMyPast.com for the simple reason that it provides additional competition to Ancestry.com and other commercial websites.  In general, competition keeps subscription prices lower than if there is a near-monopoly on products and services.

The big issue for many of us will be how long the Pioneer Offer will be in effect.  Even if we email blast it to our genealogical society members, and advertise it in our monthly/quarterly newsletters, I think that the price break should be for a significant period of time - at least two months and hopefully six months.  No company can afford to offer a price break, then have potential customers  find that it expired a month before - that leads only to frustration and anger at the subscription site. I recommend that FindMyPast.com offer the discounted price to genealogical society members with a discount code and request genealogical societies to offer it to their members with a deadline date.

Disclosure:  I have no financial interest in FindMyPast.com, or a subscription to it.  I have received gifts at conferences from the company, which has not influenced my objective analysis and opinions provided above.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/findmypastcom-debuts-pretty-good-deal.html

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Need Research Services? Want to Provide Research Services? Check out the Global Alliance of Genealogical Professionals

The press release announcing the Global Alliance of Genealogical Professionals is on GeneaPress here.  This group is intended to be a replacement for the defunct ExpertConnect service, and provides expert research advice and services to customers, and an opportunity for genealogy service providers.

There is more information on the FamilySearch Wiki at https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Global_Alliance_of_Genealogy_Professionals:

The alliance has a temporary website at https://sites.google.com/site/globalallianceofpg/home:

This service should be competitive with similar genealogical research services for customers.  It is another opportunity for professional genealogists to offer their services on a contract basis.  I hope that they prosper!  Competition for genealogical research services is absolutely vital for customers and providers alike.

Thank you to D. Barry Sheldon for the information about this group.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Lisa Louise Cooke's Latest Podcast and Videos with Gena Ortega

Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems Podcast) passed this information to me in email:

Gena Philibert-Ortega came by my house earlier this month and we recorded an interview about her book From the Family Kitchen.  

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #137 (Part 1 of the interview. Part 2 will be in #138)

VIDEO: Family  History and Food - Cookbooks, Recipes, Diets and Our Ancestors Lives (video version of the podcast interview)




 VIDEO: Food Family History - Cooking with the Toastite.  This is a video that appears also as Bonus Content on the Genealogy Gems Podcast App.  This was a ton of fun to do and I hope you have a few minutes to watch it. :-)




Both of these videos are fun and informational. The Toastite video is really cool - I wonder of my grandmother or my mother had one.  I don't remember it growing up.

Gena Philibert Ortega is the presenter at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society on Wednesday, 25 July, speaking on"Remember the Ladies."  See the announcement at http://cvgencafe.blogspot.com/2012/07/july-25th-program-gena-ortega-on_22.html.  I anticipate that this will be one of the highlights of the CVGS program year,and I hope that my San Diego readers will find a way to attend it (Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library, 365 F Street in Chula Vista, 12 noon in the Auditorium).

Thank you to Lisa Louise Cooke for passing on this information and the links to her podcast and the videos.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/lisa-louise-cookes-latest-podcast-and.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday's Tip - Vermont Record Collections on FamilySearch

This week's Tuesday's Tip is to:  If you have Vermont ancestry, check out the Vermont record collections on FamilySearch.

You can see the list of Vermont record collections at https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list (put "vermont" in the search box at the upper left):

The include (by record type):

1) Vital Records:

*  Vermont, Births and Christenings, 1765-1908 (221,547 indexed records)

*  Vermont, Marriages, 1791-1974 (15,363 indexed records)

*  Vermont, Deaths and Burials, 1871-1965 (74,099 indexed records)

*  Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954 (1,868,775 indexed and imaged records)

2)  Town Records:  

*  Vermont, Town Records, 1850-2005 (browse images only)

*  Vermont, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1732-2005 (browse images only)

3)  Probate Records:

*  Vermont, Probate Files, 1791-1919 (10,225 indexed and imaged records)

*  Vermont, Bennington County, Manchester District Estate Files, 1779-1935 (browse images only)

