Begin With Craft is one of the blogs that I am careful to read every post in. For one thing, Valerie and I share an area of research – South Carolina (Anderson and Greenville counties) (Georgia is her other major area of research). For another, she attacks her research and recording of family memories from every possible angle, thereby providing a good model to emulate. As I read her transcriptions, listen to her recordings, and watch her videos of family stories, I realize that I should be adapting my scattershot approach and including these things in my own research. Some examples: a post on a family home that includes both a picture and a floorplan of the house; posts of period maps of the areas where her ancestors lived; posts including images of various charts and historical documents; and recipes. And there is candor and humor in many of her “memory posts” (Vexations of Childhood).
Valerie is an excellent source of news on some of the latest databases/search resources (I read first about the new DAR online search on her blog) and she is very proficient in technical areas as well; she uses Reunion, Flickr, and a number of other technical resources that she writes about in her posts. If you are engaged in Georgia and/or South Carolina research or just like to see how to take a good, comprehensive approach to family research, Begin With Craft is definitely a blog you should be following.
(In a future Follow Friday I hope to create a “South Carolina list” along the lines of the “Texas Team.” I’m not sure yet whether I’ll try to do it as a separate state or lump it together with North Carolina and Georgia, the way the Special Interest Group is organized in my local genealogical society.)
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