Friday Newsletter and Follow News: 17 December 2010

This Week in Genea-Blogging

Super-duper exiting news – keep your fingers crossed

And if you haven’t already read it, yet, I ain’t gonna say what it is. Just read “An Update on the Otis v Gray History Mystery” at West in New England.


Following the trail

I recommend for your reading a post that was actually written back in November: “When the Pieces Fall Into Place: Toppling the Brick Wall” at Kathleen Reed’s Family Matters. However, I did not start following the blog until last week and finally read the post last weekend. This was not an easy mystery to unravel, but Kathleen followed the clues and arrived at a solution.


A memory left untouched by a tornado

At Shakin’ the Family Tree, Dee Burris has written a wonderful post on the precious memories preserved in part of a house not destroyed by a tornado: “Sentimental Sunday: The Lines on the Doorframe.”


Oh, no! Mr. Sluggo has destroyed Mr. Bill’s hard drive!

Shelley Bishop at A Sense of Family writes about her close call with hard drive failure and how following recommendations for backup systems saved the day in “My True-Life Adventure in Hard Drive Failure.” That could have been me! (Well, it sort of was – the hand-me-down laptop that I use in addition to my desktop computer did have a sort of failure, although it’s running now and we managed to get everything I needed onto a memory stick.)


Sometimes there is a good – if unusual – reason why you cannot find your ancestors

In “But I KNOW My Great Grandma’s Name! Why Am I Stuck?” Lorine McGinnis Shulze at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog recalls a chance encounter that helped her find an ancestor and points to a useful piece of advice: sometimes our ancestors changed their names!


The scoop is in on the new FamilySearch.org website

And already we’re reading some reactions. James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star reports that some negative comments are already coming in – and from unexpected quarters – in “Already irate over new FamilySearch.org website?” (There are also positive and negative reactions on the FamilySearch blog.)


Real Christmas spirit

Nancy at My Ancestors and Me has a lovely story of a family’s faithfulness, truer to the real Christmas spirit than many grand and showy gestures: “Raymond – An Unusual Christmas Memory.”


footnoteMaven puts it all in perspective

The music of the song goes through my head and things go back into their proper places as I read footnoteMaven’s “Making Your Way Online Today Takes Everything You’ve Got.”



Happy First Blogoversary to Susan Pedersen at Long Lost Relatives!


For more suggested blog reading, check out Best of the Genea-Blogs at Randy Seaver’s GeneaMusings, Best Bytes for the Week at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, and Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.


This week I started following these blogs:

a'spaidsearachd agus a'meòrachadh

An American Dynasty

Growing Up in Willow Creek

Scottish Genes


My Research Week

I usually do not check my e-mail in the morning before I go to work, but this Thursday morning I did. And there were two fabulous e-mails there: one from a descendant of Freeman Manson Moore, the ancestor of my cousin Paula and brother of my great-great grandfather William Spencer Moore, and the other from a person who, I am guessing, is related to my Lewis family. He found my blog post on Dallas County Sheriff William Henry Lewis (“Uncle, Uncle – William Henry Lewis: A Little Man Who Stood Tall”) and mentioned that he had heard some of these stories growing up. Wowee – I’ll be writing to these people right after I finish this post!

I Need to Hang Out on Facebook More

Yes, this is coming from the person who is always complaining that she doesn’t have enough time. I always try to check it at least a couple of times a week, but this week I realized why I should spend more time there. When I saw all of the wonderful birthday greetings, all I can say is … sniff … thanks, everyone. This truly made my day special. One of the things I will remember to be thankful for this year is family and friends.

And I do find some reading tips and ideas on Facebook that I haven't seen on the blogs and even links to interesting new blogs before they show up on Geneabloggers.


It's worth saying twice

Finally, I would like to say "Thank you" again to the people who nominated me for Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs. It was a wonderful early birthday present.