*  Vermont, Franklin County Probate Records, 1796-1921 (browse images only)

* Vermont, Washington County, Probate Estate Files, 1862-1915 (browse images only)

*  Vermont, Windham County, Westminster District, Probate Records, 1781-1921 (browse images only)

4)  Military Records:

* Vermont, Enrolled Militia Records, 1861-1867 (4,350 indexed and imaged records)

5)  Land Records:

*  Vermont, Land Records, Early to 1900 (browse images only)

Note that not all collections are complete, and it's difficult to tell sometimes what is included in a specific collection.  The user has to intentionally look to determine coverage.

In my opinion, the "gem" in this state's records online are the Vermont Vital Records collection, which are images of cards filled out by town clerks from their town records over many years.  For example:

The other "gems" are the collections of land and town records which are "browse images" collections, meaning that the searcher must find the records of their research target, similar to turning microfilm reels at the FHC, but this research can be done in the privacy of your genealogy cave.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/tuesdays-tip-vermont-record-collections.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

The best laid plans of mice and men .. I love it!

Someone said:  "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..." -- Robert Burns?

This genea-mouse came home from teaching my OASIS class today after noon, had a quick lunch, and was looking forward to a day of blogging, Facebook and some online research to add content to my database.  I was about to call my daughter on my cell phone about her new car, when the house phone rang, so I answered it.

The call was from a lady from Colorado who was helping someone with a DAR application find proofs for the birth of one of the female children of Burgess Metcalf (1741-1817) and Jerusha --?-- (1750-1817) or Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampshire.

She noted "I saw your blog posts about Burgess and Jerusha, and saw information about them in your Ancestry Member Tree - what sources do you have for the list of their children,and their spouses?"

Um, er, sources?  I quickly checked my RootsMagic 5 database, and saw that I had a list of 11 children for Burgess and Jerusha Metcalf, and some notes gleaned over 24 years of research, but no sources.  I knew that I had a notebook full of paper collected over time for the family.   I admitted that this was a family in the "resource collecting" stage of my research, as many of them are.  I promised to review my briefs (um, Fruit-of-the-loom?  old lawyer joke...) and get back to her with what I have.

She also asked "What would you recommend for research to try to find useful records in Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampshire that might help further this application?" I suggested town records, tax lists, land records and probate records that seem to solve many similar relationship problems and are written up in the peer-reviewed journals.  I knew that the records for Grafton County were on Family History Library microfilm, but they will have to be ordered and reviewed, and it will take more than today, or even one day, to obtain and read them.  I vaguely recalled looking for probate and town/tax records, but not land records.

It took me about 15 minutes to dig out the Metcalf notebook from bookcase shelf in back of the genea-piles (and in the process I found my Whittle folder!! Yippeee...needed it a month ago, of course!).  When I read the compendium of collected papers, I found that I had checked Grafton County NH probate records, and had not found an entry for Burgess or Jerusha Metcalf.  Rats...

There were three excerpts from published books about Burgess Metcalf's life, but they identified only three sons and no daughters.  Oh well.  I checked Google Books too and found nothing more that would help my caller. I added transcriptions of the three excerpts from the books to my database notes with the source citations.

I had looked through the Piermont Town Records, 1765-1825 on FHL microfilm 0,015,276 and had found some references to Burgess and several sons in the 1775-1810 time period, but nothing specific mentioning the daughter of interest.  I did find the reference to the marriage of my ancestor Polly Metcalf, who married Amos Underhill in Piermont in 1801, so I added that source to my database.  I added the town/tax record information to the database notes for Burgess Metcalf also.

I received an email earlier this year from a Metcalf cousin who attached three entries from the Grafton County Deeds which indicate that the husband of the Metcalf girl had two dealings with Burgess Metcalf, Jr. in 1811, a brother of the Metcalf girl, but the relationship is not indicated.  This provides a tantalizing clue - the husband had land dealings with his brother-in-law.  But there is no explicit wording that says "my wife's brother" or "brother-in-law" in the two 1811 deeds.

Another resource I would check is the land and probate records for the husband - the deeds from when it was sold may indicate that it was part of his father-in-law's estate, or similar.  I would also check all Metcalf deeds, and deeds for the other daughters (and their husbands) of Burgess and Jerusha Metcalf to see if a relationship to the Metcalf girl is mentioned.  This goes for probate records,too.  With any luck, one of the Metcalf males may have died unmarried, with property, and intestate, and a probate record may provide the names of his siblings or their children.

Three hours later, it looks like I've struck out on helping my caller, and all of my carefully crafted afternoon plans were demolished, but I added some information to the database, including some source citations for existing information.   The revised plan for the next hour before dinner is to go through the Metcalf notebook (with many more ancestral families in it) and try to source as much information as I can from it so that I don't have to open it again.

This doesn't happen to anybody else, does it?  Doesn't everyone else have all of their collected data in beautiful surname notebooks, and the information entered and well sourced in their database, so that they can access it at a moment's notice?  Hey -- I'm human, used to be a name collector, have a messy genealogy cave and database.   Will I ever be finished?  I doubt it...

Does anybody have a good, "clean" and fully sourced list of the children of Burgess and Jerusha (--?--) Metcalf?  Or a maiden name for Jerusha?   If so, please comment here or email me at rjseaver@cox.net.  Cousin-bait deployed...

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men-i.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

1940 U.S. Census Comparisons - Summary and Conclusions

I proposed a methodology for evaluating the accuracy and completeness of the 1940 United States Census indexes on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org in 1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 1: Methodology. 

In 1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 2: Carringer in California, I displayed my comparison tables and found that Ancestry had 8 more Carringer entries than FamilySearch, and my judgment was that Ancestry was more correct on 7 of them, and FamilySearch for one. 

In 1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 3: Seaver in California, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 I displayed my comparison tables for Seaver entries in California, and found that FamilySearch had 22 more entries (147 entries) than Ancestry.com (125 entries).  I analyzed all of the Ancestry unique entries, plus the ones that disagreed but were indexed by name correctly.  My judgment for accuracy tally in these posts was: Ancestry = 13, FamilySearch = 29, Both wrong = 4, No decision = 7.

In 1940 U.S. Census Index Comparisons - Post 6: McKnew in California, I displayed my comparison tables forMcKnew entries in California,and found that FamilySearch had 11 more entries(23 entries)than Ancestry.com (12 entries).  Many of the additional FamilySearch entries were because FamilySearch matched both "McKnew" and"Mc Knew"when "mcknew"was the search term, but Ancestry did not.  I think these types of names, with a prefix, should be "lumped together" because most searchers will search using the prefix.  My judgment for the accuracy tally in these posts was Ancestry = 0, FamilySearch = 12. 

In summary then, for about 200 entries analyzed so far, the accuracy tally, based on my humble opinion and trying to be objective, is:

*  Ancestry.com = 20 (10%) (meaning FamilySearch was wrong)

*  FamilySearch = 42 (21%) (meaning Ancestry was wrong)

*  Both wrong = 4 (2%)

* No decision = 7 (3.5%)

Using the percentages, it appears that the Ancestry index was wrong 23% of the time, and the FamilySearch index was wrong 12% of the time.  

Statisticians will say that the sample size is too small, and it probably is.  An expanded study that covered2,000 entries of various surnames over all of the states might change the results.  I had hoped that many other researchers would do one or two similar studies and that we could combine the numbers, but only a few others even tried:

*  Eddie Black did a Smilie study in California, and shared it with me in email.  He found that Ancestry had 3 errors in their indexing, and FamilySearch found 3 more entries, all of which were correctly indexed and incorrectly indexed on Ancestry. Eddie's score then would be Ancestry = 0, FamlySearch = 6.

* If others have done a study, I'll be happy to link to it here. Please make a comment to this post.

Assuming that the error rates are approximately what I calculated above, I can draw some conclusions from the study to date:

1)  Indexing census records is a difficult task because of the informant's knowledge (or lack thereof), the enumerator's attention (or lack thereof) and handwriting skills (good to poor), and indexer's attention and skills. 

2)  A 12% error rate on FamilySearch shows the imperfections of the indexing process - but it is about one half of  the 23% error rate on Ancestry.com.

3)  The two indexers plus an arbitrator process on FamilySearch appears to work better than whatever process that Ancestry.com employs (a single indexer?  Volunteer or paid? English speaking?  Located where?).  

4)  In order to find target persons, a researcher will have to employ all available census indexes and use all of their "tricks of the search" to find the most elusive persons.

5) My recommended search strategy is to use the FamilySearch index with the target name, then try wild cards, age, birthplace and residence filters to try to find the elusive targets.  If a searcher cannot find their target on FamilySearch, then do the same type of search on Ancestry.com.

My standard search is with exact names, but I use wild cards and the filters very early in my search efforts.  I know that many given names and surnames can be misspelled because of the problems with informants, enumerators and indexers, so I try to use wild cards for capital and lower case letters that look like other letters.  For the "Seaver" surname, it's not unusual for me to try sea*, *ver, *vers, ?eaver, se*er*, ?e*er, ?e*ers, etc.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/1940-us-census-comparisons-summary-and.html

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Amanuensis Monday - Petition to Approve Will of Alvina C. Seaver

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a 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 list of heirs-at-law to the estate of Alvina Matilda (Bradley) (Lewis) Seaver, the third wife and widow of Isaac Seaver (1823-1901).  I posted the will transcription in Amanuensis Monday - the Will of Alvina Seaver (1848-1923), and the codicil transcription in Amanuensis Monday - the Codicil of Alvina M. Seaver.

Alvina (Bradley) (Lewis) Seaver died in Clinton, Massachusetts on 20 April 1923, testate, and her probate papers are in Worcester County Probate Records, Probate Packet B-80132 (accessed and copied at Worcester County, Massachusetts Court House in 1991).  The petition to approve the will and codicil, which includes a list of heirs-at-law, (typewritten entries underlined, handwritten portions in italics) is: 

The transcription is:

To the Honorable the Judges of the Probate Court in and for the County of Worcester :

RESPECTFULLY represents  Harold L. French

of Clinton in the County of Worcester

that Alvina M. Seaver

who last dwelt in Clinton in said County of Worcester, died on

the twentieth day of April in the year of our Lord one

thousand nine hundred and twenty-three possessed of goods and estate remaining to be

administered, leaving as her only heirs at law and next of kin, the persons

whose names, residences, and relationships to the deceased are as follows, viz.:

NAME .......................................... RESIDENCE .................. RELATIONSHIP

Frank A. Bradley ........................... Fitchburg, Mass. ............... brother

Jennie Brigham .............................. Clinton, Mass. .................. sister

Ida Belcher ................................... Boston, Mass. ................... sister

Leland H. Bradley ......................... Madrid, Iowa .................... nephew

Harvey V. Bradley ........................ Madird, Iowa .................... nephew

Hazel Bradley ............................... Madrid, Iowa .................... niece

Vivian Bradley Jennings ................  Madrid, Iowa .................... niece

Grace Bradley Brothbeck .............. Madrid, Iowa .................... niece

Beulah Bradley Lumman ............... Madrid, Iowa .................... niece

That said deceased left a WILL-- and one CODICIL -- herewith presented, wherein your

petitioner is named executor and wherein the testatrix has requested that your

petitioner be exempt from giving a surety on his bond.

Wherefore your petitioner prays that said will -- and codicil -- may be proved and allowed and letters testamentary issued to him, without giving a surety on his official bond, and 

certifies that the statements herein contained are true to the best of his knowledge and belief.

Dated this first day of May A.D. 19 23.

.................................................................. /s/ Harold L. French

Suffolk, ss. Subscribed and sworn to this first day of May A.D. 19 23.

Before me, Bertram H. Brooks Justice of the Peace.

According to my records, Harvey H. and Sarah (Palmer) Bradley had seven children, including Alvina, Jennie, Ida and Frank named above.  There were three other siblings - Katherine, Harry and Hendrick.  The two nephews and four nieces named above are probably the children of either Harry or Hendrick.  The married surnames of three nieces are provided.  I have not researched this family any further since they are not "mine" and I am not related to them (since Alvina was Isaac Seaver's third wife, and his widow).  

 

The list of heirs-at-law found in probate records in this time frame is an excellent resource for researchers who want to find extended family. If I wanted to contact living relatives of Alvina, I could do more research in census, vital, city directory, land, probate, newspaper and cemetery records to find them.  

The URL For this post is:

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

CVGS July 25th Program: Gena Ortega on "Remember the Ladies"

The July program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society is Wednesday, 25 July, from 12 Noon to 2 p.m. at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library (365 F Street) in the Auditorium. 

The speaker presentation will be “Remember the Ladies” by Gena Philibert Ortega.

"Remember the Ladies:"  Do you have a female ancestor that has become your brick wall? Researching women can be difficult when you factor in surname changes and lack of documentation. Women are different and so are the research techniques that need to be used to find them. Join us as we discuss resources and methodology to help you research your ancestress.

Gena Philibert-Ortega holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and in Religion. Presenting on various subjects involving genealogy, Gena has spoken to groups throughout the United States and virtually to audiences worldwide. She is the author of hundreds of articles published in genealogy newsletters and magazines. Her newest book is From the Family Kitchen (F+W Media, 2012). 

The URL for this post is:http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/cvgs-july-25th-program-gena-ortega-on.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 15 to 21 July 2012

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:   

*  Learning From Our Mistakes by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James laments that he threw cousin bait into the PRF and nobody has bitten, or even questioned, his information.  Of course, you never know when they will, do you?

* How Do I Make a Living Wage in Genealogy? Good Question by Barbara J. Mathews on The Demanding Genealogist blog.  Barbara offers her perspective on this issue.

*  DNA Testing for Genealogy -- Getting Started, Part One by guest blogger CeCe Moore on the Geni Blog. CeCe has a must-read post for readers just starting out with DNA testing.

*  The Pre-Research Planning Worksheet by Caroline M. Pointer on the 4 Your Family Stories blog. Caroline describes how she has clients fill out a worksheet before she quotes a research task.

*  Catching Up by Bart Brenner on the Stardust 'n' Roots blog.  Bart went to work on the 100 images he obtained at the FHL back in February, and shares his methodology with us.  Great work, Bart!

*  FHISO or GEDCOM X, Oh My! and  Whose Sandbox is It, Anyway? by Pat Richley-Erickson on DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog.  MYRT weighs in on the FHISO and GEDCOM X issue.

*  The Six People You Need in Your Genealogy Corner by Caroline Gurney on the Caro's Family Chronicle blog.  Excellent choices here for who should be considered tops in these categories in genealogy.

*  What Library School Taught Me About Genealogy by Amy Coffin on the We Tree Genealogy Blog.   Amy passes information along about her training in library sciences, and how she applies it to genealogy.

*  Elizabeth's Courage by Judy G. Russell on The Legal Genealogist blog.  Judy's article highlights something we don't often think about - how hard was it to leave family behind and move to another place? An absolutely beautiful piece.

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.

* Monday Recap for July 16, 2012 by Amanda on the Geni Blog.

*  Genealogy Roundup, July 19, 2012 by Megan Smolenyak on Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.

*  Follow Friday - Fab Finds for July 20, 2012 by Jana Last on Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog.

*  Follow Friday - Cradle Robbing, How-Tos, and Other Inspiration for Your Friday by Anne Gillespie Mitchell on the Finding Forgotten Stories blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, July 16-20 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

*  From the Blogs,July 20 by Michael Leclerc on the  Mocavo Genealogy 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 1280 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems. 

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here. 

The URL for this post is:    http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/best-of-genea-blogs-15-to-21-july-2012.html 

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver